I decided to write about dogs. It's not that I'm fan of these Canidae Family ugly mammals. As a matter of fact, I actually hate how noisy some of them can be. I simply adore peace and quiet and a silly animal that communicates with others of his kind by screaming at 4am in the morning is not of my liking.
Dogs with "pedigree" are animals conceived (in a large majority) only because of aesthetic standards determined by their respective fate. Hair color, shape of the tail and skull, vertical or horizontal angle of their ears... any characteristic you may name, is listed by the breeders. These characteristics are determined by genes, nitrogen based sequences that are written all along two chains of deoxyribonucleic acid and packed in chromosomes.
According to biology, there's neither good or bad genes, they all have a saying in evolution facing an ever changing environment where you never know where a never-used-before gene may come handy, therefore, inherited over thousands of generations. Yet, for us an our ephemeral existence, some genetic variations can result in terrible choices; since they are responsible of malformations and genetically inherited syndromes. The thing is that for dogs, pets and all other living things: that rule also applies. From this sentence ahead here allow me to add a warning: Any unconditional dog lover is suggested to leave before continuing reading, because the facts I'm about to state may hurt their sensitivity... Or convince them of changing their mind: Making a favor to their beloved dogs.
The majority of canine families have accumulated bad (let's use "bad" for the sake of ease of typing; you know I mean "non-optimal") genes for hundreds of generations. The responsibility of this cruel manipulation of nature is shared between breeders, vets and... yes, you, the owners.
"But, why? If I like dogs with a curly tail, am I to be blamed about all the sufferings in the canine universe?"
That "curly tail" is the "pretty" part that evidenced a genetic function working. Think about it this way: If that gene works over the shape of the tail, it could happen that it makes the tail to produce certain deformations at the muscles in that are, modifying the muscular fibers. Since the tail is not the only part of an animal's body that has muscles, it could happen that other muscles are also deformed, for the sake of that "pretty" tail. That double loop a Pug has, that cute little dog that appears in "MIB", evidences something that many times ends in a horrible paralysis (google "pug paralysis"... You'll be amazed on how many cases there is).
Some pedigrees that are at the top 10 ranking of inherited defects are the German Sheppard, boxer, Golden Retriever, Doberman and the Spaniel, among others. A century ago, the German Sheppard used to be an agile dog that weighted around 25kg. Today, with almost 40kg, it may be able to herd turtles: If they cared about the dog. The German Sheppard suffers from several hip problems, kidney deficiencies and high probabilities of tumors. It's like a 4 year old dog trapped in a body of 10.
Flat nosed dogs, like the boxer, suffer from body heat regulation problems, therefore, they've a high risk of hearth attacks in hot weather conditions. An interesting case for the neuroscience is the bull terrier. This animal, besides of having teeth overpopulation, something that makes it look like the worst enemy of a surfer rather than the man's best friend, has a compulsive obsession of chasing his own tail. To the sight of any commoner that is "cute", but it actually displays a pathology very similar to what humans call OCD. We don't risk a lot by stating that humans, particularly the ones that "love" animals, dedicate to hand-pick creatures that live less and suffer more than they should. Something like hitting a baby, so that we may paper it after that.
You may wonder why do these defects show more often in pedigree dogs than in stray/mixed breeds. One of the reasons is that many of there genetic variables elaborated by the diabolic capitalism are recessive. Yes, recessive, like beautiful green eyes or the unusual O blood type. If one of them is recessive and another isn't, then we've a guardian angel that is watching over us. If we've two recessive copies, the angel is in vacations, there's no choice but to live with the burden (and syndrome). The best way to render recessive traits in living things is by cross-breeding individuals that possess the recessive variables. Cross-breeding siblings, parents and uncles ends up creating individuals so similar to each other, that piling up two copies of the similar info almost always end up with the same results: That extra finger all my cousins have, my uncle's hunchback and that pretty mustache my mom has. Then, if both samples possess recessive genes: Voila!, we in a good path to get our homemade mutant.
For a recessive characteristic to endure for generations, it is necessary to keep breeding individuals that hold the genetic pools as similar as possible. You may already imagine what happens when such individuals reproduce, because it was what the royalty used to do to keep the "pure blood" of the family not very long ago. Lets just say that that kind of behavior does not get the best out of the species, you get the total opposite. All you need is to stop crossbreeding the same genetic pools in dogs for a single generations to acquire again, a normal nose, uniform colors, short ears, longer legs and other disgusting, yet, healthy attributes.
But if I only want a hearth shaped spot in my dog, why does he have to die young of cancer? WHY?! Why does he have to suffer?To find the biologic process responsible of making these life aberrations, we need to rewind a bit in time a couple of years, back into our biology classes and re-read it all (you, dog breeders!).
But we know dog breeder know this. If a dog dies young, the owner will want another one... And will pay for it. If a dog gets ill more often, the vet makes money, also the pharmaceutic companies that manufacture the medicine and sell them at a VERY inflated price (same rules that apply for terminal human patients... the family will pay whatever is needed for hope and less suffering). As I mentioned, Capitalist aberration.
PS: I you've a pedigree dog, please, do not name it "Darwin" he would not approve such thing.
PS2: I had a dog I found in the middle of nowhere while hiking (60km away from any city/house). That dog was a crossbreed of German Sheppard and some random "puppy". He walked, over 100km with no water or food, guiding us, crossing rivers with us and sleeping in cold freezing nights next to us. Try to make your meat paperweight dog do that.
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