Bully dogs and embryos

As from December, it will be illegal to breed bully-dogs that are not pedigree. Times of Malta reported (August 7) that the problem is that these tend to end up in

dog sanctuaries, where they remain with little or no chance of ever being adopted by anybody.

In the meantime, embryo freezing is taking place far beyond the numbers that stand a chance of ever being adopted in a womb or in a home.

Are we happy that hundreds, then thousands, of humans, at the first stage of their life, are increasingly accumulated and stored with no chance of ever leaving their hospital freezer?

Is it too much to hope that, by December, there will also be a law that strictly limits the creation of human embryos to the numbers that stand a real chance of escaping this state of dereliction?

Charles Pace – Birkirkara

Importance of pedigree

A bully dog on a lead and wearing a muzzle as required by UK law. Photo: Shutterstock.com

New rules will come into force in December for non-pedigree bully dogs. Animal Welfare director Joseph John Vella specified they will apply to “backyard breeder”. He said such people breed animals not properly selected for genetic qualities and neither do such “backyard breeders” provide a pedigree certificate.

How will the ‘’proper’’ breeders know the heterozygous genes, which are not visible, from the phenotype, which produce faults, including aggressiveness?

He believes that if the bully breed is registered with a kennel club and is provided with a pedigree then all is fine.

In a broad sense, it is easy to be a dog breeder. All you need is a bitch, access to a stud dog and you are in business. Such people are little better than puppy farmers and certainly do not merit the term dog breeder in any other than a derogatory way.

There is nothing unethical in making a living from dogs, provided the advancement of the breed concerned is not jeopardised in the process. Nor is there any ‘crime’ in producing defects since the very nature of genetics means that it can occur to anyone. Heritability of trait.

It seems the pedigree is more important than the dog itself. Never does pedigree information become more important than information of the dog itself. The lower heritability, the less the difference between the pedigree and

the dog’s own information whereas, at higher heritabilities, the greater the superiority of information of the dog over that on its pedigree.

However, even with a character of low heritability, the dog itself tells us more than does his pedigree. The pedigree cannot be more important than the dog and breeders forget this at their peril.

Karl Flores – San Ġwann