Dog Breeders are Free From Ethical Concerns

In "As Breeders Test DNA, Dogs Become Guinea Pigs," by Amy Harmon in the Science section of today’s New York Times, one sentence says it all for me:

Free of most of the ethical concerns — and practical difficulties — associated with the practice of eugenics in humans, dog breeders are seizing on new genetic research to exert dominion over the canine gene pool.

The article tells of the usual selfish behavior of breeders (meeting the needs of selfish people), scurrying about to create the perfect dog for the taste of American’s at the moment. That’s not really news. They’ve been doing it for years, and I suppose as long as there’s money to be made by adding to the dog overpopulation crisis, they’ll keep doing it. DNA testing is the newest tool in the ever-evolving world of Frankendog creation.

But let’s go back to that quote: "free of ethical concerns." They are free of legal concerns as they relate to ethics, but they’re not free of ethical concerns. Nobody is. Breeding is brimming with ethical concerns; the breeders simply choose to ignore them and are able to continue to ignore them because there is no legal consequence for their behavior. Here’s my favorite quote:

Mary-Jo Winters, a poodle breeder, uses a DNA coat-color test to ensure there are no genes for brown fur lurking beneath her black-and-cream-colored dogs.

“I don’t want brown,” said Ms. Winters. “It’s not my thing.”

It’s not her thing. I don’t know where to begin with that one.

Naturally, when you try to breed a trait in or out, all kinds of problems arise, both behavioral and physical. But there’s an easy solution for that: just kill them and try again (and it’s interesting that the article bypasses this reality).

The voice of reason, it seems, is Mark Derr, an author who has written about the history of dogs in America. (And I know that some of his views, such as being for all kinds of uses of dogs don’t exactly make him an Animal Person. Here’s an article he wrote about breeding and aggression in 2001, though, and he’s clearly against it.)

"I always use dogs as the example of why we don’t want to be mucking around with our own genome,” Mr. Derr said. “These people are trying to use DNA tests to solve problems of their own making.”

I know that just about every purebred dog we have–the 25% of the shelter population as well as the ones people pay to have produced for them that don’t end up in shelters–have been as engineered as corn. But that doesn’t mean we have to continue creating them. And again, this is a supply and demand issue. If you want a pure breed, go to a shelter or Google rescue groups for the breed you want (yes, almost all breeds have rescue groups), and refrain from adding to the problem. Be part of the solution, one dog at a time.