Bunnylady
Well-Known Member
"Don't Ask, Don't Test?"If the ruling you are talking about is brought in (so far it keeps failing...it is a EU ruling, across the board they are trying for, I do nor know if Germany brought in a single country ruling I will try to find out) but IF it were to come in it would also prevent the breeding of Frame and the breeding of Merle (dogs) and this is why it has failed.Merle and LWO are similar in that they are harmless in h/Z and lethal (partially in dogs ...pups without eyes!!) in H/Z.
The EU Animal Welfare Bill is attempting to prevent the breeding of animals with what they euphemistically referred to as "defective" genes.
Which will not float, I am glad to say!!
Basically, under the Animal Welfare Bill passed last year it would be theoretically possible to take legal action against someone who knowingly breeds two LWO carriers together, whether or not the resultant foal was Lethal.
It is not yet an issue here as there are so few LWO carriers in Europe, but the problem is that you cannot take legal action against someone for being ignorant, when there is no legal precedent, if only you could we would not have the government we do, and maybe you would not either ( OH!OH!-Oh I am so sorry I could not resist that!!!)
So ignorance of the law is no excuse, but when there is no law, it is a very good one, it seems.
You would have to prove that the person knew they were doing something that could result in the suffering of an animal, and that the mating was not accidental...so the person that came on a Forum that shall not be named and told me, in all seriousness, that I obviously did not know anything about breeding Pintos as this was an acceptable risk, as fa as she was concerned, in order to get a "loud colored foal" (now who is showing their ignorance??) could be prosecuted under European Law as she showed quite clearly that she knew there was a risk, and she took it deliberately, but Joe- down- the - road, who's mare got in foal to his stallion and had a Lethal White foal, he could not be prosecuted as he was ignorant of the facts and the breeding was not intended.
So, however well intentioned the law, it could be evaded by not pattern testing the animals.
Okay, bad joke, I know.
The way I heard about this legislation was in an article in a rabbit magazine, written by a rabbit breeder in Germany. Small breeds of rabbits require the use of a Dwarf gene to achieve the compact animal in breed standards. It is dominant, but homozygous lethal. Suddenly, it became illegal to breed two show winners together! Rabbits with really long ears do sometimes step on their ears, this is considered "suffering" because they can do damage. English Lops have very long ears, so now, there is a legal limit on how long their ears can be!
Thirty years ago, Impressive was one hot ticket. He and his sons had full dance cards. I was amazed at how many Impressive-bred animals I ran into, not only halter, but performance QH's, too. Sadly, that popularity came at a cost. As long as HYPP has been known about, and as long as there has been a test for it, you'd think it would have become uncommon by now, wouldn't you? But I've come across a couple of sources that state that more than 1/3 of the QH's tested over the last decade have come up positive (and yes, I know, don't believe everything you read on the internet!)With my own two ears, I have heard people reassure others that, although a particular horse is N/H, it's okay, because it's not as bad as H/H! This kind of ignorance has meant that a test that could have helped weed out a bad gene has actually helped to keep it circulating in the gene pool. According to what I've read, HYPP may be slightly more common in QH's than it was a decade ago! Hopefully, that is about to change.
But isn't that the same kind of logic being used with LWO? Obviously, the N/H horse isn't really okay at all, because you never know when an episode may occur. The LWO+ horse doesn't suffer any ill effects from the gene, so is much more likely to live a long and productive life. If Buckeroo were LWO+ (just picking a name here, I have no clue what his status might be) can you imagine how many there might be just of his line (remember, some solid-colored horses have tested LWO+.) It boggles the mind! That's why I wonder, do we really need to keep hanging onto Frame?
As I said, I have no ax to grind here. For me, this is just a mental exercise. I hope I haven't stepped on any toes with my musings, that was never my intent. (Maybe I should keep away from the keyboard when the weather is this hot and humid, I seem to have a touch of what we call "summer brain fungus!")