Several years ago a friend told me a tale about a geneticist who had tried successfully to remediate the genetic defect in Dalmatians that causes widespread deafness in that breed, coupled with the uric acid anomaly in their urine. He used an English Pointer outcross to obtain the normal gene that most Dals lack, then backcrossed for six generations until he had perfect standard-fitting Dals with normal uric acid metabolism. He tried to register the resulting animals (63/64 Dal and 1/64 Pointer) with AKC, who were willing enough until The Dalmatian Club of America arose in righteous wrath, proclaiming that his animals were “mongrels” and that their acceptance would destroy the breed. AKC backed down in the face of breed club pressure — at least, that’s what I heard.
I had always wondered if it could really be true. The other day, surfing the web, I found a page that had a summary and update on "The Backcross Project." This real-life story of absurd, real-life nazi-style racism in the purebred dog fancy is a must-read for all breeders of registered stock of whatever breed. That it happened to be Dalmatians has little to do with it — this could be your breed, and it could be your breed club. This little article more or less explains why the world of purebred dogs is probably doomed. Here it is: read it and weep.
http://users.nbn.net/~jseltzer/dal_poin.html – Ramblings
Nothing to do with sleddogs? Wrong. It has everything to do with any breed at all that is bred in a closed stud book, sleddogs just as much as Dalmatians. All the people who are so all-fired proud of the "purity" of their closed breeds can count themselves spiritual supporters of the "scientific racism" of the Third Reich...
Posted by jjeffrey at July 28, 2003 02:29 PM