Mary, Patrick, Matt, and Reid all tipped me to this fascinating NYT science piece on so- called “bully whippets”. Thses stout over- muscled dogs are what happens when you inbreed too much seeking a single character, in this case speed. When the whippets are heterozygous for a certain gene they are fast, but when they …
Tag: Animal Breeding
The Roller Scandal
Eight (so far) California roller pigeon fanciers have been targeted in a Federal sting operation and accused of killing as many as 2000 raptors, apparently mostly urban Cooper’s hawks. Some of the info is pretty ugly: “Navarro allegedly told an undercover Fish and Wildlife Service agent that he likes to “pummel” the hawks that he …
Chinese Tazi Art
Or saluki if that is your preference. Paul Domski sent me this link, which caused me to reply: “Nice image. I have other Chinese saluki- tazi images, some even older, but not this one. Frustrating thing is that the article propagates the Arab origin myth– I have older images from China than any available from …
Animal Family
Just got a photo of Ataika’s daughter Cleo from the Beregovoys. She looks remarkably like Atai. And for any pigeon fanciers, here is one of my new pairs, gold- necked Catalonian tumblers:
Ancestry and Reversion
Lots of good thinking about the evolution of domestic animals this week. Odious started out with a post on Heck cattle, the Hagenbeck brothers’ attempt in pre- WW II Germany to breed a reconstructed aurochs. Comments came in from Chas and Doc Hypercube, who was also interested enough to post on Darren’s theories about dog …
More AR Follies
The California compulsory spay- neuter bill should be on everybody’s radar. Blue Dog State puts it pungently, with some not- so- fantastic scenarios: “Enforcement of the King of the Nanny-Staters Lloyd Levine’s modest proposal to castrate every pet dog and cat in the state of California was left up to local enforcement personnel. “Things might …
Guest Post: Dr John on Cal Spay- Neuter
John Burchard writes: There are many valid reasons for opposing California AB 1634. Perhaps the mostimportant are these: 1) It won’t work. Mandatory s/n does not reduce shelter or euthanasia numbers.On the contrary, it makes them worse. It has been tried in many jurisdictions,always with the same effect: an *increase* in shelter intake and euthanasianumbers, …
More Granddogs
Matt suggested I put up this photo of Nate’s lurcher Pearl and tazi girl Maty. Photo Nate Moody: Matt says: Ah…dog humor.
Good Stuff #2 : Fast Pigeons
One of Tom Donald’s new “field pouters” outflies a good trained Peregrine– really!
Another Pretty Dog
Granddog: John Burchard’s Tigger, now starting to show in coursing.