In a message dated 12/4/1999 11:10:08 AM EST, CurtAdams@aol.com writes:
<< The problem, as discussed recently in the Atlantic, is
that dog breeders became racist about 100 years ago and
changed the definition of each breed from "dogs with
certain characteristics" to "dogs descended from
particular pedigrees". This stopped crossbreeding and
as a result of that plus breeding show dog winners
all breeds have become highly inbred. Dogs, like us,
take poorly to inbreeding and so they're getting sick.
If we threw out pedigrees the problem would go away in a decade or so. >>
Interesting. Thanks for the information.
Glen Finney