I have nothing funny to say about this. This particular grift has already killed or permanently disabled, with agonizing pain, thousands of primates under sloppy conditions that would fit right in with Mengele.

I have deep, lasting hatred for these death cultists.

  • Hexboare [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    281·
    3 months ago

    “we live in the best of times”

    Dogs as a species are (now) genetic horrors with huge health problems

    Average dog breed members share 25 percent genetic material with any other random member of their breed - similar to full siblings

    Brachycephalic breeds are more than 30 related

    Sure let’s torture dogs in new and innovative ways

    • AernaLingus [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      13·
      3 months ago

      https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/most-dogs-highly-inbred

      The average inbreeding based on genetic analysis across 227 breeds was close to 25%, or the equivalent of sharing the same genetic material with a full sibling. These are levels considered well above what would be safe for either humans or wild animal populations. In humans, high levels of inbreeding (3-6%) have been associated with increased prevalence of complex diseases as well as other conditions.

      […]

      The study also revealed a significant difference in morbidity between brachycephalic (short skull and snout) and non-brachycephalic breeds. While that finding wasn’t unexpected, the researchers removed brachycephalic breeds from the final analysis on effects of inbreeding on health. [in the paper, the mean inbreeding coefficient for brachycepahlic breeds is given as 31.9%]

      jesus-christ

    • Procapra [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      Random off-topic question

      Are mutts better? Like, more diverse genetics right? I always hear dog nerds complain about mixed breeds and shit, and I don’t understand how that is possibly worse for them.

      • Hexboare [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        10·
        3 months ago

        They can be, it depends on their ancestry

        This study published data from 50,000 DNA tests (F adjusted column - Additional file 1: Dataset 1)

        It does note that:

        There were interesting exceptions to the correlation of inbreeding and health. The Border terrier, Basenji, Collie, and English setter breeds have high inbreeding but low morbidity. Likewise, the Malinois, Pomeranian and Russian Tsvetnaya Bolonka (Russian Toy) have lower inbreeding and high morbidity. These example breeds are neither brachycephalic nor particularly known for extreme morphologies. In the case of healthy breeds with high inbreeding, it may be possible that these breeds have been purged of deleterious alleles as has happened with inbred mouse strains [46]. In the opposite situation (lower inbreeding and high morbidity), the recorded morbidities could be high allele frequency Mendelian diseases or potentially conditions linked to phenotypes under selection in the breed.

        You can also look at the plots in the study and see that while a high degree of inbreeding is associated with considerably higher mortality, there’s a huge amount of overlap. You can do dog eugenics and get very unhealthy dogs, but you can’t do dog eugenics and get dogs that will never have any health conditions (except the worst physiological ones that only exist because of ridiculous amounts of inbreeding).

      • TreadOnMe [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        8·
        3 months ago

        If you have a general idea of the temperament of the parents, you’ll have a better time. The issue is that a lot of a dog’s ‘personality’ is based on genetics, and while you can train it out of them if you start when they are puppies, but it can only do so much. Eg. If you breed an anxious or nervous breed of dog with an energetic and friendly breed dog, there is a good possibility that the puppies will have huge attachment anxiety and will rip up your house if you don’t have another dog around, something you could train them out of, but you would literally be fighting their genetics to do so.

        Most dog breed owners prefer to train with the genetics of their dog, which can be easier with pure breeds. I say can be because there are a lot of weird things that can and do go on there. Long story short, mutts are usually fine if you have an idea of who the parents were and their temperaments, and can have time to train them. Otherwise it is a completely mixed bag.

        Overall mutts have better tendencies towards physical health, but again, it can be a mixed bag.