No I’m not a fascist (at least I hope not…)
I’m trying to understand why we’ve normalised the idea of eugenics in dogs (e.g. golden retrievers are friendly and smart, chihuahas are aggressive, etc.)¹ but find the idea of racial classification in humans abhorrent.
I can sort of see it from the idea that Nurture (culture and upbringing) would have a greater effect on a human’s characteristics than Nature would.
At the same time, my family tree has many twins and I’ve noticed that the identical ones have similar outcomes in life, whereas the fraternal ones (even the ones that look very similar) don’t really (N=3).
Maybe dog culture is not a thing, and that’s why people are happy to make these sweeping generalizations on dog characterics?
I’m lost a little
1: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/df/74/f7/df74f716c3a70f59aeb468152e4be927.png
OP just discovered people treat animals really really badly and wonders why we dont want to do the same with people
This is the right answer
Yes and no. Plenty of good pet owners out there, and I’d say the bad ones are the exceptions.
I just wonder if the good pet owners would select their children under the same scrutiny that they select their pets, if the choice was offered. I think they would, and… I probably would too?
Owners aren’t the direct problem other than providing economic encouragement for breeders.
The problem is breeding which only happens through inbreeding. “Good breeders” is a misnomer in that the difference between a good breeder and bad is one attempts to limit health problems while engaging in an activity that will cause health problems.
If one doctor is trying to give you cancer and the other is trying to give you a little cancer, neither is a good doctor.
Good point, I didn’t distinguish between owners and breeders, nor the types of breeder ideologies.
If we extrapolate that to humans, would you be for a “good doctor” who tries to knock-in genes that would make your children smarter and healthier, versus say, a “bad doctor” who knocks in whatever superficial characteristics you want.
Or would you be against the idea of designer children completely, because you ultimately would not trust that any genes you or any expert selects for, would actually be beneficial for your great-great-grandchildren?
I’m not sure what side of the debate I lie on here, tbh
But if a little cancer can trick your immune system into fighting cancer, then we’re back to a good doctor again.
We sterilize cats, dogs etc. because we want to, control what food they eat, confine them to the house (indoor cats), artificially inseminate cows, shred 99+% of male chicks and are starting to introduce cows to vr in certain areas to reduce their stress levels so they produce more and better quality milk because their environment is so horrible that their lives are a living nightmare. Commercial meat chickens have been bred to grow so quickly and so large that its a kindness to slaughter them when mature. Grain fed cattle need to be supplemented with B12 or they get sick and die because there is very little Cobalt in grains that they could use to make B12 themselves. The mad cow outbreak in the UK was caused by the industry practice of feeding cattle parts of other cattle that contained contaminated brain and nerve tissue. Any time theres a bird flu outbreak, we slaughter birds by the millions to stop it. Foi gras is usually made by force feeding ducks until their livers grow several times normal size. Veal is made from baby cows that weve restricted the movement of so their muscle tissue remains nice and soft. We extract animal rennet from their stomachs after theyre butchered and use it to make certain cheeses.
I am not a vegan by any stretch of the imagination but holy fuck do I understand why a lot of people are. By and large, we treat animals like absolute shit. If people were treated like animals are, people would recognize it as a horrifying atrocity.
You forgot to mention breeding pets with problems in breathing, posture and organ damage to make them look “cute”.