I've been doing some research into rare breeds of livestock and poultry. There are so many facinating kinds, and many are nearly extinct. What is your opinion about these breeds of animals - do you think they should be allowed to go extinct, or should they be preserved?

http://www.albc-usa.org/wtchlist.htm

Obviously, I don't really care what kind of breeds there are.

I like the idea of preserving them. Seems as though if we only had one or two kinds of chickens, they'd be more suscptible to disease. I used to love to go to the State Fair and see all the varieties of farm animals - its not quite the same for me these days!

Well, if you support animal rights in their present form, it doesn't matter. If the movement were to succeed, a lot of (if not most) domestic animals would go extinct through spay/neuter programs and lack of breeding in any natural habitat anyway.

And at any rate, like I've said time and time again, I find that there's not much in an animal rights framework to justify a concern for a diversity of species or breeds (where it doesn't matter for the welfare of an ecosystem for instance) - it's a pure human aesthetic preference, not much more.

Maybe I should have posted this in a different forum....

Probably wouldn't have changed the responses (not mine at least).

I was listening to the radio awhile ago & heard an interview about old & rare farm animal breeds.
It appears that a lot of the farm breeds of the past are already extinct or in danger of dying out. Factory farmers only want 'quick' meat & will go for easy breeds of, for example, pigs. Apparently the older breeds are very unlike the modern factory breeds. Some of these older breeds were with mankind for a long time, part of village & human life for thousands of years, but now are 'unprofitable'.
I think it is a sad thing.

I like the idea of preserving them. Seems as though if we only had one or two kinds of chickens, they'd be more susceptible to disease. I used to love to go to the State Fair and see all the varieties of farm animals - its not quite the same for me these days!

Typically pure breed animals have been inbred and are more likely to become ill or have genetic disease. I personally don't think that preserving a breed justifies what will happen to the individual chickens, the likelihood of abuse, inbreeding, illness, culling, etc. is unacceptable to me.

Let them become extinct.

One breed that interests me very much is the Jacob sheep, which has four or sometimes six horns and multi-color wool. I'm planning to raise a couple as pets, for their wool. I think they are very beautiful.

I can understand why animal rights advocates want to let them go extinct, though, because they have no place except to accompany (or serve) humans.

I guess one thing that you have to consider is are they dying out 'naturally' or is it something that humans have done to slowly/rapidly wipe them out.

There were some beautiful animals on that link, Ludi. Thank you for posting it. One day I hope to have some sort of a rescue farm and I've thought about helping endangered species before.

I guess one thing that you have to consider is are they dying out 'naturally' or is it something that humans have done to slowly/rapidly wipe them out.



Well, the thing is, there's really nothing "natural" about them if you believe the products of man's efforts are "unnatural." They are no more "natural" than broccoli.

They are being allowed to die out because they aren't considered useful by most people now. They are being replaced by a very few kinds. So they are dying out from neglect. I'm not sure if that's considered "natural."

(Speaking of broccoli, the loss of hundreds, even thousands of kinds of vegetables and fruits is another issue, but not for the animal forum!)

This is actually a tough question. I think about the many boxers that my family has had and I absolutely love that breed. They're such great dogs. But then, it's a breed created by man to serve man's interest. So as much as I love them, I think that breeding certain types of cats, dogs, farm animals or whatever is probably ethically wrong and there shouldn't be a concerted effort to continue the breed.

However, when we're talking about something like pandas that are being bred in captivity because they're almost extinct - I'm all for that. Preserving a species is fine.

I have a rare breed story. For about a year and a half, I looked after a small flock of abandoned domestic ducks at a boat docking area. All of them were fairly typical domestic ducks, except for one.
I had never seen a duck like "Pop Tart" before or since. She was white, with very distinct dark brown markings on the top of her head, wings, and upper tail. Her eyes were blue, and her beak was pinkish mottled with black freckles. She never quacked, but instead made a rapid "coo-coo-coo" sound.
We had many discussions about Pop Tart's uniqueness. We thought that perhaps she was a hybrid of various wild and tame ducks. Or we thought that she was a partially albino wild duck.
One cold December day, our little flock disappeared without a trace. We never knew if they somehow managed to swim away, were captured, were attacked by wild animals or what. But we never saw them again.
One day at least four years later, I ran across a very old book of poultry breeds. As I glanced at the ducks, I was shocked to see a drawing of a very familar duck. The book referred to it as a "magpie duck."
I did a search on the internet and ran across several rare breed sites extolling the disappearing duck, the Magpie breed. Most have black markings, but the rarest strain is white with chocolate coloring. Finally, I had learned why Pop Tart was so different from the common Pekin ducks at the park. I just wonder how in the world she got there.

I've been thinking about this issue more, and the problem I see is that most of these are herd or flock animals, which means the desired ratio is several females to one male. In the case of wild herd and flock animals, the males compete for the females; the weaker males are killed or driven off to lead celebate lives.

For those who want to preserve these rare breeds - do you see any way it could be done in a way that's consistent with animal rights?

Typically pure breed animals have been inbred and are more likely to become ill or have genetic disease.
OTOH, sometimes inbred varieties haven ruthlessly culled to eliminate such things, but there's much truth in what you write.

As for the OP's issue, I would let genetically-engineered varieties die out. Yes, selective breeding is genetic engineering. If someone wants to help preserve galliforms -- great! Start a flock of one of the endangered prairie chickens.

There are some pretty types of domestic poultry, but also plenty of pretty natural species.

The Aussies resurected one of their rare marsupials that had died out using Genetic cloning, and another animal to carry the fetus.

Unless we can care for these animals in a humane way, perhaps the best thing is to preserve a diverse DNA bank, until people are able and willing to reconstitute the species. ...Like in 1000 years, when everyone's a Vegetarian. ;)

The Aussies resurected one of their rare marsupials that had died out using Genetic cloning, and another animal to carry the fetus.
Do you have a reference for this? If you're thinking about the thylacine, it's a long way from being cloned.

I was thinking of the thylacine. I thought it was a clone.

Sadly, thylacine cloning success has been limited to replicating small chunks of DNA. We really have very little tissue from them. Also, it's my understanding that cloned mammals tend to age very quickly and in other ways not do well.

Sadly, thylacine cloning success has been limited to replicating small chunks of DNA. We really have very little tissue from them. Also, it's my understanding that cloned mammals tend to age very quickly and in other ways not do well.

There are sporadic reports of sightings of live thylacines, but nothing conclusive.

One breed that interests me very much is the Jacob sheep, which has four or sometimes six horns and multi-color wool. I'm planning to raise a couple as pets, for their wool. I think they are very beautiful.

My wife is planning to have a few pet Jacob sheep in 2007 or so, and she has done a lot of research. If you send me a PM, I'll send you an email.

ETA: Slightly off-topic, but you can find other rare "breeds" here (http://www.southernexposure.com/). I'm planning to try some beans and bell peppers from them in 2006.