[ SHOWGSD-L ] AB1634 More of interest

  • From: "Brenda Shepard" <tashina1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 07:12:23 -0700

Hi all,

Something else of interest. Permission was granted to cross-post.

Brenda Shepard
Sho-Gun German Shepherd's


And check out this web site, too: www.DogGoneCalifornia.org
Click on the AB 1634 button at the top.  Ron Cole

Some other info that might be useful:

From -- DR. JOHN BURCHARD, PhD geneticist in an e-mail communication:

"IMHO AB 1634, the "California Healthy Pets Act," should properly be called
the
"California Pet Extinction Act" because that is its intention and will
probably
be its effect. The rarer breeds (including mine) will disappear from
California
(which currently has the country's most important breeding population). The
very common breeds may survive, but with a very greatly reduced effective
(genetic) population size. Reduction in size of the gene pool is regularly
associated with an increase in homozygosity (that is more or less inevitable
because there are fewer potential breeding partners), and increased
homozygosity
in a population is in turn associated with higher frequencies of genetic
defects
and diseases."

By taxing each and every intact dog, breeders will be forced to give up
their extra stock, stock that enlarged the gene pool, and many will be doing
more inbreeding of litter mates and close relatives, resulting in the
increase in homozygosity described by Burchard above. I believe his breed is
the Saluki.

So, you can see the stakes are high and the damage that can be done to the
quality and price of future dogs we want to buy for conformation, obedience,
agility, etc. will be great.

What is not spelled out in the bill is what will happen to breeders if it
passes. AND THIS IS NOT CONTAINED IN THE WRITING OF THE BILL. If every
single local ordinance in which there has been a "Breeders Licensing" bill
passed is any indication, breeders will not be able to get a license or an
exemption without signing a waiver of their Fourth Amendment rights to a
warrant before inspections of their premises, and these inspections will
come with little or no advance notice; infractions will result in loss of
license, mandatory n/s of all breeding stock with little or no due process
or appeal. Appeals will be before the local animal control people, rather
than a jury of one's peers. That's pretty grim when the accuser becomes the
decider.

Democrats, who are in the majority of our state legislature, are more easily
swayed by animal rights legislation, and that legislation is almost always
put forth by a fellow Democrat. Yet, Democrats are generally opposed to
warrantless wire tapping, loss of due process, etc. Perhaps we could make a
parallel between the consequences and loss of Fourth Amendment Rights with
the Patriot Act.

Also, Democrats are more likely to favor stem cell research. Yet, this bill
will cut into breeding of purebred dogs, and cause damage to the gene pool.
The current gene pool is being used by cancer researchers and by geneticists
who are looking for cures for some 300 genetic diseases shared by man and
dog. Mapping the canine genome and finding the causative gene has been
highly successful in finding cures and treatments for several of these
common ailments, with the research just in its infancy. It would be a shame
for this bill to put up a roadblock to future medical breakthroughs. And,
this research can be done without sacrificing or working on a single human
embryo. We just have to support the breeders whose records go back
generations and whose dogs can make all of this possible.

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