Hi Dave and all,
I believe long time breeders have a problem with mandatory testing
because of past experience. I can speak from personal experience, many years
ago I was the proud owner and breeder of a lovely little dog named Fair Oaks
Moonspinner. He was fully tested and had all of the proper paper work. At 12
1/2 months past his last heart exam I received a request from a well known
breeder to use him at stud and was asked if I would send him to the bitch
instead of vice versa. I agreed and also gave permission for the vet on the
other end to do a physical prior to the breeding. Poor Tyler got off the
ground minutes before a record breaking ice storm hit the East coast, he
spent over 20 hours being shuffled from airport to airport before he finally
made it to his destination. He received his physical within a few hours of
his arrival. The vet heard a noise, possibly a murmur and he was returned to
me the next day. So far, no problem, every breeder has the right to make
their own breeding decisions. However, even though I took him for a second
opinion and the concessus was that the stress of 20+ hours of travel in
horrific weather caused him to exhibit a sinus noise and not a murmur, I
begin receiving phone calls canceling his stud appointments. I had all of the
necessary paper work to prove that he had a sound heart and was told that
word had spread coast to coast about his supposed condition and no amount of
further testing could save his reputation. No one would risk being censored
by using him. I even received a 4 page letter asking me why breeders feel
they have to lie about their dogs health status. Tyler lived to past 12 and
he has children listed in the health registry. If he was the only dog
affected this way it would be a small loss to the breed, but he was only one
of many. That is truly tragic for this breed.
Not to long ago, any dog found to have a heart murmur at any age had to
be pulled from a breeding program, many of those dogs developed late murmurs
that failed to progress and lived to be quite old and some are still with us,
they were almost all neutered and genes that would now be prized are lost
forever.
Time passes and we all learn new things, I wish we could all be open
minded enough and wise enough to learn that there are no absolutes.
Chris Meager
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