From: "Rebecca Allbritton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
|
| Amazing. What Michelle wrote was pretty much what I was thinking, so
I've
| left it. =) I'd also add that since it is difficult to introduce strange
I need more help to understand this. Please reduce my ignorance.
Let's say that there IS a genetic propensity for kinked tails, that the
kinks are not all due to baby accidents (and I can see where the accidents
would produce a lot of kinks also).
Rebecca says it's unwise to continue breeding from a gerbil with a kinked
tail. Michelle agrees and likened that to breeding dogs and cats along
lines that eventually display malformations, like hip dysplasia etc. (My
favorite example is from long-ago Albert Payson Terhune books about
collies, where he persistently ranted about collie breeding that had made
their noses almost non-functional, but somehow more satisfying to human
viewers.)
How do we know that a kinked tail is related to anything that might be
harmful to the animal? Do we just GUESS that the tail might be related to
some harmful gene that will show up in later generations?
I don't agree that "genetic purity" is something to be sought, for either
animals or humans. I'm from a pretty limited WASP gene pool, but I don't
think that's especially good for the future of my species.
So if a kinked tail does not harm the gerbil, what is the harm otherwise?
