#for example take a scottish fold's docile temperament | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

grison-in-space · 24 days ago

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I really want to think deeply at some point about the ethics of breeding for extreme temperament (eg drive, food motivation -> trainability, tendency to hyperfixation, low energy, high defensive aggression) alongside the ethics of breeding for extreme structure.... from the standpoint of both being informed by neuroscience underlying brain variation and also being doubly neurodivergent, firmly anti - eugenics for humans, and firmly pro-deliberately-selective-breeding for dogs.

It's a landmine of a topic, not least because one of the use cases I would want to examine is an unintended side effect from breeding service dogs, but man what a topic to sit with and have first and second and third and fourth thoughts about in exhaustive detail. like an extremely autistic one-person six-opinion argument.

#yes this is partially inspired by that malinois cross post and my thoughts about malinois breeding over the past forty years #but only partially and thinking about it the crosses aren't really the driving factor #the driving factor is simply that malinois are a Lot and also extremely easy to exploit #as are a lot of other behaviorally extreme animal breeds!#for example take a scottish fold's docile temperament #the way that those great low energy dog breeds like pugs and frenchies are often low energy because of the oxygen starvation #the labradors that experience extreme and unrelenting hunger which makes R+ training with them very easy #there's so many ethical conumdrums to sit with here because behaviors are the function of brains and bodies experiencing the world together #bet I could build a book on that honestly #what variations can ethically exist? can I condemn breeding for the canine version of dogs like me? should I? not sure about that #where is the line? at what point does control beget responsibility?#at what point does control strangle diversity?

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