From: "Ron Iles" roniles at eircom.net> on 2001.06.21 at 16:01:36(6785)
Iza, Carol, Bonaventure & Friends
"Line Breeding" is another question which needs always to be addressed. It
commonly involves inbreeding which limits gene pool diversity which is
obviated by intermittent distant outbreeding. Within a species, in
domestication one can accept or not the moral responsibility to select most
carefully & sensitively parents and to outbreed to maximise genetic
diversity. Previously, I only posed the question "Why hybridise?".
Symphysodon & its various "species" have been both hybridised and "line
bred". There are now extreme gaudy" highly un-natural forms which Man has
"improved" and visually "perfected" but which Nature would probably have
extinguished in minutes. Nature's nobility has been defiled. Are you
advocating the breeding of "freaks" for your, their or Nature's sake?!!!
Finless bubble eyed goldfish cripples, guppies with banner tails which can
hardly swim, hairless indoor cats, and delicate dogs with extreme nasal
deformities, garish blooms free of the fragances of their ancestors, are
considered "desirable". Obviously these are just a tiny few of the examples
of Man's arbitrary selection of what is "desirable" with little or no
respect for the natural objective viability, virility & legitimacy of
species.... By trying to "improve" on Nature, it has taken only a few years
for Man to mangle & destroy what Nature has necessarily refined over
millions of years.
When Man as a species is line-bred for perceived excellence & is surrounded
only by the "nice" wild things and the ecologically & evolutionarily
disastrous, how will it be? Because of their evolutionary diversity,
people vary in their ideals, objectives & their concepts of what is
desirable, both "good" & "bad". One has to be cautious in breeding....
For every square foot on Earth there is room for EITHER what Nature has
miraculously refined since the mists of time or what Man has cleverly and
uncleverly mangled in a few "desiring", "improving" years.
There are fundamental ethics which relate to natural global integrity. Why
hybridise?
Ron
| +More |
----- Original Message -----
To: "Multiple recipients of list AROID-L"
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 4:25 AM
Subject: Line breeding vs hybridization
| My impression is that Symphysodon discus was "improved" by line breeding,
not
| hybridization. Line breeding is where one selects from a large population
those
| parents which bring the breeder towards the characteristics s/he finds
most
| desirable, continuing the selection for many generations. It is this
pursuit of
| "perfection" which has give rise to the domesticated dog, no longer quite
the
| wolf. This is commonly done with many kinds of plants, FCCs are given to
| outstanding ( by someone's definition) examples of a species. Of course, a
pack
| of dogs is nothing compared to a pack of wolves. Similarly our "improved"
line
| bred species are no longer as able to survive in the wild.
|
| Iza Goroff
| Whitewater Wisconsin USA
|
| Ron Iles wrote:
|
| > ...But one example dear to me is Symphysodon, "Discus", arguably the
"King" of
| > Aquarium Fishes. Over less than three decades, the arbitrary & mostly
| > undocumented complex hybridisation of these supremely specialised
creatures
| > has produced the most extreme degradation of Nature's nobility & adapted
| > biodiversity. All for Man's sensationalism.
|
|
|
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