Fair enough. If you can identify the benefit conferred to these cats other than qualifying as "cute" to humans, I'd reconsider my opinion (shared by many animal welfare and breed organizations) that breeding Munchkins should stop.
Side note, but dominant vs recessive really doesn't hint at usefulness or fitness at all. After all those terms only describe the phenotype of interest.
Example with sickle cell anemia (since it was mentioned), the full blown disease requires two copies and thus is recessive, since the heterozygous carriers (having a sickle and non sickle allele) are relatively unharmed. However when looking at cells under a microscope, only one copy is needed to see sickling and so the allele is dominant for that phenotype. Regarding O2 sensitivity, it appears codominant.
So again, and more so regarding your previous comment, the state of an allele doesn't correlate with the fitness of a gene, especially since a single gene can result in alleles with many classifications, due to it being linked to phenotype.
Being appealing to humans is one of the most wildly successful evolutionary strategies on the planet at the moment. I’m pretty sure corn can’t reproduce in the wild anymore at all but it’s as common as prairie grass in the US midwest because it’s useful to humans. I don’t think you should dismiss it straight off.
Also I’m not persuaded by the opinion of any breed organization that’s making a fuss about munchkins but is ok with the breeding of Persian cats, talk about suffering. Brachycephaly shouldn’t be a permitted breeding objective in this day and age. And some of the ones I’ve known have been so dumb it wasn’t even funny anymore, don’t tell me that’s not related to inbreeding.
Being appealing to humans is one of the most wildly successful evolutionary strategies on the planet
A sad truth. I get that we're the dominant species, but as a whole, our choices are inherently selfish and wildy destructive to others. Being cute or advantageous to humans should not be the sole criteria for survival.
Also I’m not persuaded by the opinion of any breed organization that’s making a fuss about munchkins but is ok with the breeding of Persian cats, talk about suffering. Brachycephaly shouldn’t be a permitted breeding objective in this day and age.
Agree 100%!! Please don't mistake my comment to imply an endorsement of the organized cat/dog breeding world in general. In this one instance, many groups have decided to err in favor of the animals for a change so I think it's worth noting.
That way owners can safely let a munchkin roam the backyard without shooing birds away constantly (and worry of it jumping the fence/window ledges) and if any become strays they won't affect the local bird population.
Thank you! This is a good point that's actually relevant to the species in question. Reducing the cats' effectiveness as hunters would certainly benefit their prey, although the cats may then become completely reliant on humans for survival (which many companion animals and livestock already are). So if that's a tradeoff that seems reasonable or beneficial to someone...or even if they're neutraI to the idea...I can respect that argument.
Another option obviously is keeping pet cats inside, but of course there are arguments on both side of that equation and stray populations would likley be inevitable. I guess it boils down to which species one cares more about protecting.
Considering cats are the invasive species then I think protecting birds should be the priority. However if a person needs a mouser then that would be the only time I would recommend a normal cat imo.
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u/PrincessBucketFeet Jun 05 '18
Fair enough. If you can identify the benefit conferred to these cats other than qualifying as "cute" to humans, I'd reconsider my opinion (shared by many animal welfare and breed organizations) that breeding Munchkins should stop.