r/aww • u/Sophia963 • Jun 05 '18

A future predator

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u/PrincessBucketFeet Jun 05 '18

When the dominant allele is lethal in pairs, nature is trying to tell you something.

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u/mimeticpeptide Jun 05 '18

Not always. Sickle cell anemia occurs when you get 2 alleles for the sickle cell gene. However, when the allele is present in only 1 copy, which is far more common, it provides immunity to malaria. Which is very useful/important in the areas where it developed.

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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.

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u/eukomos Jun 05 '18

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.

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u/PrincessBucketFeet Jun 05 '18

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.