MANX CATS
don't know if some of you lived in Scandinavia.
We have had in Smoland Sweden both type of cats,short tail and long tail,
natural in the cat population, 50 :50
Don't know any are where the kind of cat did live as short tail only.
Here in Canada sometimes a cat with short tail shows up, hybrids with
Bobcats.
May in the past there was a cat in Swede like the Bobcat in Canada, who
knows.
Dos anybody has information about that ?
Regards Helmut
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carol J. Elkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: [blackbelly] Name and breed
At 11:13 AM 8/31/2005 -0400, you wrote:
Color and markings classify mine as ABS. My polled ram is still an ABS
though polled and unregisterable as such. If he consistently produces
polled offspring he becomes an american BBS.
http://www.sheep101.info/breedsA-B.html#Barbado
http://www.sheep101.info/hair.html
Someone needs to email Susan Shoenian and let her know the photo she's
using at http://www.sheep101.info/breedsA-B.html#Barbado to portray an
American Blackbelly is of an animal that could not be registered as an
American Blackbelly because of the white on his body.
BBSAI's American Blackbelly standard is at
http://www.blackbellysheep.org/standards-AB.htm
Just as with any breed of animal, what you call it will be based on your
perception. If you are a long-time breeder who has selected and developed
bloodlines of excellence, then what you are willing to call an American
Blackbelly may be much more rigid than a registry's standards; you look at
ancestry and genetics and less on the phenotype. Breeders working only to
raising registerable stock will base their definition of what can be
called an American Blackbelly only on breed standards and whether the
animal can or cannot be registered. If you raise them primarily for
pleasure, then your definition will likely be much broader and include
traits that are not registerable.
Here is a similar story but about Manx cats, not blackbelly sheep. For
years, I have adopted tailless cats from my local animal shelter. There is
a breed of tailless cats called Manx, so I refer to my cats as Manx cats.
I was at a cat show one year and was talking to one of the breeders who
was showing his cats. I mentioned that I had adopted several Manx cats and
absolutely loved them. He looked positively askance and told me (with his
nose slightly elevated) that I probably had crossbred cats that simply
didn't have tails, but I most certainly didn't have MANX cats. I walked
away thinking that he was a jerk and that my cats WERE TOO Manx cats and
I'd call 'em that despite what he said.
Based on my description of the three types of breeders above, I raise
these cats primarily for pleasure and I am the bane of dedicated breeders
who work hard to purify their bloodlines so that they breed true. (Manx
cats are a genetic mutation; one can breed two Manx cats and get all
lengths of tails. Breeders often destroy the longer tailed kittens at
birth.) Does that mean I shouldn't call my cats Manx cats? Well, yes and
no. It depends. If I was raising kittens to sell, then I probably would
not want to imply that they were purebred and, depending on who I was
talking to, I might not even want to call them Manx. But if I simply was
trying to identify this unusual breed of cat to a visitor in my home, I
would call them Manx.
There is room for all three types of breeders of American Blackbelly
sheep, and all three types will at some point be a sore spot with each
other. Diana, I don't mean to offend, but when you are talking to
breeders, I don't think you should be calling your sheep either American
Blackbelly OR Barbados Blackbelly. They may look like BB, but they aren't.
They may have Mouflon and Rambouillet in them, but they are not American
Blackbelly if they don't have horns. You should wait for several
generations of sheep in your flock, develop your bloodlines so that they
consistently breed whichever sheep you want, and then and only then
register them and market them as being whatever breed you chose.
There is less room in the Barbados Blackbelly world for the looser
definitions because our sheep are in peril genetically. Barbados
Blackbelly are on the brink of being destroyed in the U.S. by careless
identification and naming. But regardless of which sheep you raise, you
absolutely MUST be up front about its genetics and pedigree if you sell
animals to the public. And if the person you are selling to wants to
become a truly dedicated breeder, then he has a lot at stake in what you
tell him.
Carol
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