Are breed standards immoral?

I wish Connemara inspectors could have been in the room in February 2013 when the chief scientist with the RSPCA in Australia asked a conference of horsemen if humans are justified in asking a horse to do something it doesn’t want to do.

Dr. Bidda Jones was speaking specifically about horseback riding and competition when she addressed the fifth Equitation Science Annual Conference at the University of Sydney. She questioned the morality of forcing a horse to participate in an activity that we do for entertainment. She said that doing something for pleasure or fun is not an inherently bad thing, but it doesn’t provide much moral justification for making the horse go along.

What would Jones say about writing down a breed standard based on the beauty preferences of a few horse people and forcing horses to look like the standard with no scientific justification or consideration of the health and welfare of the horse?

Jones’ comments are just the latest outcry by evolved animal lovers around the world who are questioning how humans treat animals.

This is the first year in which the Westminster Dog Show drew countless columns by major news organizations questioning dog breed standards. One published in “The New York Times” pointed to a 2009 study that linked breed standards and disorders. The research was conducted in the UK and published in “The Veterinary Journal.” It found that each of the 50 most popular pedigree dog breeds had at least one breed standard that predisposed that breed to a disorder. In total, 84 disorders were either directly or indirectly associated with conformation.

In plain English, the study said that breeders of 50 dog breeds were forcing these animals to have a physical trait that caused the animals to live in pain.

Does it get any more immoral than that?

I can find no such study for horses that specifically looks at breed standards versus disorders, but the Connemara breed standard requires a thick cannon bone that meets a specific measurement, and I did find a study that said heavy legs on a horse inhibit movement, particularly in shorter horses, and the Connemara breed standard also requires that Connemaras be 14-2 hands or under to be approved.

The detrimental health effect of breed standards is not a surprise to those of us who have seen the BBC documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” released in 2008. In the documentary, at least one breeder of Rhodesian ridgebacks is beside herself that she can’t find any vets to put down puppies that don’t have the ridge, even though the ridge is a known health deformity, a mild form of spina bifida. This woman admits on camera that she’s mad she can’t find a vet who will kill these perfectly healthy puppies because those don’t conform to the breed standard.

The Connemara society in America instituted inspections in the early 2000s based on an arbitrary breed standard that was drawn up using the false premise that the Connemara had always been one thing despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary. The breed is a blending of many breeds. It’s a mutt. Get over it, people. There is no one look for this breed.

In 1999, prior to the start of Connemara inspections, a study by researchers at the University of Sydney and published in “Abstract Animal Welfare” looked at welfare problems in dog breeding and noted that selecting for appearance rather than function or health had resulted in many breeds becoming predisposed to health problems. The study, which apparently no one in the Connemara society read, heralded diversity, even as the Connemara society shunned diversity and tried to make all Connemaras look like the coarse horses bred by a few breeders who controlled the society.

The study also decried closed stud books and said it was imperative to introduce outside bloodlines to a breed for the animals to remain healthy.

Specifically, the study said: In a world that is beginning to appreciate the importance of biological diversity, it is appropriate that the animals bred to share our homes are as diverse as their owners and their owners’ lifestyles.

I would argue that the same tenet should apply to the animals outside our homes.

The study went on to say: “Breeders should acknowledge that many traditional showing and breeding practices are serious impediments to that process.”

I don’t know what will happen to Jones’ comments about the morality of riding horses. But at the very least, breed standards forcing horses to be shaped a certain way just won’t stand the test of time morally. Does the Connemara society want to lead this evolution or be dragged kicking and screaming into a more evolved age?

So far, it appears to be the latter.