An Interesting Question of Ethics (Breeding)

During my little bit of downtime during the holidays, I've had a chance to really sit and organize my thoughts on breeding and what exactly the implications and responsibilities of it are. I'm no longer talking just horse breeding at this point, however. I mean everything - dogs, cats, hamsters, people. Yes, people. I want to open a discussion on ethics and social responsibility. I fully expect to get a lot of heated response.

I had quite an outraged response to my ideas about breeding Gogo. In essentially everyone's mind, she is not fit to become breeding material ever at all for any reason. Imagine if I had written up a post stating that Joe-Bob the neighbor's grade stud had jumped the fence and bred my mare in the night of his own accord, and we found her to be pregnant. Personally, I would not think twice about having a vet go in and crush the crap out of that embryo. I'm sure there are people who would disagree with me for playing God and taking control of the situation. But for the most part, a lot of you sensible people would probably fully agree with my decision.

If I were to write up a post stating how Gogo was pregnant (which she is not), I would probably get more than a few nasty grumbles. Imagine, if you will, what the response would be if I were to write up a post stating how I was pregnant. (Don't worry, I'm not either!) Not a single person would come forward and chastise me for being a) irresponsible financially b) not in a stable long-term relationship capable of properly raising offspring c) genetically inferior to those who ought to be breeding. On the contrary, none of you would ask questions. You in all likelihood would heartily congratulate me - can you imagine the social outrage you'd invoke in others around you if you said otherwise? When I opened this topic of discussion earlier in the year, I had a lot of completely contradictory responses from completely sane people. The same people who thought my mare to be of inferior breeding quality because of her general mediocrity turned around to tell me that I wasn't giving myself enough credit for my own abilities, and that ordinary and plain people ought to breed because extradordinary people don't produce extraordinary offspring. Why do we insist that only THE best horses should breed, which is true, if we also don't think that only THE best people should breed as well? It's a weird moral dilemma that we have as a species because whether we like it or not, we have a naturally ingrained species survival instict. Generally, we want to breed and continue to fully dominate and trash the earth. When I wrote out my reasoning for selecting myself out of the gene pool - my medium-level intelligence, mediocre conformation, inability to truly add anything worthwhile to society - everyone insisted I was completely wrong. If we are so strict about breeding animals, why should we not show a little more restraint ourselves?

I understand that I sound a little pseudo-Nazi in my ideals, and I assure you that it's not really the case. But I mean really, people. If my horse, who is in my eyes much more talented as an individual than I am, is not of enough quality to breed, what kind of sick and egotistical beliefs would I have to have in order to believe that I am? People with known inherited genetic issues are still popping out babies left and right, spreading disease and dysfunction on to their offspring. If they are lucky, our ugly and useless crippled foals will end up in a field eating grass somewhere, or if they are luckier, humanely euthanized so they do not have to suffer unnecessarily. Our useless human beings? Forced to live useless, miserable lives in a society that values perfection (presuming we are talking about Western culture). I cannot possibly understand how people can just go on breeding amongst themselves without thinking about the consequences, or why folks who want kids don't just go adopt them instead of adding to the perpetual population issue. I actually just had a conversation with a woman about that same issue; she had the audacity to tell me that she would never have adopted kids because 'she wouldn't have loved them the same way.' Seriously? If I go out and buy a horse instead of breed Gogo, I'm not going to love that horse any less. Then again, I think this logic doesn't apply to those sorts of people, because anyone with that twisted of a mindset could never love animals in the way that those of you reading this blog do.

We control the breeding rights to animals because we believe them to be inferior to ourselves. In modern-day Western human society, if you adopt the same strict breeding principles to humans, you are likened to Hitler. In a way, this is both comprehensible and incomprehensible to me. I understand as a gay woman how completely unfair it for other to claim they know what is best for my relationships and my body, and tell me who I can and can't love. I appreciate all humans for the intelligent individuals that they are, and the rights they have as sentient beings. At the same time, though, the sensible part of me still doesn't understand.

Maybe those of you with children can flesh it out a little better for me. I have no interest in them so perhaps I don't understand. Often times people that go out and willing spay and neuter your pets like they should don't generally seem to consider doing the same for themselves.

I have enough sense in my head to cull myself from the breeding population. If I could rip out my uterus and not have to bother with the hormonal issues involved, I would do it, just to make sure it could NEVER happen, even by some sort of horrible accident. No animal on the planet, humans included, should ever have to be born because of an accident. That is no way to come into the world. How many oopsie dogs, cats and horses end up discarded and thrown away? How many children?




Discuss.





EDITED TO ADD: Remember, all of the preceding is not in defence of breeding or not breeding Gogo. I am not defending myself. We are discussing the bigger picture. Ok, now read on!