longtom2222 wrote:
>--- In SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com, Jonathan Nicholls
><nichollsj85_at_y...> wrote:
>
>
>
>>BUT - how liberal is she? Does she mind her daughters doing each
>>
>>
>other, or are they not that naughty? (Some of the pictures Ive seen
>would suggest otherwise however...) Opinions and answers would be
>appreciated.
>
>Incest is VERY common among animals, both wild and domestic. Read
>any (non-childrens') book about them and you'll see what I mean.
>Even the most conservative animal would hardly object to brother and
>sister mating, or parent and (adult) child. Purebred animals are, in
>fact, created by careful inbreeding, to bring out recessive genes.
>
>In some ancient cultures, marriage of brother and sister was
>considered normal. Hey, how's that any worse than homosexuality?
>
>Long Tom.
>
>
Really, it's for one main reason. Inbreeding can bring out negative
recessive traits carried by a family. Often, someone has a healthy and
an unhealthy copy of a particular gene. The healthy one makes up for
the broken gene, and the person is fine. if their sibling was a carrier
too, and they had kids, there's a 1 in 4 chance that the kid could have
both copies of the gene, and suffer the ill effects. Multiply that
times lots of genes, and there's a tangible risk.
There's a reason that a lot of the purebred animals suffer severe health
problems. they're no longer genetically diverse enough to make up for
the bad genes they have. Want a healthy dog? get a mutt. want one
that'll suffer hip displaysia, cataracts, diabetes and a tendancy
towards growing tumors? go for a purebred. They're pretty when they're
young, but suffer for it later. Cats too. Notice how lots of siamese
are crosseyed, and how a few other blue-eyed (i think) breeds are deaf?
Why do the animals do it? they don't know better. Thinking critters
realize that after a few generations of marrying your siblings and
cousins, the offspring start to look funny and drool a lot. so they
make it taboo.
That's all, i'll get off of my scientific soapbox now.
-SirFox, roving biologist.
Received on Wed Oct 27 2004 - 17:00:24 CDT