We have been trying to mount a campaign to "un" register all offspring of merle to merle breedings, specifically in the Australian Shepherd, generally in all dogs with the merle or dapple gene.
25% of the merle to merle offspring are "homozygous" (MM) merles or as we call them, Lethal Whites, because when the breeder sees the white born (which will be deaf or blind or both, and may be autoimmune compromised), the pup is culled, either with a hammer, a snap of the neck, or if they survive the first breath, with a gun or worse.
The Breed Club fully endorses this, and the AKC not only registers the survivors, but also the Lethal Whites who do not meet breed standard, but will throw some highly salable merles.
Please visit
http://www.magicalworldoflethalwhites.freeservers.com/custom4.html
And help us make a difference. We are LethalWhiteAussieRescue-Carolinas:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LethalWhiteAussieRescue/
Until we hit the breeders in the pocketbook, this hideous practice will continue, and as the magnificent merle Aussie becomes better known, the practice will grow, and the deaths as well.
I have two such MagicalLethals in my life, and this is a very personal cause for me.
All I ask is letters be written to the Breed Club, the AKC, and the HSUS as this constitutes animal cruelty in the worst degree, as it is premeditated and anticipated by the breeder.
