Many dog breeds and in fact dog standards are a product of Victorian era views about race. "Pure blood" becomes a pretty awful term when applied to human for example. Many dog breeds do not however have any historical relevance to racism and are purely utilitarian selection, just like horse and chicken for that matter.

There is no question that dog shows have risen from Victorian society and even to this day terriers who are form the UK dominate WDS.

But that was then and this is now, and the effect of 19th century societal racism really has no bearing that I can figure - that's not to say dog breed standards are without fault. Dog breed standards in effect make "mixes" a lesser class of dog, leading to a reluctance to adopt rescues in favor a dog with papers....this fact is completely heart breaking to me. Breeding programs often go wrong with Dr. Moreau types madly trying to attain perfection with horrible unintended results. But this type of person would exist as something else horrible if they didn't breed frakendogs.

PETA - Oh the irony of these guys advocating at a dog show. It wasn't too long ago that PETA was calling for the destruction of pit bulls because they were not worth saving. Talk about racism transposed onto dogs, blows my mind. These folks are the GOP of animal advocacy and should be seen as such. Sometimes I imagine their boardroom meeting as they discuss how Greenpeace is kicking there ass with the whaling patrols.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Best_in_Show_winners_of_the_Westminste...

http://books.google.ca/books?id=fSU-vUrac6AC&pg=PA257&lpg=PA257&...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1379620/vick_dogs_proved_peta_wron...


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