The Ostrich Syndrome . by C. A. Sharp .
(Reprinted with permission from the Double Helix Network News -
First published in the 1994 Australian Shepherd Annual)
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In the decade and a half I have spent informing and educating
breeders about genetics and hereditary disease in Yorkshire
Terriers, the most common ailment that has come to my attention
is also the most serious. Ironically, it is not hereditary. Dogs
never get it. You won’t find it in any text or resource manual.
But it’s out there, and its presence can make controlling
hereditary disorders difficult to impossible. I call it the
"Ostrich Syndrome."
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According to legend, an ostrich will shove its head down in
the sand when confronted with something unpleasant. I have
encountered more than a few dog breeders who take a similar
stance when faced with even a possibility that their dogs might
have or carry hereditary disease. What you don’t know won’t
hurt you, they seem to think. It may not hurt you, but it can
hurt your dogs.
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The Ostrich Syndrome can damage dogs in a number of ways.
The ignorance, denial and fear it fosters in breeders can prevent
genetic diseases from being identified and studied early enough
to keep them from becoming widespread. Breeds which develop
a reputation for being disease-ridden risk rejection by the
public -- including that part of it engaged in agriculture. No
farmer or rancher wants a sickly or crippled working animal.
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The Ostrich Syndrome has its effect on individual dogs too. In
some cases dogs which are ill will not get the care they need or
will be euthanized and forgotten as quickly as possible. Even
healthy dogs can die from the Ostrich Syndrome. More than one
high-quality animal has died an unexpected and tragic death --
always of something distinctly non-hereditary -- when too many
of its descendants have been diagnosed with genetic disease.
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A few Ostrich Syndrome afflicted breeders avoid testing their
dogs for one problem or another because "it’s never happened
in this line." Well, there’s a first time for everything and if no
one is checking there may be a lot of it before you realize what
has happened.
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Others will excuse an animal which suffers from something very
like a hereditary problem with any number of flimsy excuses,
most of which boil down to "it’s a fluke so I can ignore it."
But a rose by any other name can have nasty thorns. Convincing
yourself they were caused by too much or too little ozone will
not make their prick less painful.
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An interesting and dangerous symptom exhibited by some
Ostrich Syndrome sufferers is the tendency to shun those free
of the disorder. I once heard of a case where one breeder refused
to sell a dog to another because the second breeder tested for a
particular disease. In other cases breeders who have stepped
forward and said "this dog of mine has/carries such-and-such
disease" have been vilified by their peers. I cannot fathom why
someone would heap scorn upon the breeder who makes an
honest admission that he has had a problem.
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This latter reaction is a form of shooting the messenger. Should
some poor soul discover that his dog has a problem and try to
share this information with its Ostrich Syndrome infected
breeder, he may find that the breeders holds him responsible.
Responses can range from unreturned phone calls to abusive
language and even threats. As a person who is something of a
full-time messenger, I’ve experienced this more than once.
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Humans have an unfortunate compulsion for assigning blame.
If something is wrong, somebody (other than me) must be at
fault and that somebody should pay. When the Ostrich
Syndrome breeder shoves his head deep in the sand and still
finds a problem glaring him in the face, he is apt to explode
in a flurry of pointing fingers.
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Breeders with Ostrich Syndrome are not bad people intent on
destroying our breed. They are frightened people faced with
something they don’t fully understand, something which
threatens the considerable emotional and financial investment
they have in their dogs. Denial in the face of the unthinkable is
a normal reaction. It gives us a little breathing space in which
we can marshal our inner resources to face an unpleasant reality.
The Ostrich Syndrome is the refusal to step beyond that initial
state of denial.
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Hereditary disease is no one’s fault. The genes which cause it
have been there since before there were dogs one could call
Australian Shepherds. Even in the very rare case of a genetic
mutation, the owner and breeder of the animal are not responsible
for its occurrence. Accepting this fact would go a long way toward
"curing" the Ostrich Syndrome. Such a cure would free
breeders to discuss hereditary problems openly and rationally,
leading ultimately to better control of genetic disease.
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If we fail to cure the Ostrich Syndrome, we are putting at risk
the breed we all claim to love. We must pull our heads out of
the sand, stifle our tendency to deny and blame, and face facts.
Genetic diseases occur in Yorkshire Terriers, as they do in
all other breeds. Overall we are not in bad shape, but we could
get there. Every one of you reading this can think of at least one
other breed so riddled with a hereditary disease that it has
become irredeemably associated with that disease. We don’t
want this to happen to our Yorkies. Facing facts can be painful,
but the alternative is far worse.
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An Ostrich sticks his head in the sand, and thinks that he can’t
be seen because he can’t see. Now picture the Ostrich in this
humorous, vulnerable, thinks he’s safe position, as something
big and bad bites him in the rear.
Grimms Fairy Tails
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The word Yorkie or Yorkshire Terrier replaces the original,
Australian Sheperd ,originally published. No other changes
to this article have been made.
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