Spinning Angora Rabbit Fur

Well I've been a critic of dog clubs and conformation showing for a very long time now. I think it is a silly pursuit, and of little to no use at all. I believe in trials, such as hunt trials or herding, etc. Those are the acitivites the animal was bred for and conformation will naturally follow. An ill-formed dog would never excel at the acitivity. I see no need or value to the conformation shows.

The same goes for the rabbit breeds, imo. The club creates a "standard". In the case of the rabbits, I think the club's standards are mostly arbitrary, and again, of very little value to someone raising the animals for their fiber. When I first joined the German angora club, I thought it was different. Their competition is the so-called shearing record. But after a while, I began to realize that no matter what is emphasized for compeitition's sake, all the other attributes will probably decline as the animal undergoes breeding that takes it closer and closer to the "standard". In dogs, silly traits in conformation can win in the show rings, but are totally useless for their true work & purpose. Hunting dogs with too much coat, dogs that are supposed to be fast and lithe with too much bone, etc.

In rabbits,the texture of the coat in Germans has been sacrificed in the name of wool production. I had reason to spin some old, pure English angora recently. It is far superior to the German, and I had very good German fiber, silkier than most. This was all done in the name of winning a shearing record. Nevermind that the yarn made from all that fiber is no softer than regular fine wool. So what is the point? Sheep are easier to keep and you get more fiber for less labor.

But, and here is the real reason it prevails, IF one disagrees, other club members won't entertain their ideas at all. They merely label them as "wrong" and "troublemakers". There is a social price to be paid for any diverging opinion, and IF one speaks out about it, then people start to get a little mean to the "odd person out". And so, the (often arbitrary and counter-productive) standard remains and the person who correctly notes it is counter-productive is shunned and eventually leaves. This is true in almost every animal club I've ever heard of. It recently happened to a friend who raises goats. It seems the goat clubs are rewarding only goats with very fine micron count now days. Good for spinning, not so good for animal keepers. She has beautiful reds, but keeps her micron count at a soft, but sane level. She has spoken out, and now is an outcast of the club.

So sad, but true. I have to wonder if all animal breeds might have been better off if there had been no clubs & no competitions, and every person merely selected the best animal for their own purposes. I think animals in general would be superior to what we now have, healthier, and sounder of mind,than they are now, with the clubs dominating the scene. In the case of fiber producers, the best quality/production/ease of care ratios would have already been maximized. As it is, only a few traits are considered "worthy" and so the decline of all animal breeds goes on.

Just some points to ponder.