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Q: Sable breeders want recognition of their animals as a unique breed. How can the Sable, coming totally from Saanens, be considered a unique breed?
A: Every new breed is based on animals that don't meet existing breed standards of recognized breeds. For example, look at the Nubian breed, which was established in England during the late 1800s and imported to the US soon after the turn of the century. At that time, every recognized breed in this country required upright ears. Pendulous ears and Roman noses were disqualifications of all the currently recognized breeds of the time---- yet these are the very traits on which the Nubian breed is based. The next new breed to appear here was the LaMancha. Every recognized breed at the time required upright ears or in the case of Nubians, pendulous ears. No ears at all was definitely a disqualification of any of the recognized breeds! Yet this is the basis for the LaMancha breed. In the case of Sables, any color other than white or light cream disqualifies them from the Saanen herdbook even though they are of Saanen genetics.
Q: Why bother with Sables----why not just cull them?
A. These animals often embody superior genetics from the top Saanen bloodlines and it is a foolish waste to discard these animals for something so superficial as the color of their hair. This is especially important now, when the number of Purebred Saanens in this country is dropping steadily, a fact which worries many Saanen breeders. Many breeders prefer Sables to Saanens because they enjoy the variety of colors and are bored with the monotonous white of the Saanens. With Sables, they have the best of both worlds; production, strength, and temperament together with a gorgeous variety of coat colors and patterns. Still another reason for keeping Sables is purely due to their color. The white Saanens, with their light skin, do not do well in southern climates. Their light skin color makes them unusually prone to skin cancers. Foreign buyers from tropical countries are aware of this and although they like the Saanen size, productivity, and temperament, they are reluctant to buy because of the tendency toward cancer. Sables, however, do not have this problem. With their darker skin, they are no more prone to skin cancer than are other breeds while retaining all the other superior characteristics that make the Saanen so desirable. Yet, because of their registration status, foreign buyers are reluctant to buy Sables, too. Foreign buyers are particularly sensitive about registration papers and since Sables can only be registered as Experimentals, buyers reject them.
Q. Well then, why not include Sables in the Saanen herdbook?
A. There have been those who would like to see them lumped into the Saanen herdbook, since they are a variety of Saanen. However, this would be disastrous for both breeds. Sables need to be isolated from the Saanen population, because their coat color is due to recessive genes. Wherever the Saanen white gene appears, that gene is dominant and the offspring will be white, so to perpetuate the Sables, they need to be kept separate from the white animals and bred only to each other. This would be impossible to do if they were lumped into the Saanen book. In addition, when a white Saanen is bred to a Sable, which would happen if both were in the same herdbook, most if not all of the offspring will be white. But (and this is an important point) all of those offspring which have one Sable parent will be carriers of that recessive gene. Thus, if breeding between Saanens and Sables is carried out to any extent then the recessive color gene is going to be spread far and wide into the white Saanen population, something that Saanen breeders definitely do not want. Everybody recognizes that Sables are indeed a variety of Saanens,and that they need to be registered in their own herdbook, not in a sub-herdbook of the Saanen breed!
Q. I thought all Sables were sundgaus.
A. No, Sables come in all colors and combinations of colors except solid white. There are sundgaus, of course, and there are those who have tried to breed sundgaus exclusively, but this is because they liked that color pattern, not because it is what Sables are supposed to be. Actually, the first Sables to arrive in this country came on the ship with the very first Saanens. The most famous of these, the celebrated Panama Louise, was gray. Her sister Panama Zahre, arriving on the same ship, was tan.
Q. I hear that the number of Sables being born to purebred Saanens is decreasing because of Saanen breeders' efforts to cull out Sables.
A. Saanen breeders have never done anything to reduce the number of Sables being born. They have never tried to identify which individuals or bloodlines contain the color gene nor have they ever done anything to weed out the color gene. All they have ever done is try to "hide the evidence" by disposing of the colored kids, either by destroying them or by sending them to auction without papers. The number of Sables being born to purebred Saanens is decreasing, though-----but the reason has nothing whatever to do with Sables. The number of Sables born to purebred Saanens is falling simply because the number of purebred Saanens is falling markedly, a fact which has many Saanen breeders very worried and is all the more reason that the genetics embodied in the Sables should not be lost.
Q: I believe Sables should have their own herdbook. What can I do to help?
A. Register your Sables with ISBA so that they will count in with the Sable Foundation animals in 2005 when ADGA sets up the herdbooks!
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