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-A.S.C.A. Code of Ethics, Cross Breeding, etc...

From Vicki Rand, Aussie Times Editor, March/April 1994 p. 9

Every registry - be it dogs, cats, horses, sheep, etc. - bases its credibility and integrity on one thing.  That being the honesty of the people who submit the information that makes up its records.

A lot of attention is being paid to the problem of cross breeding, and the submission for purebred registration of the puppies resulting from those litters.  Let's not discuss the motives for this practice.  (Those seem to be well-covered by those of you [who] have been submitting letters for the Letters to the Editor column.)

Let's focus on the damage this practice causes.  It destroys the trust we have in each other.  It frustrates those breeders who would never think of doing such a thing, but who may be brought under suspicion, only because their customers become cynical and just plain don't trust them.  When you get down to it, it is just plain fraud.  Two purebred dogs, of different breeds, that may be bred for whatever intentions or purposes, do not produce purebred puppies.  And those puppies should never be presented as such.

The mixing of the gene pools of two purebred dogs, of different breeds, no matter how closely we may *think* they are related, produces mixed breed dogs.  Yes, that is how most of today's breeds were begun.  The operative word here is *begun*.  The final product (a new breed) usually takes from twelve to twenty generations of breeding for specific traits to *begin*, by the way.

When you cross two purebred dogs - of two different breeds - no resulting progeny, nor any of their progeny, can ever be represented as being either of the two original breeds used.  Their gene pools no longer resemble either of the parents', but are a mix of the two.