This article explores the relationship between standards of beauty and genetic knowledge in regulations for the breeding of nonhuman animals. Collie breeding and views concerning the coat color white, in North America and Britain between 1870 and the present, illustrate how advances in dog coat genetics did little to alter perceptions concerning beauty and/or quality held in the different countries. Today, North American Collie breeders consider white coats to be desirable. Modern British breeders see these coats as unacceptable. Breed standards (...) that support practices have not changed to reflect a better understanding of genetics. An assessment of how attitudes to white Collies arose, and why these views differed between North America and Britain, illustrates how entrenched cultural perceptions concerning beauty/quality can be in the face of information that undermines their validity. The story introduces a larger topic: how can change be introduced in light of the complicated beauty/science axis? (shrink)

Previous attempts to quantify the role that dogs play in mitigating household property crime rates have produced mixed results.gisand spatial analysis methods to conduct such an investigation are not well-represented in the anthrozoological academic press for an entire city. This study seeks to address these gaps using agis-based case study of dog license locations and reported property crime locations for land parcel data in the City of Milwaukee,wi, for 2011. We found that parcels with reported licensed dogs experienced property crime (...) at rates of between 1.40 and 1.71 percentage points lower than the property crime rates for parcels that were zoned the same and did not have licensed dogs. This association between the presence of dogs and reduced property crime rates suggests dogs have a deterrent effect on property crime; more comprehensive analysis is encouraged to draw more concrete conclusions. (shrink)