>>No, my point is ethical, Amazondoc.
>>
>>You acknowledge above that Peruvians should be preserved because they might be a separate ssp.

No. I acknowledge that they probably should be preserved because they are identifiably different from the general pool of rainbows in the market, and because that identifiably different subset of rainbows is probably in more danger than the general pool of rainbows in the wild.

>>In the very next breath, you turn 180 degrees and refuse to give Brazilians -- an *acknowledged* separate ssp -- the same respect and protection.

No. You continue to misread what I have said.

If we had known Brazilians in the market that we could reliably define as pure Brazilian -- for example, if we had locality collection data on a group of Brazilians in the market -- then I would agree that it would be a good thing to keep them apart from the general pool of "Brazilians" in the market. But we do NOT have such a thing. As I mentioned before, it's kind of like the pool of "Honduran" milks in the market. They are already mixed, there's no way to separate them out, and there's not much point in trying to separate them.

>>You do this based on that fact that cross-breeding has “probably” already occurred...

It HAS already occurred. Jeff, amongst others, tells us so -- and I, for one, take Jeff's word for it.

>>...and very possibly *not* in the animals you plan to breed.

One more time -- I have no "plan" to mix Peruvians and Brazilians. I am asking questions and testing responses in order to figure out whether there is a significant benefit in keeping them separate. At this point I have no "plan" at all, and certainly no NEED to cross anything.

Now -- IF somebody could establish a way to distinguish pure Brazilians from Brazilian/Peruvian mixes in the market, then I would conclude that keeping Peruvian blood out of that pure Brazilian gene pool would be a good thing to do.

And IF somebody could establish that Brazilian/Peruvian/other subspecies mixing events have been extremely rare and have not significantly polluted the pure Brazilian gene pool in the market already, then I also would conclude that keeping Peruvian blood out of the Brazilian gene pool would be a good thing to do.

I don't think we are likely to do either one...but you never know!

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