Fuzzy Hollands- The Great Debate

It's funny- I've been asking the question recently "How do you list a fuzzy holland" in a pedigree and just the other day it was brought up on Rabbit Habbit, where it's received some wonderful debate, some of which I've also heard before in conversation. We know if bred to American Fuzzy Lops, they are listed as fuzzy Hollands, rendering the AFL babies unregistrable for three generations.

Here is the problem, for me. Say you have both hollands and AFLs. You get a particularly nice fuzzy Holland buck and you breed him to a regular Holland. How do you list the father in the offspring's pedigree?

Some folks say that the cross above is NOT a pure Holland cross and it should be listed as what you show it under- in this case, AFL. Fuzzy Hollands can't be registered as American Fuzzy Lops- as we talked about earlier, they are still listed as fuzzy Hollands. But saying the buck should not be listed as a Holland because of the wool gene or even that it's dishonest to list it as a Holland, since most people don't want to deal with the wool gene, is crazy. Now, I want to make it clear, breeding a fuzzy Holland to an American fuzzy lop IS a crossbreed. It's a beneficial crossbreed, but a fuzzy Holland lop and a fuzzy lop is not the same thing.

My thought on it is- A fuzzy Holland is a Holland lop with a disqualification. You can breed rabbits with white spots, mismatched toenails, eye spots, bad teeth, etc, etc, etc,. Most of the time you won't want to, but you can. Offspring can then be registered assuming THEY don't exhibit the same problem. It's still a Holland lop, and still a purebred Holland lop, even though there is a DQ, in this case, wool.

There is no clear cut definitive answer. Should we say "list fuzzy hollands as AFLs"? If that's the case, then AFLs with fuzzy hollands in the pedigree need to be allowed to be registered. If it is considered a Holland with a DQ, then it should be allowed to be listed as a Holland lop and the offspring should be registrable. Perhaps conscientious breeders will add a note "carries wool".

As it stands right now, we're in a gray area. Is it a Holland? If it's not a Holland and it's not an AFL, what is it? Why? Why not?

This may be something we need to bring up to ARBA to get a definitive answer on.

Please feel free to debate this as well or just leave your opinions- they are always welcome :)

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry