US Horse Registry Forced To Accept Cloned Horses 164
kdryer39 writes "U.S. District Court Judge Mary Lou Robinson said she will sign an order requiring the American Quarter Horse Association to begin allowing cloned animals to be placed on its registry, according to the organization. A jury last month ruled that the horse association violated anti-monopoly laws by banning cloned animals. The quarter horse association issues and maintains a pedigree registry of American quarter horses, a popular breed associated with cowboys riding on the range in the 19th and early 20th centuries."
Re:Ok, sure... (Score:3, Insightful)
What I'd like to know is how are they creating a monopoly by banning cloned horses from being accepted in there registry?
Re:Is there no governmental limits anymore? (Score:2, Insightful)
WTF do they have a monopoly on? A list?
If the Boy Scouts can keep gays out since they're a private organization, someone should be able to make a horse list according to their criteria.
a better question is, why do so many gays (and others) want so very badly to be in a place where they are so clearly not wanted and appreciated? reminds me of shannon faulkner suing to get into VMI (and dropping out soon after btw). why would you sue to get into someplace instead of finding a place where you are wanted and appreciated? course VMI accepted public money so faulkner won that suit. but really i just don't understand this desire.
another question: we would not allow a straight man to sleep in a tent in close proximity to young girls who are not his offspring because he might be a sick fuck. he probably isnt but it is not something to take chances with. you just dont see this being done anywhere. why should we allow gay men to sleep in tents in close proximity to young boys who are not their offspring? treating gays as equals would mean not allowing either scenario.
but really boy scouts are dominated by christians and others who generally follow traditional judaeo-christian morality. christianity and the bible is very clear about how they feel about gays. gay men suing to try to get into boy scouts is a lot like a ham company suing to get into a mosque or synagogue, it just doesn't make sense.
Re:Greed knows no bounds (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is not greed. The problem is government dictating how people should run their lives.
Greed for money or goods is a material form of avarice. The lust to have and perpetually expand power at every opportunity is just a non-material form of greed. The latter is more dangerous by far because it is backed by the police power of government and there is no counter-force causing it to retreat. There is only incremental advancement.
This isn't a road or an essential utility or a national security issue. There is no real public interest here. Ergo, the correct solution would have been to dismiss the suit and tell the plaintiffs that they are free to form their own clone registry. The fact that the current registry is a monopoly would be immaterial because said monopoly excludes clones and thus wouldn't compete with a clone registry. The clone registry would probably find itself entirely without competition. Then those who are interested in cloned horses know where to look while those wanting horses bred the old-fashioned way also know where to look.
Apparently that's just not as fun as forcing people to do what they explicitly don't want to do.
Re:Greed knows no bounds (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm with the Quarter Horse Association on this one. They're not the government. They have no "fairness" obligation to everyone. I don't see how they can be accused of holding a monopoly when "no other horse breeding registry allows cloned animals ..." indicates that they ain't the only game in town. Start your own damned registry if you don't like the current offerings. If the incumbents run you out of Dodge on a rail, then you have an actionable claim based on anti-competitive business practices. But I don't see how you can claim "monopoly" simply because you don't like a private organization's rules.
Hey, I just started the "No Clones Alllowed Horse Registry." Can these two horse breeders sue me and force my no-clones registry to accept their cloned animals?
Re:Stupid decision by clueless jury (Score:4, Insightful)
One issue is that AQHA runs large commercial races that are open only to its members. They're excercising market control by excluding certain animals based on arbitrary criteria; whether that's a monopoly power or not depends on your view of what constitutes the market in this case (the courts ruled that it is).
For instance:
In 1993, AQHA launched Quarter Horse horse racing's first series of races with a championship-ending day, called The Bank of America Racing Challenge. It is a series of 60 races run throughout North and South America with the winners of each race earning a starting berth into a season-ending Championship Day. The Bank of America Racing Challenge currently offers nearly $6 million in purse and bonus awards.
Re:Is there no governmental limits anymore? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not gay, but I'm not welcome in the Boy Scouts for odious discriminatory reasons. So why do I hang around?
Because I feel that, other than the discrimination they engage in (and that they will be hugely embarassed about 20 years from now), they have an excellent program for my son. Rather than dropping him off at the door, and picking him up later, or sending him on campouts, I participate. I have explained to the scoutmaster why I can never be an adult leader in the BSA program, and he understands. I expect that my honorable service will help change the opinion the organization holds against me and move it in a more inclusive direction.
I think gay parents have the same desires to participate in their childrens lives as I do. And I will call you out on your question:
why should we allow gay men to sleep in tents in close proximity to young boys who are not their offspring?
Gay doesn't equate to pedophile. Say that again: Gay doesn't imply Pedophile.
The Boy Scouts as a private organization has every right to set rules for membership, as numerous court cases attest to. But, then, the Ku Klux Klan is also a private organization that has every right to set rules for membership. Having the right to do so doesn't imply that it's done using criteria that I consider civilized.
Re:Ok, sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not a monopoly if the item is scarce. What if I built an exact replica of a vintage Bugatti and then insist on having it registered as an official Bugatti? What if I built a hackintosh and insist on apple putting a serial number and a logo on it? The proper answer is "No, f*ck you!".
Do the official registry prevent the creation of a cloned animals registry? Let the damn market choose which registry to consider.
In freedom, one could create the registry of ogm free stuff, male-only (or female-only, or white-only) clubs, and so on. As long as I don't hurt anybody, directly or with negative propaganda, nobody has any business interfering.
Re:Greed knows no bounds (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem usually comes not because of the registry, but because there may be other organizations which only "recognize" horses from that registry for their purposes. For example, if a race organization requires that a horse be "pure bred", and only accepts AQHA pedigree, then things start getting messy. And very likely, AQHA rules don't allow AQHA-registered horses to breed out-of-registry, which massively restricts the breeding pool for any competing registry.
In other words, sometimes these sorts of registries act as gatekeepers for a whole host of things, and it makes more sense to change the registry than the change the practices of everything "downstream". Particularly if the registry isn't keeping up with industry practices, or the rules start to introduce health issues with pedigree animals (i.e. reduces the breeding pool excessively).
Re:Will they find a way to make the clones fail dr (Score:5, Insightful)
If you had ten clones of a proven track horse you could increase your winnings by driving the horse harder, at the risk of damaging them because you have backup copies. For the welfare of the animals, this should be banned from horse racing... or any other sport that involves animals being commanded by people.