No, it's not some twisted new reality show. Or Flowers in the Attic. It's the littermates in the kitchen.
News flash- seeing incest as wrong is a human issue. Your pets don't care. Sure, given the oppurtunity, a group of animals may instinctively seek out a non-relative with whom to procreate- that way they get the genetic diversity that can help increase the groups ability to survive. But the cats in the neighborhood or the dogs in your yard just don't care.
All they know is that there is a female in heat, rarin' to go. And that testosterone is saying- let's do it! There is no yuck factor for your pets. There is only urge. They don't think it through. They just act.
Hormones are strong, as we can all attest, right? And without the social mores, without the ability to think a situation through, there is no reason not to act on those hormones. This is how we get inbreeding.
In all honesty, inbreeding is how we have gotten many of today's recognizablw breeds of dogs and cats. People deliberately bred siblings, or mothers and sons, or fathers and daughters. They did this to try to preserve desirable traits in the dogs or cats. They did it often enough that they got consistent results- and viola- Labradors. Or Siamese. Or whatever.
One can argue that this inbreeding- be it many generations ago- is why purebreeds are more prone to certain diseases. They have less genetic diversity.
The point is this- if you have not spayed or neutered in the mistaken belief that "they won't do that," you are in for a surprise. Spay. Neuter. Save yourself a shock to your system. Save your vet a rant.
Enjoy your pets!
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