Vote on Significant Changes to Recognized Angora Colors
Please note, this article is not in it's finished version. I am publishing this draft version in order to get this information out there as soon as possible as this is an urgent matter and time for action is limited. The voting ballot for these proposed changes must be printed in it's entirety (it is 10 pages long) and mailed in within the US Mail post mark deadline of February 15.
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The most recent National Angora Rabbit Breeders Association (NARBC) club newsletter, which was sent out to all current club members on December 6, contains a voting ballot which all Angora enthusiasts should be aware of. The board of directors as well as the members of the NARBC Standards Committee have agreed upon a number of changes to the club's constitution as well as changes to the breed standards. In order for these changes to become reality, they must first be voted on by the club's members. The newsletter preface for this ballot includes this statement: "The Committee has also approved by majority the proposed revision to the Recognized Angora Colors making no conceptual changes, rather making color labels more consistent with the majority of other breed Standards. ". This could not be further from the truth.
In case you are wondering who are the people behind these proposed changes, the NARBC website lists Eric Stewart as the Chairperson of the "Standards, Research, and Development Committee" with additional members being Matt Bishop, Betty Chu, Robin Olson, Adam Schuller, and Sandra Wight.
The ballot addresses matters which can be categorized into 3 topics. 1st, proposed changes to the frequency of the club newsletter. 2nd, proposed changes to the SOP Recognized Angora Colors guide. 3rd, proposed changes to the weight restrictions of the Angora breeds.
Ballot Topic #1
The club newsletter is currently published three times per year, the proposed change would increase that to four. This would allow a more timely delivery of club related news to the members. A wonderful idea.
Ballot Topic #2
Many agree that the multitude of names for what are often the same colors across different ARBA breeds or even worse, same names for completely different colors, is an issue worth addressing. Many would welcome some form of standardization or at least a resemblance of some common sense order to these labels. Especially those of us who understand the genetics involved often roll our eyes in dismay at this mess. In spirit, this is what the proposed changes to the officially recognized varieties (colors) of the Angora breeds are supposed to be addressing. The club's members were made aware months ago that these changes were being discussed and the details would be shared once ready. I was ecstatic when I first heard of this. Unfortunately, now that these changes have been presented, not only I can not support them in their current form, I feel strongly compelled to request other breeders and lovers of the Angora breeds to make an effort to ensure that these changes do not become a reality!
This portion of the ballot is divided into 11 individual votes. The individual voting sections are not uniquely identified or numbered on the ballot. I have done so here for ease of reference. Each of these 11 votes addresses a section of the current SOP list of recognized varieties (colors) for English, French, and Satin Angoras. I will go through each of them as well as the proposed changes and their significance. Even though the Giant Angora is named at the top of this list in the SOP as if it applied to that breed, it actually does not. The Giant Angora is only recognized in 2 varieties, REW and Chestnut. Just one of a few SOP inconsistencies to keep you on your toes.
Section 1: Recognized Angora Colors
This section addresses the introduction portion of the Angora color guide. This section remains 100% unchanged from the original. It makes no difference here if you vote yes or no since there is nothing here for you to vote on. I'm assuming this was added simply to present the color guide in it's entirety.
Section 2: White Classification
Here, the name of the variety "Pointed White Group" is changed to "Pointed White". Good move as it makes no sense for a single variety to be it's own group of varieties. The phrase "Eyes - Pink iris, red pupil." is printed twice right next to each other in the current SOP. One of these is removed, something I would think was a simple typing/publishing error and should have been removed as part of a basic proof reading check at some point. Who let this slip past them? The subheading "Self Group" which precedes the descriptions for the REW and BEW varieties is also removed. A wonderful change to remove this unnecessary and inaccurate label.
Section 3: Pigmented Classification
For starters this has always been called the "Colored Classification". Angoras are split into two main competitive classes: White Varieties vs Colored Varieties, as in the animals that are white vs animals that are of many different colors and patterns, as in not pure white. Instead of being called the Colored Class, this would now become the Pigmented Class. I do not know if this change was instigated by real complaints or an anxiety about possible complaints. Is this ARBA's attempt at being woke? Pigmented seems like an odd choice of words here. Should we change the White Classification to the Unpigmented classification to keep the language consistent? I'd like to see the response of commercial breed enthusiasts to the suggestion that they should refer to their rabbits as the Unpigmented New Zealand.
Moving on, the Chestnut variety would now be called the Chestnut Agouti. Chestnut and Chocolate Agouti both have language added to allow for not only tan but also red and orange banding within the coat. More on this below. The description of band colors for Lynx and Opal are changed from "tan" to "light tan or fawn". The descriptions of undercolor are changed from "blue-grey" to "slate blue" in Chestnut Agouti, and from "blue" to "slate-blue" for Opal. For Lynx, "White undercolor is allowed." is changed to "White undercolor is permissible.".
The very significant change proposed in this section and a big problem is the complete removal of the Copper variety. Copper is to Chestnut what Red is to Fawn. They are genetically similar but not the same, and they are visually very distinctly different. Copper is Chestnut with the addition of significantly higher concentrations of orange pigment, commonly referred to as rufus. Typical Chestnuts have a coat made up of bands of black and yellow/fawn while the coat bands on Coppers are made up of an intense dark black (the rufus factor affects how dark and saturated blacks appear) and an intense orange which should be similar or equal to the intense orange color as it is seen in the Red variety.
This is a crucial distinction from the perspectives of the appearance of the animal, it's genetic make up, it's genetic impact on the breeding pool, and it's genetic impact on other varieties which rely on heavy rufus. The proposed elimination of this variety would impact all of the above as well as pedigree information.
The proposed change would amalgamate Coppers into the Chestnut Agouti variety. This is why the language for that variety has been changed to allow for those orange/red rings within the coat. Coppers would now show as Chestnuts and they would also appear as Chestnuts on pedigrees. Since only officially recognized colors can be used when describing the rabbit that is being registered, rabbits which are Copper would now have to be registered as Chestnuts, with no way to otherwise note on the pedigree this crucial difference. Copper is a distinct variety which some breeders specialize in and have been working on for many years. There are absolutely no advantages to removing Copper from the standard and the repercussions of this move would have multiple negative repercussions.
The Copper variety currently also exists in the Mini Satin and Satin breeds. They however do not have Chestnut Agouti (or equivalent).
Section 4: Chinchilla Varieties
Multiple comas are removed from multiple sentences in this section, now creating grammatical errors where they did not previously exist.
The Chinchilla variety gets renamed to Black Chinchilla. The description of the bands is slightly modified from "(...) alternating with shades of blue-gray, with a blue-gray undercolor." to "(...) alternating with shades of blue-gray, with a slate blue undercolor.".
The Squirrel variety is renamed to Blue Chinchilla. Marbled eyes are added as allowed.
The description of bands for Lilac Chinchilla is slightly modified changing "alternating with shades of light lilac, with a light lilac undercolor." to "(...) alternating with shades of light lilac, with a dove-gray or off-white undercolor.". Marbled eyes are added as allowed.
Section 5: Broken Group
Two grammatical errors are create here where they did not previously exist (capitalization of words inside a bracket which should not be capitalized).
The sentence:
"Brokens so light in pattern that they appear to be Charlies or so excessive in pattern as to be Booteds: not representative of a broken pattern per ARBA definition. "
is changed to:
"Charlies so light in pattern or Booteds so excessive in pattern as to not be represent a broken pattern per ARBA definition."
Fine change fixing the structure of a sentence but clearly missed in the proof reading process was the fact that the sentence should either say "as to not represent a broken pattern" or "as to not be representative of a broken pattern". Missed was also the fact that this section describes that the Brokens would be competing in the "Colored Classification", a term which a previous section attempts to change to the "Pigmented Classification".
Section 6: Self Group
Part of the description of Chocolate is changed from:
"Wool is to be slightly lighter, but may fade towards the skin."
to:
"Wool is to be lighter chocolate, fading to dove-gray towards the skin."
Not sure why bother making this change especially considering that the original phrasing is used to describe the other 3 colors and is left unchanged for them. The change now creates an inconsistency which did not exist before.
Section 7: Shaded Group
Here, the Pearl variety is completely erased from existence. More on this later. All else remains unchanged.
Section 8: Tortoiseshell Varieties
Tortoiseshell is renamed to Black Tortoiseshell. The description is changed from "Wool is to be dark fawn over the back" to "Wool is to be dark orange over the back". When one looks at the vast majority of Tort English Angoras on the show table, unless you are wearing orange shaded glasses, none will ever have wool which is or can even remotely be described as being dark orange. Not even orange is an accurate word to use. Light orange could be fitting, but really not quite as fitting as the original description of "dark fawn". The sentence which informs that some black ticking is allowed has a couple words removed, the alteration is not significant. The same sentence is similarly altered in the descriptions for the other Tort varieties.
The description of Blue Torts is changed from "Wool is to be a beige or almond color over the back" to "Wool is to be a light tan or cream".
The same change is made for Chocolate Torts, changing "fawn" to "tan or orange".
The same change is made for Lilac Torts, changing "beige or almond" to "light tan or cream".
Section 9: Sable Point
The color name "Sable Point" currently does not exist in the Angora breeds. Instead, the Angora breeds have the Pearl family of colors. The Angora Pearls include Black/Blue/Chocolate/Lilac Chinchilla Torts, commonly known in other breeds as Sallanders, plus Black based Sable Torts, commonly known in other breeds as Sable Points. Sallanders and Sable Points are genetically different with one being created by the Chinchilla gene and the other by the Sable gene. The resulting color is also different although this can be difficult to notice in Angoras due to how the wool tends to wash colors out. This is precisely why many decades ago when the SOP was being written for the Angora breeds it was decided to lump these Chinchilla and Sable based Torts into one color variety called "Pearl". Unfortunately not to be confused with "Smoke Pearl" which in fact is not one of the Tort colors but is instead a Blue (instead of Black) based Sable. The description of the Pearl variety in the current SOP specifies that the marking colors (face mask, feet, etc) can be Sable (these would genetically be Sable Points), Black, Blue, Chocolate, or Lilac (these would be genetic Sallanders).
The proposed changes completely remove the Pearl variety and replace it with a variety called "Sable Point" however in it's description the marking colors would now only be Black, Blue, Chocolate, or Lilac. Sable markings are no longer listed as allowed! Meaning the original color variety Pearl which incuded Sallanders and Sable Points has now been renamed to Sable Point... but describes Sallanders only. What an absolutely illogical and unnecessary mess! How on earth is calling Sallanders as Sable Points moving us any closer to eliminating the tangled mess that is ARBA's color names. It's creating a new problem where none existed before! What in tarnation!
Section 10: Ticked Group
Here the proposed change significantly expands the description of the steel varieties. In the current SOP, each base color is listed individually followed by the same 2 sentences long description. In the proposed version the base colors would simply be listed together followed by 7 sentences describing the Steel variety and allowable eye colors, plus a list of faults (presently none are listed), plus a list of DQs (presently none are listed). The bizare move here is that while traditionally Steels can be showed as either Silver Tipped or Gold Tipped over a base of Black, Blue, Chocolate, or Lilac, this new version of steel would also add the base colors of Sable and Smoke Pearl (blue sable).
Just like that with the strike of a pen completely new varieties which no one had asked for, which probably do not even exist in the breed, would now be showable. No need to spend thousands of dollars, dedicate years of your life, blood, sweat, and tears, and undergoing the monumental process of the COD to have a new showable color added to the breed. Nope! Apparently in the name of consistency of colors anything is possible. I can't help but think of the dozens of people who over the past many years have in vain attempted to have Broken English Angoras become recognized. Wouldn't it be so much nicer if in the name of consistency of colors the Brokens which are already showable for the French and Satin Angoras were, with a stroke of a pen, recognized for the English. Instead we get colors which are frankly useless and genetically problematic to even exist in the first place! I will save you the reading time and not get into that rant.
Section 11: Wide Band Group
This one is another mess and the reason why some of the earlier variety descriptions were changed to include the word orange. The current varieties in this group include Fawn, Cream (the dilute of Fawn), and Red (a high rufus version of Fawn). The proposed changes would rename Fawn to Orange and Cream to Fawn.
Red remains as is with a change in the fault description. Currently "Any smut, ticking, ear lacing, or faint grayish band in the wool." applies to all of the varieties in this Group. Now each variety gets their own description of faults and for the Reds it would be " Excessive black or chocolate smut or ticking, gray undercolor.
If you are only familiar with the Angora color names this proposed changed would be very puzzling, however this is an attempt to correct the color confusion which people familiar with other breed colors experience when we talk about the Angora Fawn. Well, specifically people familiar with Netherland Dwarf colors as the proposed change would have us mimic that breed's labels for these two colors. Their Orange being what we call Fawn and Fawn actually being the dilute version of Orange. If you use a pedigree software or app, you might also find that it automatically assumes that your Fawn Angoras are genetically dilutes when in fact they are not, and that requires a manual correction in order for your pedigrees to be printed correctly. On the other hand, in Holland Lops, our Fawn is their Orange and our Cream is also a Cream for them.
I know that other Angora breeders are not happy about this proposed change and I agree with much of their reasoning. Personally, I think this is a very poor execution of what otherwise is a good concept. If we are going to fix the ARBA color mess, unfortunately that means changing historical labels for some of the breeds. The issue here is that for starters, Angoras in no way look Orange nor will they ever. Orange is the name for this color in Netherland Dwarfs and Orange NDs do in fact look Orange. The proposed change is not just in the name of the color but the description of the affected varieties would also be drastically altered.
The current description of Fawn is: "Dorsal wool is to be a clear golden color. " That would be changed to: "Overall color is to be a bright, rich orange color with off-white or creamy undercolor. " I reiterate from above, Tort and especially Fawn Angoras are no where near Orange. This drastic change in language would in fact mean that animals which were previously of perfect color according to the SOP description, would now be severely lacking in color. I bet you that even kindergarten level kids would not agree if you asked them to pass you the orange crayon when in fact expecting to see a golden yellow straw color.
The current description of Cream is: "Dorsal color is to be a pinkish beige to almond. "
This would be changed to: "Overall color is to be a creamy-dilute fawn with off-white undercolor."
This is in no way an improvement and only adds confusing language.
The much bigger problem is the mess that this change would cause with our pedigrees. Rabbits listed on the pedigrees that are Fawn would mean one color up to the date of the change and then a different color after. There would be no accurate way of knowing which is which. Not all breeders include the date of birth for rabbits listed on the pedigree, a rabbit can be registered at any age past 6mo old, and the date of registration for a rabbit is never shown on a pedigree.
Orange and Fawn are not our only options if we are to consider changing the names of the varieties in this group while moving towards some uniformity of terms across all breeds. Here is an overview of the variety names used by other breeds for this family of colors:
American Fuzzy Lop: Fawn, Orange
English Spot: Gold
Flemish Giant: Fawn, Sandy
Holland Lop: Cream, Orange, Red
English Lop, French Lop, Mini Lop: Cream, Fawn, Orange, Red
Mini Rex, Mini Satin, New Zealand, Rex, Satin: Red
Netherland Dwarf: Fawn, Orange
Palomino: Golden
Silver: Fawn
Ballot Topic #3
I find this section very confusing and I am assuming some of this was printed in error. We are first asked to vote on a proposed weight increase for Senior Satin Angoras to a max weight of 10lbs. We are given options to check either Approve, Disapprove or Abstain.
Next we are asked to vote on proposed breed weight increases and to "select for each of the following" followed by a listing of all weight ranges for all breeds with no indication of what we are to select or why or how. Upon closer inspection, the first list of weight ranges is a listing of the current weight ranges (that is not indicated). The second listing of weight ranges includes highlighted sections, and those highlighted sections are in fact the proposed changes.
That is followed once again for a vote for increasing the Satin Angoras max weight to 10lbs.
Following that, we are asked to vote on... increasing the Satin Angora max weight to 10lbs, followed again by the question to make a selection and once again a request to vote on increasing the weight of Satin Angoras to 10lbs. This appears to be a duplicate page included in error.
We are then asked to vote Approve, Dissaprove, or Abstain on the following 3 weight changes:
1. "Proposed increase Junior Satin Angora junior maximum weight to 7.5 lbs"
2. "Proposed increase Junior French Angora maximum weight to 8.5 lbs"
3. "Proposed increase Junior English Angora Bucks maximum weight to 6 lbs"
In summary the proposed weight changes are:
1. English Angora: Junior bucks max weight changed from 5.5 to 6 lbs. However the weight for Junior does would remain unchanged.
2. French Angora: Max weight for all Juniors would be changed from 7.5 to 8.5 lbs.
3. Satin Angora: Max weight for Seniors would increase from 9.5 to 10 lbs, and max weight for Juniors would increase from 6.5 to 7.5 lbs.
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I am urging every one who is a member of the NARBC to please take the time to vote on these proposed changes. Your voice matters and it needs to be heard. If you are not a current member but care about our breeds, please join the club so you too can cast a vote. Unfortunately this has been made unnecessarily and potentially intentionally difficult by the current club leadership. The ballot is not available on the club's website and must be printed from a previously issued club newsletter which was emailed to the members in December. You can view the entire ballot here. If you are having trouble reading the text because it is fuzzy, this ballot and newsletter were in fact sent out in such poor resolution.
If you have any questions in this matter or would like to discuss these changes with other Angora enthusiasts, you will not be able to do so in the official NARBC club discussion group. That group is very heavily moderated and the current administrators have denied requests to have this subject brought up saying that is not the place for such discussions. Yes, the official discussion group for the breed club apparently is not the place to discuss issues to do with the club and the breeds which the club was formed to oversee.
Sarah L. Kester of Bingtree Bunnies (you can view some information about this issue on her rabbitry page) has graciously offered for anyone interested in discussing this issue to do so in the Blown Away Angora Rabbit Guild Group.
If you need help with casting your vote, you can also reach out to Angora veteran, Amanda Fritsch of Dolly Rock Farm (you can also view information about this issue on her page).