Sharon, here is what is wrong with your credibility challenge, which also addresses some other comments made.
The breeders who are doing these clearances typically do not have many "silver" Labs. Most if their Labs are BYC but carry the dilute gene in a homozygous recessive state. These are the breeders who know that is it plain stupid to keep inbreeding the already inbred silver lines. These are the breeders who are trying their darnedest to breed to the best lines they possibly can to expand the gene pool and eliminate any possible affects of historic inbreeding. They are the breeders who invest way more than they could ever hope to make. They are doing it because the love Labradors and they love their Labradors and want them to be every bit as good as any Labrador regardless of color. Because of the vicious hatred, as is again being displayed here over the last few days, these breeders rarely will provide full internet access to the names of their dogs, or even certifications that give that away. If they are "labeled," as many would like to do, as horrid unethical puppy mill'ers they would have a difficult time breeding a better Lab, and the dogs suffer yet again. It used to be easier to get that info until last year.
In the Last year, due to a "Silver" winning the Potomac Obedience trial and the witch hunt that the show community went on afterward, many silver breeders have moved to protect their Labs and their efforts to continue to improve by keeping their dog's identities private. That said, they are providing that info to committed puppy buyers, or should be (again, people should not buy from a breeder that will not prove their certifications, titles, etc).
The demand for a pedigree without the three kennels mentioned is again a hard sell, obviously due to the reasons just stated, but more so that those other silver lines that are unrelated to those kennels are not going to be divulged because then they are labeled and the ability breed top lines to them is significantly reduced. It may mean nothing to you, but some of these unknown silver lines are now being shown in AKC for conformation titles, two that I am aware of have already earned their CH; their are probably others. The last thing these breeders want is for their Labs to be ridiculed and derided for carrying the dilute gene when they are obviously in standard, and certainly they can do with out the personal attacks and vitriol of the self-righteous breed police. Folks can rest easier here, there are not very many silver breeders who are breeding heavily into the FC lines yet, there are a few, but not nearly as many as are accessing the conformation lines.
I would also add that it has NEVER, EVER, NOT ONCE, IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM been proven that Culo bred or ever owned weims. Same is true for Beavercreek. If you are going to require that a pedigree go without these silver kennel names, you had better be willing to actually prove they are crossed with weims.
Including Kellogg is unwise. I would bet that 90+% of the Labs here on RTF have Kellogg behind them somewhere. That is one of the longest existing field Labrador Kennels in the US. The claim that some breeder once saw Kellogg with weims and all kinds of dogs jumping fences, and a purported advertizement in Gundog mag for blue or gray Labrador from Kellogg have been exposed as an outright lie (which interestingly RTF played a part in exposing a few years back). You bet most silver lines have Kellogg behind them, big deal, they all have other well known and more closely related lines too, Lockerbie, Sandylands, etc. One that you see commonly that recently caught my interest here on RTF is Wanapum. The supposed cross breeding that is said to be attributed to Kellogg, would have been during the peak of Mayo's time. So...I guess I am saying be careful, you are accusing one of the more prominent Labrador breeders, in Mayo Kellogg, of being responsible for crossing Labs with weims. I'm sure he'd have some fair words to say to you about that were he alive today. A few years after Mayo died, Hugh apparently bought a Culo line Lab but it was later sold from what I've learned.
Not to deride your credibility challenge, but you know as well as anyone that the great majority of Labrador breeders in this country can't meet all of what you list in 1, 2, & 3, if any of it. I'm sure many here on RTF can, but again, I would suspect that it is a great minority of the 15,000+ RTF members, probably a good minority of the nearly 3000 active members. Chances are you have only a half-dozen or so silver breeder that are even on RTF, of those, maybe half are following this thread. Your challenge, as formulated and presented, is quite safe to prove your preconceived point.
I think people like Robert have real guts to be so bold here on RTF. Instead of ridiculing him and others, why not recognize that they are here to learn and better their Labs and themselves. Why not help them with friendliness and encouragement instead of meanness and provocation. The retriever community of RTF has proven many times that it is better than to wallow in the quagmire (though we have our days). I've seen people here do amazing things for perfect strangers, even those that may not totally agree with in some ways (dogs and otherwise). It is discouraging to see people here rabidly lambasting perfect strangers and calling for a lynch mob as was "jokingly" suggested in the other thread.
Rise Up!
