Headlines

Inventor of Labradoodle Regrets His Creation

He feels that he developed a ‘Frankenstein’s monster.’

Published

5 years ago

September 26, 2019

PETS+ Staff

The creator of the Labradoodle has major regrets.

The guy who bred the first Labradoodle now regrets his creation, CNN reports.

“I opened a Pandora’s box and released a Frankenstein(‘s) monster,” said Wally Conron, speaking as part of an Australian Broadcasting Corp. podcast.

Most of the dogs are “either crazy or have an hereditary problem,” he said. Healthy Labradoodles are, in his view, “few and far between.”

Conron was working for Guide Dogs Victoria in Australia in 1989 when he developed the breed. His goal at the time was to produce a hypoallergenic guide dog for a blind woman in Hawaii. The woman’s husband was allergic to dogs, but one of the puppies that Conron bred managed not to set off his allergies.

Since then, the designer-breed trend has taken hold — and Conron thinks it’s gone too far. CNN notes that cross-breeding “can increase a dog’s risk of congenital disease, particularly down the generations.”

Read more at CNN

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