Have you ever watched the news to see a report on a group of people who, having purchased homes at the end of an airport runway, are now demanding the airport stop using the runway because they can't take the noise? If you are like me, you laughed and thought to yourself, what kind of idiot would move into a home at the end of a runway and not expect to have his walls shaken every time a plane took off? They might think it's their right to have the airport accommodate them, but as far as I'm concerned, they have two options. Deal with the situation that they moved into, or go somewhere more to their liking. It's not as if they just looked out one day and the runway appeared out of nowhere. It was there when they moved in.

I feel pretty much the same way about people who begin breeding an established breed, only to complain they don't like the rules that were in place when they began. Generally their reason for deliberately breeding a non conforming animal boils down to one thing. "I like it." Well, I like solid white horses and Quarter Horses, but if my AQHA mare delivers an albino colt, I'm not going to demand the AQHA change it's rules simply because I think white horses look neat and because both of it's parents were AQHA registered. Last I checked, I'm not so special that my personal likes should overrule the breed standards. If that were the case, we'd have registered Herefords that were marked like Holsteins, and registered Saanens that were spotted, all because people liked the way it looks.

Lest I be accused of being a red headed white supremacist, let me interject that I love red and paint goats. I think colorful goats are lots of fun to see frolicking in the pasture. On the other hand, when I joined the American Boer Goat Association, the standards called for a white goat with a red head and a blaze, and I have accepted that standard even though I occasionally produce a red or paint. Some people should be thankful the associations even allow the registration of a non traditional marked Boer, because many breed associations don't. Non paint marked paint horses are given a breeding stock status, and not allowed in their shows. A quarter horse with too much chrome better be gelded or else his owners will have to take him to another association who will accept him. I have no idea what the Angus association would say should a few of it's members demand they register Hereford marked Angus, but I suspect it won't be "No problem."

If people want to breed paints and reds and blacks, more power to them as there will always be a market for colorful meat goats. When they start to demand the associations change the rules for the oh so important reason of "I think it looks neat", that's when I have a problem. If you want an association that promotes colored Boers, then my suggestion would be to form the American Colored Boer Goat Association. Services like Pedigree International exist to help people form new breed registries, and you certainly wouldn't be the first person to become disgruntled with an association and form a new one to suit your needs. Just don't tell me I have to accept the image of a Boer goat going from an easily recognizable color pattern to a motley mix, and don't tell me my standards "aren't good enough" for you simply because they don't accommodate your neat looking but non conforming animals. That runway was there 40 years before you moved in.