South African Boerboel Breeders Association SABBA/SABT

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[edit] The South African Boerboel Breeders Association SABBA/SABT (SABT refers to the Afrikaans translation of SABBA

The South African Boerboel breed as it stands today is in a unique position amongst a few other working dog breeds in the world in that it's pedigree is solely issued by the breeders association, the SABBA, South African Boerboel Association, and as it stands today this organisation's pedigree is the only one recognised internationally by all Boerboel owners and breeders. Until recently there were two other such organisations in South Africa but these have since disbanded in part or all together.

Aims of the SABBA

The aims of starting the SABBA in South Africa were to establish and secure the future of an existing breed of South African dog called the Boerboel. The breed had up until the moment of the formation of the SABBA been almost lost to South Africa. Primarily a farm breed, it was being bred in small pockets across a wide area of the country, the earliest documented use of this farm and settler dog go back to 1652. The early founding members of the SABBA got together and decided to form SABBA in order to save the breed for future generations in South Africa as it's future looked uncertain. The breed has a long history associated exclusively with the "Boer" of South Africa's past. It was present day decedents of these hardy and resourceful farmers and early settlers that set up SABBA in 1983.

In order to accomplish this the founders of the SABBA, went to all the districts in South Africa and looked at the Boerboels still in existence, from these dogs they selected a foundation stock that was used to start the registry of the Boerboel breed that continues today. They continue to select the best dogs to enter into the breeding register by a process of appraisals. Puppies are not automatically registered only the litter is and individual puppies may receive documentation outlining it's pedigree and birth notification. When a dog is older it is appraised and if it has been approved by scoring a certain percentage it is then given its official SABBA pedigree papers and may be used for breeding and entered into the stud register.

The breed has been exported from South Africa to many countries around the globe, including Russia the United kingdom and the USA. In 1995 approval was given by the SABBA to collect semen from excellent examples of male dogs for local and international use and for storage. The SABBA sends appraisers world-wide to appraise the dogs and progeny for entry into the breeding and stud register, in some cases appraisers have been nominated outside South Africa after they have had extensive training in South Africa and have passed a stringent appraiser exam.

The SABBA South Africa has an extensive constitution and appendix with board members mostly coming from South Africa, but at present one is European and another American, SABBA holds the complete and accurate pedigree register for the Boerboel breed.

[edit] References, source material

The history of SABBA and relevant official documentation from [1] :SABBA, The Boerboel, a book written by Anemari Pretorius.

[edit] External links

[2]: SABBA

[3]: Constitution SABBA

[4]: SABBA Benelux and Europe

[5]: SABBA Netherlands

[6]: SABBA USA