Talk:Telegony (pregnancy)

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[edit] Wow!

What kind of crackhead would believe this nonsense? The only real support I've seen for this viewpoint in popular opinion is from halturnershow.com, a viciously racist and jingoistically ignorant site run by the worst kind of agitator. 71.116.217.242 19:30, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I've only run into this belief among racists and white supremacists. It's mentioned in the films "Blood in the Face" (by Michael Moore) and "California Reich". Afabbro 21:22, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] White Supremacists and Animal Breeders

Actually, you will find that animal breeders also hold this "belief". For example, pigeon breeders will kill female pigeons that have mated with wild pigeons (or mated with pigeons that have unwanted characteristics), however good the qualities of that female pigeon, because the wild pigeons characteristics may be passed on to offspring, even if the female pigeon mates with true-bred male later. Dog breeders will not breed bitches that have bred with unwanted males.

This is because genetic inheritance is not the sole means of biological inheritance and, frankly, modern science is discovering that inheritance is a whole lot more complicated than taking two sets of chromosomes and mixing them up (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics).

I do not know how and whether telegony applies to humans. I assume it would, to some degree. I also think that it is completely irrelevant (well, except maybe to white supremacists).

[edit] What official resource of any animal breeders' club can confirm their belief in telegony?

In other words, does any website of pigeon breeders advise to “kill female pigeons that have mated with wild pigeons”? Being a native Russian speaker, like the User # 72.227.3.100 probaly is, I can't remember any source of such nonsense, except the numerous clones in Russian ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and/or religious fundamentalist press - those who know Russian can see the references [1], [2], [3], [4]. Curiously, Russian fundamentalist Christians are together in this topic with neo-pagans and even neo-Hinduists. That is why I reverted the article to the "academic" variant Nikola Borisov 11:10, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

I can confirm that culling of this sort is practiced. My father had a pigeon coop for many years and he would cull true-bred female pigeons that bred with wild or unwanted pigeons, because she was "ruined". This doesn't confirm the phenomenon of telegony, but it does confirm animal breeders' belief in it. Yes, I am a Russian speaker and, yes, I have encountered the text that you have referenced -- however, I'd heard about this practice before.

I've tried finding sources online to confirm that pigeon breeders do, in fact, do this, however all online pigeon breeding sources are very tight-lipped regarding culling in general, since this practice is widely condemned by animal rights' organizations. I might try contacting some commercial coops for information. 72.227.3.100 03:28, 6 November 2006 (UTC)