Important Message About NARBC Color Ballot

Casey Jones and Betty Chu

This post is written by Betty Chu who is solely responsible for the content, endorsed by Casey Jones.  Two of us have a combined experience of over 70 years in breeding, raising and showing the English Angora, the French Angora and the Satin Angora; Betty over 40 years and Casey 30 years.  Both are involved in volunteering and holding offices in the The National Angora Rabbit Breeders Club (NARBC), both of us have received the NARBC President's Award for our services, both are life members of the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA).  I have in addition been awarded ARBA Distinguished Service Award, achieved ARBA Master Exhibitor, Grand Master Exhibitor, Master Breeder and Supreme Master Breeder status, and I am in the NARBC Hall of Fame.  

I have been writing this NCAG blog since 2005.  I try hard to put on a new post with photos each day in the last 18 years, it has taken me quite an effort but also it has been a lot of fun.   The guidelines for myself are to be positive, to be pleasant, to be informative and to give others and myself the credits deserved.  I have never put on any post involving opinions or rabbit politics.   I am making a post today that may deviate from this tradition because it is too important for our beloved Angora breeds.

NARBC is the official breed club under the umbrella of ARBA.   Recently there is a ballot that involves the change of official color guide to be included in the next issue of the Standard of Perfection (SOP) from 2026-2030.  The ballots have been distributed to NARBC members, I am not at the liberty to print out the ballot as this blog is open to all.  If you are not a member of NARBC or if you are not interested in this topic, please skip today's post.   If you are interested or a member of NARBC and wish to preserve the integrity of the Angora Colors, please read.

These are the 8 items concerning the color guide to be voted on:

(a) Change to Pigmented Classifications.

(b) Changes to the Agouti Color Group.

(c) Change to Chinchilla Varieties.

(d) Change to Broken description.

(e) Changes to Shaded Group.

(f) Changes to Tortoiseshell Varieties.

(g) Changes to Ticked Group.

(h) Changes to Wide Band Group.

I will discuss each proposed change and make a recommendation and give the reasons of my recommention.  The (a) through (h) designations are for the convenience of my discussion.  The ballot does not contain these designations.   When voting, please read the contents.

All volunteers work hard without financial compensation, I am not here to be critical of others, just that our beloved Angoras are so important that I cannot let the misguided ballot lead the way down the drain.  

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(a) Change to Pigmented Classifications.     Recommendation:  NO

The original word is "Colored", so our rabbits are called colored senior buck, colored senior doe, colored junior buck and colored junior doe.   Would you like to have your rabbits called pigmented senior buck, pigmented senior doe, pigmented junior buck and pigmented junior doe? The rationale given was that the word "colored" was offensive.   Isn't this taking the political correctness to the unreasonably irrational extreme?   I am Asian, thus non-white.  I am certainly not offended by the word Colored (Don't ever call me "Pigmented"!).  If our rabbits are not white, got color, they are colored.   In addition, this wording was never discussed on the NARBC standards committee of which I am a member.   It was a shocking surprise to see it sneaked into the proposal in a version without discussion then printed in the official ballot.    Please vote NO. 

(b)  Changes to the Agouti Color Group.  Recommendation: NO

In Agouti variety, the color Copper was removed.  The rationale was that Copper is the Chestnut with rufus red ring.   Rufus is a modifier gene that is not in the basic ABCDE of color genes.   Color guides need to be consistent and rational.   In the proposed change of (h) Wide Band Group, there is a Red.  What is Red? It is the original Fawn with rufus red ring!   Red to the original Fawn and Copper to the original Chestnut are totally symmetrical to each other. Why would Red be retained but Copper is to be eliminated? It just does not make any sense.   One important concept being reiterated by ARBA is "Phenotype not Genotype", what it means is that the appearance of the rabbits but not the genetics of the rabbits that determine their breeds and colors.      By eliminating Copper that look different from Chestnut violates this ARBA principle.  Please vote NO.  

(c) Change to Chinchilla Varieties   Recommendation: YES

With some wording and description changes, the main change is to rename "SQUIRREL" into "BLUE CHINCHILLA".   This is probably the only good part of this ballot!   Who has seen a squirrel that is a blue chinchilla color?    I endorse this change.         Please vote YES.

(d) Change to Broken description:    Recommendation: NO

Here are the two sentences that involved the proposed changes:

Original: "Brokens so light in pattern that they appear to be Charlies or so excessive in pattern as to be Booteds; not representative of a broken pattern per ARBA definition."

Proposed: "Charlies so light in pattern or Booteds so excessive in pattern as to not represent a broken pattern per ARBA definition."

In my opinion neither sentence is clear.   If I have to make a choice, I think the original is a better explanation of what is a "Charlie" (light in pattern) and what is a "Booted" (excessive in pattern).  If the reader does not know what is a Charlie and what is a Booted, the reader gets an idea.  The second sentence does not help anyone to understand the terms Charlie and Booted if the person does not know what they are.  If the person already knew Charlie and Booted, then the sentence is redundant, all it needed would be "Charlies and Booteds per ARBA definition".     Please vote NO.

(e) Changes to Shaded Group: Recommendation: NO

The main change is to change the name of "Pearl" to "Sable Point".  The way it is written, it looks like a removal of Pearl then added Sable Point, due to the alphabetical order.   Angora breeds have distinctive breed characteristics from normal fur breeds.  The wool makes the color light.  I called it a "Rubberband" effect.   Take a blue or red rubberband and stretch it, the blue will fade to a very light blue and the red will look more like a pink than red.  The color has to be distributed to the long wool thus becomes very light.   Pearl is much better a description than sable point.   Pearl may not be a name used in other breeds, but how many other breeds are able to grow as long wool as the Angora breeds? Remember the phrase "Phenotype not Genotype"!  Please vote NO.

(f) Changes to Tortoiseshell Varieties:  Recommendation: NO

The first glance shows a good change with the description of Black added to Tortoiseshell to make the four Tortoiseshell symmetrical.   However, careful reading shows all the "fawn" color has been replaced by "orange" color in the description of body wool.   Tortoiseshell DOES NOT have orange wool!  For 40 years, my main colored English Angoras are Tortoiseshell, they do not have orange wool.  They have fawn/tan wool.     Please vote NO.

(g) Changes to Ticked Group: Recommendation:  NO

The original description gives a symmetrical breakdown of the four colors that involves the steel gene E(S). The proposed description groups everything into one word: Steel.   Instead of clarifying, it makes the entire description confusing.    Please vote NO.

(h) Changes to Wide Band Group: Recommendation: NO

This change is the most troubling one, it is a BIG NO.  Angora is a heritage breed.  In the first SOP 1934-1939, there were 4 accepted colors: White, Black, Blue and Fawn.  All the SOP from then on listed these 4 basic colors, then added more.  Fawn is always there.   There was no issue with this name and color until the Netherland Dwarf was accepted in the 1970s.  The tiny body of a ND makes their colors more intense.  They decided to call their color with the same genetics as Fawn the "Orange".  This Orange is genetically a Fawn, non dilute, by tradition and by all text books  (Rabbit Production, Colour Inheritance in Small Livestock, ...) .  I wouldn't fault the ND club on using a different term, it's "Phenotype not Genotype", they have the right to use any name to describe their breed.  However, they did a disservice to have chosen the word "Fawn" to describe their dilute.   If you read the "real" academic books, you'll find the fawn is non-dilute.   The term Orange is only mentioned as specific to the Netherland Dwarf breed.  Once again, Orange is genetically a traditional Fawn. If anyone claims that Fawn is genetically Orange, he or she is misinformed.  Some may claim that there are so many ND color genetic books out there saying Orange! These are written by breeders, and some even by youth.  Not that they are ignorant as that's the case in ND, however it is irresponsible, irrational, illogical to shove the term Orange into the Angora breeds.      

If we don't look at the tradition or the correct terms, just use the "Phenotype not Genotype" again, Angoras DO NOT look orange and Angoras will never look orange.  

Some may say there are Red, are these orange?  They are not genetically the same.   Red is the Fawn with rufus gene.  Rufus is not a gene that "have or have not", it is a gene that gradually change the color.  The more the rufus gene being bred into the fawn, the redder the color.  These are not Orange.   Please vote NO.

If you are a member of NARBC, please consider my explanation and my plea to vote NO on these important issues.  Our current color guide is very clear, it does not need these changes.   If you are not yet a member of NARBC, you may want to consider joining so that you can vote on this important issue.  The deadline for the ballot is in the beginning of March, there is enough time to join and vote.