The REAL Saltaire Platinum Story: Naturally Hornless Dexters

[cascade]

In the early 1990's a Dexter breeder and really nice guy, the late Fred Chesterley (retired teacher who loved dexters) who was tired of dehorning calves and tired of the cruelty inflicted upon them, decided he wanted to import a 100% naturally hornless Dexter from the United Kingdom, home of the original Dexters. Mr. Chesterley wanted an excellent, naturally hornless Dexter with traditional traits like good milk genetics, and compact frame, and naturally shorter legs (non-chondro), and excellent Dexter behavior. One of the world's premier traditional Dexter experts helped Mr. Chesterley locate an excellent registered, black, naturally hornless purebred Dexter bull with lots of Woodmagic genetics, and they proceeded to import semen. The bull's name was Saltaire Platinum.

Before they imported him, they researched the importing rules of the ADCA to make certain the bull met the requirement which allows members to use semen from bulls registered in OFFICIAL foreign registries.

The only UK Dexter Cattle Society (DCS) pedigree information on Saltaire Platinum that the ADCA Board had access to review back in 1993 - 1994, when the decision to accept him into the ADCA registry was made, showed that Saltaire Platinum had a full main herdbook pedigree and was registered with the DCS as a purebred Dexter bull. He was being used in the UK as a purebred, registered Dexter bull and his offspring were being registered in the main pedigree herd book in the UK as purebred (they still are).
The board also had a copy of the extended pedigree and at the time, and no board members and no association members could find anything wrong with the pedigree.  The pedigree wasn't an issue back then.

Saltaire Platinum was well within the breed guidelines for size, and color, and and was an excellent specimen for the Dexter breed type. He better met the breed description than many so-called American "Traditional" Dexters. He was 42" tall at 3 years and carried strong dual purpose Dexter genetics.  He had excellent dexter conformation.  

The arguments back then were centered on horned vs. naturally hornless (polled), and whether or not it was desirable to allow naturally hornless (polled) Dexters into the ADCA registry like the DCS had done for years. But since many ADCA members had been dehorning Dexters for many years, hornless dexters were already allowed and commonplace. The breeder, Mr. Chesterley, argued that if cruel de-horning was allowed, then certainly 100% natural hornlessness should be allowed.

The Board was divided on that and the majority of the Board voted and decided to allow the naturally hornless (polled) Dexters. Fred Chesterley was a teacher (his son was a lawyer), so it should not surprise anyone that his arguments in favor of allowing polled were well thought out.
 The smartest board members knew that there were NO rules against hornless dexters in the bylaws and registration policies.  At the time, they had NO grounds to reject Mr. Chesterley's request to use Saltaire Platinum.   Saltaire Platinum's pedigree has far fewer holes in it than Parndon Bullfinch who is on 99% of so-called "traditional" pedigrees.

The decision to allow hornless dexters was made eons ago, when people started dehorning dexters. Even today, many fans of traditional horned dexters sometimes dehorn their dexters. How could the board allow folks to burn horns off and cut horns off and gouge horns off, but refuse to allow a gene to naturally and simply switch-off horn growth? It would be illogical, hypocritical, and cruel to allow painful physical dehorning, but NOT allow natural hornlessness.

Saltaire Platinum only had 65 registered calves in the US, and half of them were beautiful traditional horned dexters, very true to the traditional horned type.  For such a great bull, it's a shame that he wasn't used more, but it was so expensive to import semen, that it was a money-losing prospect.

Having a naturally hornless variation (polled) available in dexters, HUGELY increased the interest in Dexters and increased the popularity of both polled and horned dexters over the coming decades.

Saltaire Platinum and the people involved in importing him, have saved many thousands of calves from the excruciating torture of dehorning. Saltaire Platinum and his importers should get an award of honor.


PS. Today, there are scores of other Polled Purebred Registered Dexter Bulls (not descended from Saltaire Platinum) available in the UK, that fully meet ADCA import requirements. Anyone wishing to to import some of them, could easily do so. Anyone wishing to have a traditional polled dexter herd WITHOUT Saltaire Platinum, could easily do so. But I do support horned breeders who want to preserve dexters with horns and I hope they succeed. Out where I live, horned and polled breeders work together within the ADCA for the betterment of the breed. Cooperation is better than competition.

[jamshundred]

LOL!   Kirk, for the few of us who have been around the block a few times this is pathetically obvious.    My Mom use to annoy the dickens out of me when I was a teenager with this warning;

" If you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas".      Kirk,  I came to appreciate the wisdom of my mother.  I so lack in some social graces that  I simply have to ask, " are you itching"?

I've had the experience of being used Kirk during a time when I was gullible and needy and I don't think I've yet to get over being so blind.    I have had the experience of seeing another gullible and needy person being used and I know the results of that too!    I can tell by things you write Kirk that you are being fed.   I've been around the block a few times, the scenery is familiar  and I know the scent of the formula in the bottle.   I worry when you wake up and realize you are somebodys patsy Kirk.  

As to Chesterley, *I* did speak to him myself. . . . on three different occasions.  I know more than most would like me to know, that is for sure!

Kirk, if someone has been caught in blatent lies. .  . .. . how can you trust that what you are being bottle or spoon fed is the truth?  Why would you want to associate with, or be party too.  ..  .spreading someone's doctrine of deceit?   There is nothing you can say or do to change the reality that American breeders were played for suckers and you are one of the casualties of that deceit.   You can make 10 posts or 100 posts or a 1000 posts. . . . .  .and not a one of them will change the deceit foisted on American breeders and their Dexters.  I really wish I didn't have to be party to watching you be used as you are,  for my life and Dexter experience tells me no good will come of it for you.  No good at all.  You are doing the work for someone who does not have the courage or the courage of their convictions to do it themselves  . . . . and  . .  .. . to gain what Kirk?  To gain what?   YOU are taking all the risk.   Dupe is the word that immediately springs to mind.

Judy

[cascade]

I'm a skilled investigator and analyst of facts....I gather information from ALL sources, sort through it, and make my own logical conclusions (which are OPEN to being corrected). If someone can show me a flaw in my logic, then I update my information. Here are the facts as I understand them. Please help correct me where I'm wrong... but be EXACT in offering a DETAIL correction of any LINE-ITEM that you disagree with and show evidence to help me correct my facts:

1. Registration/Importing follows pre-established WRITTEN RULES, we don't get to vote on other people's choice of breeding stock.

2. NOTHING in the rules ever said "Dexters MUST have horns"

3. NOTHING in the rules ever disallowed dehorning (many radical horned traditionalists still do some dehorning today).

4. NOTHING in the rules ever disallowed the use of the polled gene to dehorn (instead of cutting, burning, and gouging).

5. The rules definitely allow import of Dexters with certain distant outcrossing in their backgrounds.

6. Saltaire Platinum's pedigree at the time was NOT challenged by anyone, the focus was on his controversial natural hornlessness.

7. ADCA did have a copy of the signed, official DCS Certificate of Export with the extended pedigree.

8. Fred never threatened to sue, according to people who were close friends with Fred, although he certainly would have had the right to do so, and he would have won in court because the association has no right to go BEYOND the written rules to block someone's right to breed out of a bull that follows all the rules in place at the time of the import. Perhaps some board members who would have preferred to exclude polledness, understood that the ONLY decision they could make, under the existing RULES of the association and with all the data available at the time, was to approve the bull. I'm sure that didn't make some of them very happy, but RULES ARE RULES.

9. If most members were against hornless Dexters back in the 1980's or 1970's, they should have implemented a rule that said "ALL DEXTERS MUST HAVE HORNS"... but they failed to do so. Even the radical horn preservation folks today who want to start their own group, fail to have a rule that says "ALL dexters MUST have horns" because so many of them still cut, gouge, and burn horns off.

10. NOTHING in the rules allows for going back several generations and questioning great grandparents of currently registered animals. If you did that, then 99% of dexters could be rejected due to problems with animals such as Parndon Bullfinch who is on 99% of "traditional" pedigrees. Registrations are noted as being based on the information available AT THE TIME OF REGISTRATION.


Please feel free to challenge (IN DETAIL) any of the 10 facts I have presented. If I'm wrong about something, I'll correct it.


 

[jamshundred]

Kirk, let's be real. Fred Chesterley was SEVENTY-FIVE years old when the semen of Saltaire Platinum was brought to America. I had phone conversations with Mr. Chsterley. Yes, there is implication there.. . .but you have to analyze it for yourself. I just keep saying to you. .. .don't believe everything you read, ( consider the source and whether it has a reputation for veracity for instance), believe less of what is told to you.

I have a challenge for you and your research. Go across the border, and speak to Canadians who were breeding prior to 1994, and bring back the story of polled in Canada. You do realize that in Canada, they at least put up a ruckous. .. . even with the pressure of the US caving without so much as a good burp. So, why were we so much smarter and they so much more ignorant. .. or vice versa?

Judy

[jamshundred]

PS. I don't disparage your research skills.
PPS. The lack of rules I guess is about the same as having rules in ADCA. Doesn't matter. They make them up as they go. So. .. let's put your research skills to work, hey. Find where in the rules it states or defines what registry or type of registry is recognized and which are not, and why.

Judy

[cascade]

I talked to Fred Chesterley several times too, even well into his 90's... he seemed relatively sharp enough and was a very swell guy.. his son was helpful too... but that doesn't matter. ANYONE wanting to bring in Saltaire Platinum in 1993-1994 would have to have been allowed to do so according to the data available at the time, and the rules in place at the time. Just like we can bring in scores of polled dexters from the UK today (and Australia soon too), that do or don't have SP on the pedigree. The real game-changer for dexters, was in allowing dehorning of dexters eons ago.... when hornless dexters started to become common, the next logical step would be to bring in a polled dexter.

Concerning recognition of an official registry, I could start a registry today by setting up an excel spread sheet and announcing that I will register dexters for $2 each... I could name it "Kirk's Cheap Excel Spreadsheet Dexter Registry".. Does that make me an official recognized registry? Since the rules aren't written in black and white, then it is left up to the judgement of the board to recognize my "registry" or not. A reasonable board would would make a reasonable decision to reject fly-by-night registries and that reasonable rejection would stand up in court.

If I was a board member (and I hope never to be forced to take that thankless job), personally I would say that a recognized registry must be a registered legal entity, must have legally recorded bylaws and operating procedures, must have an elected board of directors, and the person running the registry must have a backup in place, and the systems must be backed up regularly, and the registrar should be able to be fired and replaced, at will, by the board of directors. Further, I'd say that if that if any recognized registry had a history of issues, we should suspend interaction with them, until their issues were addressed.

PS. I love the Legacy database as a source of history (THANK YOU JUDY!), but I wouldn't call it an official registry. I only wish all that data was in ONE SINGLE AMERICAN DATABASE that will be around for the next century, and that will almost certainly be the ADCA database. I hope you have legal papers in place that will assure the survival of your work, should anything happen to you (heaven forbid).