Chickerdoodle, I had to laugh at your comment about people all decendents from Adam and Eve.
Remember it happened again with Moses and his wife and his children.......all the other children and adults died in the flood.
And like some of us here in the US, alot of our ancestors were descendents of the Pilgrims arriving from England and it was not unusual to find them marrying cousins or second cousins. heck I even find one about 10 generations back, first cousins marrying. Weird isn't it?
Not only the puppy mill breeders are responsible for the most of the mess, but also ignorant breeders that have blinders on, not paying any attention to the puppy's owners that there were something wrong with the puppy and the breeders did nothing to remedy the problem...so the problem still exists. It would not be surprising if those breeders sell their so called culled puppies to puppy mill breeders. Bingo, there is the problem!
I did watch that Crufts show......it was sickening to see a GSD whose hind legs were so awful or long haired dogs that had leg problems because it was hidden all that hair........those judges have to be ashamed of themselves by selecting very inferior dogs. One lady was actively into Brits Spaniels and she blew the whistle on certain breeders and I love the interviewer grilled one champion dog owner that she HAD known that the dog had the disease but went ahead and bred the dog. MONEY MONEY MONEY!
As for the Collies, my parents raise, breed and show them for at least ten to fifteen years until they got out of them due to politics. Eye problems are still there but you do not find them as much as you used to. U of I have records of ALL collies or all dogs with eye problems and being certified as well. If the breeder ignore U of I's strict eye policy, the breeders will be shut down by the state of Illinois and they can not breed any dogs until they comply with the U of I's strict laws. Even vets have the obligation to report to U of I if they do find blind puppies (not old dogs) in their offices. If I remember right, they also do the hip dyplasia for GSD and Newfoundlands that I know of.
I do not think the government needs to step in how we breed our animals but they need to step in those money making pet business and enforce strict laws on them so everyone can benefit of owning a happy and healthy pet.