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Because many, MANY people will show a bird as a pure bred, win at a show and quickly sell that animal in order to "make a buck". I have seen it happen to young beginners in the fancy. Just because a bird looks purebred does not mean it is and does not mean that those same attributes will be repeated when bred to a true bird.
This is a problem in all animal shows- in cattle it's gotten to be such a problem that the nationals require dna testing. There was, rather famously, an Aberdeen Angus bull about thirty years ago who cleaned up at all the fairs only to be exposed as 25% Holstein-Freisian.
The problem, of course, is that what impresses in the show ring is often exposed as a sham in the breeding pen. Breeding for phenotype only means that other characteristics of the breed- egg shape, color and production, growth rate (another show sham often involves entering animals in younger age classes), carcase quality, libido, temperament, and social behavior, for instance- get lost in the shuffle. I rather expect (or at least hope, a testimony to the persistance of optimism) that poultry showing is less insane than cattle, horses, and dogs and that there are not the problems with fertility, temperament, and genetic defects which are pervasive in some purebreds of those species.
Of course, it isn't just SQ animals which can be sailing under false flags. (An example from the cattle world, because that's where I live) The recent advertising value of "Black Angus" as a brand has led to black feeders bringing a premium at the sale barn. My BIL is adament that we breed to black bulls, so much that I was the one to come up with the cash for a Shorthorn bull this year. Last year, in the heavily inflated Angus Bull Market, he bought a solid black bull with a not-quite-Angus head to use on my Shorthorn cows: we ended up with three solid red, four red and white (one out of a solid red cow), five black and white (three of them out of solid red cows) and three solid black calves. In short: not an Angus genotype. In chickens, it's the equivalent of buying an allegedly SQ GLW flock that throw a high proportion of straight combed offspring, or "Cochins" with 75% clean or partially feathered legs.
What it all comes down to is that some human beings are actually weasels under the skin, and will lie through their teeth if it makes them a dime. This is not a problem with chickens, it's a problem with humans, and one that complicates every aspect of life.
Thanks alot, again, Stump.
Yeah, sad; we humans can be a pretty sad lot--and we're supposed to the the 'rational' ones!
