I am surprised more people are not doing this and its variants. It only takes someone, or ideally a family, willing to start a project that spans multiple decad

I am surprised more people are not doing this and its variants. It only takes someone, or ideally a family, willing to start a project that spans multiple decades - something people do all the time with careers and other hobbies. To me it seems strange how concentrated these efforts are in some communities while seemingly silent in others. Cannabis farmers and pepper farmers nerd out about it a lot. I think dog breeders do although I suspect the existence of “institutions” like AKC and dog shows channels their efforts into ossification of existing breeds. I’m sure plenty of regular livestock breeders are trying but you don’t hear about it and they don’t seem to have done anything truly crazy in a while (that I’m aware of) to the extent Pepper/Cannabis breeders have. Just to demonstrate what’s possible: Belyayev was able to make huge progress domesticating foxes in just 26 years [0]. Dachshunds [1] didn’t look anything like their current forms until the late 19th century (I think a lot of dog breeds saw huge changes around this time but not certain). Cannabis breeding didn’t even really start until the 1960s and we have an absolutely massive assortment of strains, not just differing in subjective “flavor” and “effects” but with quantifiable massive differences in concentration, overall volume of flower produced, and flowering behavior. Because people didn’t understand what it was, some say that the domestication of yeast [2] didn’t even start until the 16th century. All that said it baffles me why more people aren’t trying to domesticate bears, otters, lemurs, raccoons, etc. Maybe not bears, but the rest could probably be domesticated in a human lifespan and (not bears) without many expenses year-on-year. I’ve always said I’d try this if I came into the means to do so at a young enough age. Even for medium-scale farmers of your regular-old cow, having some kind of special breed or phenotype seems like a great way to move up-market with a differentiated, unique product. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Belyayev_(zoologist) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Belyayev_(zoologist) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachshund https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachshund [2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160908130552.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160908130552.h...