It was agreed that Cat 4 ewes could be used in one's own flock if desired, just not to put them through the marts. The HSS can no longer 'deregister' any Hebridean sheep, because of European legislation, including those with white spots.
However, I have a couple of points where I am unhappy about this leaflet.
One is that, as I have said before, it is not based on sound scientific investigation; because we can't use these animals, particularly tups, we cannot also study the inheritance and incidence of the condition. Without a worthwhile amount of data collected, we cannot show statistically to what extent the condition is hereditary. We know it occurs in only multihorned sheep, but beyond that we have no facts. Given the current situation, it is unlikely we will ever be able to do this research, hence my comment that we need the Hebridean sheep genome to be mapped. All we know for sure is that it pops up sometimes in multihorned sheep of all breeds.
Another aspect of the leaflet, and the Society's approach, is the first two categories, 1 and 2. I can find no difference between the two, yet one is psychologically marked down as less desirable (in spite of being said to be 'acceptable'). Some say they can spot a type 2 eyelid defect, which is supposed to be a 'break' in the colour of the upper eyelid. Even if this is identifiable, which to me it isn't, what possible affect can that have on the welfare of the sheep? There is no evidence at all that it's part of the SUED condition.
There seems to be no agreement between societies for multihorned animals about what qualifies as a 'notch', no standard to stick to. A type 4 can be horrible, or have no detrimental effect on the sheep at all, but would be better eliminated because of the very occasional welfare issue.
But before we can do that, we have to breed animals with the condition to discover its inheritance.
So it goes round and round.
I don't really want to make this a major topic of discussion, because it gets people's blood up and also makes more of the condition than I think it deserves, and we have seen in the past that this can affect the percentage of multihorns in the national flock. Multihorned Hebrideans are in such a minority that really there are not high enough numbers to select heavily for or against one trait.