If racism is to be abhorred, why do people look for pedigree in dogs and horses?

Because they're animals, and we own them? Sorry to say, but that's the truth. We're at the top of the food chain. If animals had the same rights as us, it would not work. For example, do you really want to be paying "child support" after a divorce, for your dog? Do you want to go to jail for discriminating when you only allow german shepherds to work as police dogs? That poodle deserves just as much of a chance, right? No. In fact, the poodle does not even care. It just wants to be fed.

Also, it's not immoral. Once animals start having a problem with it, then it's immoral. Since they don't, cant even understand it, it's not because it doesn't hurt them in any way.

Morally, we know it's wrong to classify fellow humans based on race. Animals aren't intelligent enough to grasp the concept of race. Lucky them. So they don't have a problem with it. Trust me. Just ask one and see what happens... ;)

I think you are confusing species with race.

There is such a thing as a pedigree dog or horse, but not a pedigree human being. There is no "ultimate" standard that determines the overall worth of a person. Nor can concepts of pedigree apply to human beings.

With pedigree, what breeders look for are based on appearance. There is a common consensus, for example, that pure bred terriers should have ears of a certain shape, or a certain shine to the coat. The terrier that best meets those categories wins. We can't do that for people. There's no common consensus that black eyes are more beautiful, or that pale skin is "better" than dark skin.

As an aside, pedigree does not have connotations of supremacy, but racism does.

Just because a dog or horse looks great, doesn't mean it's "better" than any other dog or horse. A pedigree dog can be quite useless when it comes to actual work, and a pedigree racehorse might actually be less fit to survive (in terms of evolution).

Racism is an illogical assumption that because a human being is of a certain height, skin colour, etc. they have greater inherent value than others.

Its more like Eugenics, not racism. You are using the wrong word... People don't chose certain animals over others because of racism. When people look at pedigree it has to do with eugenics, meaning the overall health and biology and what breed has superior genes. If you worded your question like, "If racism is to be abhorred, why do people look for certain colors in dogs and horses over others?" but that still would not border racism I don't believe. Its just preference. Like some girls prefer tall guys to short ones, or some guys like asian women over white girls. If you had someone call there black dog the "N" word then that would be racist. If you say your black cat likes chicken because he's black then thats racist.

racism has NOTHING what so ever to do with pedigree pets.

people choose a pedigree as certain traits / characteristics / temperament etc are INBRED and inherited.... a lot of a dogs personality is in its genes.

i have a small white fluffy dog, but that doesn't mean i am racist! i also love big black dogs! i just happen to live in a one-bed flat and my white fluffy beast was a rescue puppy in need to a home.

Because racism is a lousy excuse to treat a certain segment of the population in a less-than-acceptable fashion. But the attention in pets is probably to treat them better than usual. I don't know if they compare or not....but I think the real difference is the respect for unique life forms.

Racism is an ideology, a theory about how political power should be distributed, in which arbitrarily designated racial heritage is considered the fundamental basis for determining who will rule.

As such, it isn't really comparable to a breeding program for the perfect poodle.

Or to eugenics for that matter

They probably don't feel that there is any connection between the two things, and I can't blame them.

We are hypocrites and we have double standards. We promote prejudices while scorning it, thats why nothing ever changes and everyone claims to be virtuous.