Hungarian man creates new animal breeds in Romania! – PHOTOS

A Szekler man has created new animal breeds. He has been interested in genetics from a young age and now is working on creating animals that people have never heard of.

Zsigmond Rákossy was only 10 years old when his family moved to the countryside. They started to keep animals at the house. He became interested in genetics during his studies and soon after he conceived the idea of creating a new animal breed.

“I am convinced that breeding is like art: you invent and create something, not just on canvas, but in real life. Everything is in constant dynamics if one knows how to play with genes.”- he told maszol.ro.

He went on to study veterinary medicine. He wrote his thesis about genetics and in 2011 he already made his first creation, a black rabbit. At his house, the rabbit, the dog, the sheep, and the poultry are all considered Szekler. At first, nobody took his plan seriously. Today, he has many animals and is currently working on new breeds.

Rákossy created his Szekler rabbits by mixing breeds either with chinchillas or other rabbits. However, rabbits from the Szekler region provided the base for all his creations.

Szekler rabbits are in fact black sallanders, blue sallanders, and Havana sallanders. They have black, blue-grey, or beige colors. A fourth color that Rákossy has been currently working on is the purple sallander. The new breed will prove to be successful if the colors are passed down to the next generation of rabbits.

Rákossy was working on his project for 3 or 4 years. He did not receive support from anyone. Moreover, people thought that his ideas were crazy. In 2016, he finally received some credits for his efforts at an exhibition in Bucharest. Now, he is preparing for another exhibition in Luxembourg which will be held in 2022. The breed standards of Szekler rabbits have been published in the Romanian and Hungarian standard books.