  A popular approximation in lattice gauge theory is an extrapolation in the
number of fermion species away from the four fold degeneracy natural with the
staggered fermion formulation. I show that the extrapolation procedure
mutilates the expected continuum holomorphic behavior in the quark masses. The
conventional resolution proposes canceling the unphysical singularities with a
plethora of extra states appearing at finite lattice spacing. This unproven
conjecture requires an explicit loss of unitarity and locality. Even if
correct, the approach implies large cutoff effects in the low-energy
flavor-neutral sector.
