pedigreefreakshowmustend

Modern Show dogs are being bred for the glory of the breeder and not the strength of the breed while the Kennel Club looks on. For Turnstone, the latest expose is overdue

I watched the BBC1 programme Pedigree Dogs Exposed on 19 August with a growing sense of disgust and horror at the obscenities which have been inflicted on pedigree dogs over the years by breeders and the showing fraternity. For years, I have railed against the physical handicaps inflicted on "show" and pedigree breeds by self-absorbed anateur geneticists who are more concerned with creating gross parodies of animals in order to enhance their own status in the show ring than worrying about the deformities and disease for which they are responsible. Now, at last, it seems that some attempt is being made to deal with the problems.

How can anyone justify, for instance, the unabated breeding of Cavalier King Charles spaniels? These dogs now suffer from a neurological disease, syringomylia, which results in the brain becoming too large for the skull with resultant apalling pain. A third of the breed suffers this condition and the film even disclosed that a show winner had the disease and would, doubtless, be used at stud, so continuing the spread of the condition. Boxers suffer from heart disease, cancer and epilepsy. The latter disease was disturbingly shown on film as an owner fought to control his twitching, jerking pet in the throes of a fit. It was a pathetic two-year-old creature, which should have been put down or never bred in the first place.

Pugs are now so inbred that their kneecaps slip out of joint, they have curvature of the spine and appalling nasal problems due to the desire to create an animal with a flat face. Bassets are deformed, congenital dwarfs, which suffer from arthritis, and the modern bull terrier is a grotesque monstrosity, bearing little if any resemblance to its 18th-century forebear. Rhodesian ridgeback puppies lacking the totally pointless ridge iof hair on their backs are culled. Indeed, one must suppose that some show dogs not conforming to the Kennel Club (KC) breed standard will be put down by the breeder.

Crufts, the so called pinnacle of dog-showing, is little short of an utter disgrace. The film showed a German Shepherd Dog which could barely totter, so weak and distorted were its back legs, yet this dog met the approval of judges. The show now consists of little more than a parade of mutants, shown by owners and breeders who are seemingly indifferent to the suffering they cause. By breeding like to like, with no infusion of outside blood and by rigoursly adhering to the standards laid down by the KC, they are in fact destroying the breeds they claim to admire.

In its defence, the KC will point out that it runs an accredited breeder scheme, developed over the past 20 years, which sets a code of conduct for breeders and asks them to use health screening schemes. They also clain that the problems do not apply across the 200-plus breeds in the UK. Nevertheless, the fact remains that certain pedigree breeds are in a desperate state and urgent action is required to root out breeders who are not prepared to do what is best for their dogs.

Those of us who shoot, stalk or hunt know perfectly well that the gulf between show and working sporting breeds is vast. Working animals are typically more healthy and live natural lives, whereas the show breeds have all their instincts bred out of them for the sake of conformity. One has only to look at a working springer spaniel and its show equivalent, with its pendulous ears, narrow head and too much feather, to realise that here are two entirely differnt species.

The ball is firmly in the KC's court to sort out this ghastly mess, but judging by the disdainful approach adopted by breeders and members of the showing fraternity when interviewed by the BBC, there is little likelyhood of any substantial improvement in the near future. Surely, at the very least, KC standards, which are linked to the most disease-riddled breeds, should be examined and, if it is thought necessary, rewritten to try to readicate the current deformities.

It will be interesting to see, in the light of this hard-hitting documentary whether next year Crufts is given the usual laudatory, uncritical television coverage which it normally attracts. I understand that the BBC is considering cutting its connection with Crufts and HM The Queen may also be reviewing her links with the KC.

Let the last word go to the RSPCA's chief vet, Mark Evans: "When I watch Crufts, what I see is a parade of mutants. It's some freakish, garish beauty pageant that has nothing to do with health and welfare. We've become utterly desensitised to the fact that breeding these deformed, disabled, disease-prone animals is either shocking or abnormal."

reprinted with kind permission from Alastair Balmain
Deputy Editor:Shooting Times & Country Magazine
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Pedigree Freakshow Must End