It's Time to Catch Up With Britain: Crufts, the AKC, the BBC, and USA Network

The Crufts Dog Show -- the world's largest dog show, held in Birmingham, England -- began on March 5, but this year, Brits won't see any perfectly-coiffed pooches prancing around the ring on television. The BBC has refused to air the show because the breeding industry's practices cause dogs to suffer life-threatening genetic defects and diseases.

Good for the BBC for sending breeders, dog show judges, and the Kennel Club a clear message that the public doesn't want dogs to suffer for the sake of "beauty." Here in the U.S., PETA has called on the USA Network to follow suit and stop airing the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, but so far, our requests have fallen on deaf ears.

Our friends across the pond have a history of taking progressive stances on animal welfare issues. For example, British kennel clubs outlawed ear-cropping a century ago, and cosmetic tail-docking was stopped in Great Britain in 1993. Sadly, the American Kennel Club (AKC) still requires many breeds to endure these painful mutilations, even though the American Veterinary Medical Association condemns them.

Public outcry in Britain against the breeding industry reached a fever pitch after a scathing BBC documentary called Pedigree Dogs Exposed aired last August. The documentary showed dogs who could barely walk or breathe -- which should be basic rights for any dog -- and who suffered from lifelong health problems as a result of their breeding. According to an article in the UK's Independent, "Viewers watched a Cavalier King Charles spaniel writhing in agony because of the permanent pain in [her] head: [she] was afflicted by syringomyelia, the result of being bred with a skull too small for [her] brain."

Perhaps in an attempt to backpedal from the sudden onslaught of bad publicity, the Kennel Club announced that it would review its "breed standards" -- the guidelines that purebred dogs must match closely in order to win titles -- for all of its breeds to determine whether the standards put dogs at risk of disease. Soon after, the Kennel Club announced that it had revised the standards for 78 breeds, so that "...they will not include anything that could in any way be interpreted as encouraging features that might prevent a dog breathing, walking and seeing freely."

It's a step in the right direction, and one that the AKC should follow. Dogs don't care whether they measure up to judges' arbitrary standards -- yet they are the ones who endure the pain and misery of humans' pursuit of the "perfect dog." As a result of inbreeding and breeding for distorted physical features, about one in four purebred dogs is afflicted with serious congenital defects. For example, Labrador retrievers -- America's most popular dog -- are prone to bone disease, hemophilia and retinal degeneration, and nearly 60 percent of golden retrievers suffer from hip dysplasia.

But the damage that breeders do to dogs reaches beyond the dogs in the show ring. Puppies who have the bad luck of being born into the hands of breeders who care only about winning show titles may be killed simply for being the "wrong color." And no matter how breeders try to spin it, there's no skating around the fact that every puppy produced by a breeder steals a home from a shelter dog who desperately needs to be adopted.

It's time that the U.S. catches up with Britain's animal welfare standards. If breeders want something to manipulate and deform within an inch of their lives, they should take up bonsai, and leave the dogs alone.

Comments

[Deborah]

The AKC is no longer working in the interest of breeders. They have turned to the puppy mills and pet stores to promote the registration of purebred dogs. AKC has joined with Hunte , the largest puppy supplier in the country, to promote registration of purebred dogs.

Go to your local Humane Society or dog pound and rescue a dog.

[TimDanMick]

Yes, at last.
I once saw the skull of a wolf compared to the skull of a pug. The wolf skull was like a beautiful sports car; the pug like a horrible train wreck. How any animal could breathe through that crushed mess of bone. I know people love their pet dogs to look cute, but, cute usually means having a genetic disorder so that the pointed muzzle is flattened, having achondroplasia so that the legs are shortened or having too much skin so that it and the ears droop.
If you love dogs don't love them cute; love them healthy.
If they could they would collect stones and throw them at you.

P.S. There is a corner of Hades where people who embarrassed dogs have to dress as dogs and where funny hats and bandanas.

[timezone]

I couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Friedrich. Today, even if someone wanted a purebred of some kind, there are TONS of purebred rescues! There are so many inherent defects in many (not all) of today's purebreds because of greedy and/or uninformed breeders. So many dogs that may not have the pedigree, but are healthier and can be not just as great at being a companion, but many far better. I know sometimes people get a purebred because they assume certain things about them, that they will be just like Lassie, or Eddie on Frasier. They don't realize you don't get an instant show dog, they don't usually come automatically trained and dogs within the breed can vary greatly. Even if you want to "replace" a purebred you lost, there's no guarantee the new one will be like the old one.I worked for someone that had a purebred dog, it was always at the vet, not the most intelligent creature or easiest to train, even though the breed was used as police dogs in Europe. He had another mixed breed that was easier to train, rarely got ill and had a better personality. I love all dogs, but when choosing one for myself would always go with a rescue, and more likely than not, a mixed breed rescue.

[kareemachan]

I've never understood the ear/tail cropping. A friend had a rescue Doberman that hadn't had either, and she was adorable. Funny thing was that people who said they didn't trust Dobies would fall in love with her - and never realize what breed she was!

Good for the BBC! It takes actions by people like them and Oprah to expose the issues that some breeders would like to hide from us.

[LadyAurora]

I only agree to a point with this article. My parents are owners of a kennel. They breed and show English Springer Spaniels. While some breeders are in it only for the money, not all are. All of my parents dogs are loved and well taken care of. They are not off in some building, but live in the house with everyone. They all get to go outside in small groups every couple of hours to do what they need to do and play. My parents don't breed unless it's a healthy and unaffected dog/bitch and they don't breed all the time. They will only breed a female twice, maybe three times at most and only every other season so as to protect the health of the mom. All are found homes, even if they are just a pet. And if for some reason a family can't keep their dog, my parents take it back, no questions asked and either keep it or find it another home.

Most of their friends in the dog show world feel exactly the same. So not all breeders are ignorant and greedy.

[pmike]

Another thing to keep in mind is that one of PETA's goals is to eliminate the ownership of animals by humans. Of course, this sounds too extreme, so they are moving systematically, one step at a time, with approaches such as the one described in the article.

[vnetuolsbm]

I wish they weren't so strict on what dogs could enter their shows because if someone entered a mutt from off the streets into the competition, cleaned it up, and then gave it some training and after it was all said and done revealed the truth, it might just show them how ridiculous the entire thing is anyway.

[onagadori]

This is the continuation of my post below...

Breeders must become more responsible and have an understanding of the function of anatomy. Otherwise, they have no business breeding animals, nor in selecting ever more extreme phenotypes for a cynical, jaundiced and ever-more competitive exhibition ring. And that brings me to one of my major points; exhibition breeding. When breeding is for nothing more than superficial extremes of type in order to garner the owner ribbons, acclaim and praise (not to mention money, in the case of all top breeders of all exhibition animals) one can expect all good sense to fly out the window. The fads of the show ring rule and all else is so much bother to these people! I think all exhibition should be either stopped or seriously regulated with the tremendous extremes of phenotype being brought to a more healthy and neutral place.

[onagadori]

I couldn't agree more strongly that any breed or variety of any animal that has been bred into such extremes that they no longer can functron properly is disgusting. As a geneticists and researcher, I have studied domestic animals, their breeds and varieties, for many years. There are many breeds which are fairly natural, and the more extreme breeds could easily be returned to a more natural state that would allow them a higher quality of life. I am not against selective breeding, for in most examples, it is not a bad thing, and so long as proper anatomy, physiology and kinesiology is taken into consideration, breeding for type and form has no ill effect, but to do so, one must understand what the natural form is and what makes it work through the long period in which it evolved. What breeders need to start focusing on is opening gene pools through selective and wise outcrossing, modify the extremes with consideration toward health, fecundity and the well-being of the creature involved. One of the most important points is to isolate deleterious genetic traits, be they in phenotype or in progressive ailments and eliminate those genes from the gene pool.

[Virginia Plain]

Well said!

The most important aspect of the BBC documentary was in educating the general public to a whole lot of cruelty issues to which they were in complete ignorance.

Educate, educate, educate. Keeping these horrendous practices in the public eye means governments and 'breeders' are forced to sit up and pay attention (pun intended).

There is still a long way to go here in the UK and Ireland, in order to stamp out animal cruelty, but on this particular issue, a great debt of gratitude is owed to the BBC.

Well done BBC! I, and my 2 little rescue-dog companions, thank you.