Here we go again. Another scandal at Crufts. The dog judged to be best German shepherd looked to be deformed, with an oddly sloping back and weedy, wobbly legs. The presenter, a vet, the RSPCA and some members of the public were shocked and “appalled” by the dog’s appearance. The owner, Susan Cuthbert, said that the criticism had been horrendous, and shared the Kennel Club’s confirmation that her dog had a clean bill of health.
It’s just the latest news story about dog breeding to hit the headlines. We were all shocked by the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed, where a prizewinning King Charles spaniel was shown to have syringomyelia, a “severe inherited … progressive neurological disease”; and by the docked dogs still allowed to enter some dog shows, although docking is meant to be banned; and by the nepotism and jealousies that goes on at some dog competitions. But nothing changes.
I am sick to death of pointing out, over and over again, the folly and horrors of selective dog breeding and puppy farming, because no one ever takes any notice, however bonkers the breeding practices are. I once met a bulldog who had just had a facelift, the stitches still visible. It had to have one, because bulldog breeders are mad on wrinkles, tend to overdo it, and this dog had such huge wrinkles that they’d drooped down over his eyes until he couldn’t see.
I take this personally because I have boxer dogs, which are bred to have jutting jaws and squashed noses, which hamper their breathing. My last old dog, which I rescued from a “top breeder and judge”, had a jaw that jutted so much that its front teeth didn’t meet properly, so the breeder was throwing it away. And its tail was docked. Why? I asked the breeder. “Because that’s the dog’s shape,” said she. No, I said, “It’s the dog’s shape with a bit hacked off.” But if you keep it on, said the breeder, “it will knock things off your coffee table, and whack your toddlers.”
It is painful and damaging to have a tail chopped off, and it’s been illegal in England and Wales since 2006, so why did I see docked dogs at a dog show in 2011?
“They’re Irish dogs,” said another breeder. In Ireland, you can apparently do more or less what you like with dogs. Every year, we import thousands of dogs from Ireland, and from Wales, which are awash with horrible puppy farms, some even legal, licensed by councils, churning out sick dogs. Then we buy the puppies, often online, only to find out that they’re poorly. It’s distressing for dogs and owners, who end up spending hours and fortunes at the vet. Meanwhile there’s a cottage industry flourishing here in England in bull-breed/staffie crosses, bred at home by mainly young men who don’t know, or care what they’re doing, so we’re flooded with dogs, which end up in the council pounds.
The pounds send a list, every week, of all the dogs they have to the rescue centres. If the centres can’t take these thousands of unwanted dogs within a week, it’s curtains, because the pounds are full to bursting, but more and more dogs are pouring in daily, from useless or panicked owners, and misguided or greedy breeders. So an estimated 21 dogs a day are put down in England. But I bet it’s more. It would take at least five years of nobody breeding any dogs at all to get our dogs down to a manageable level, so I’ve asked before, and I’ll ask again, please don’t buy another pedigree dog. Don’t breed any. Just rescue the ones that are left over and mouldering in pounds, or waiting in all the rescue centres. If you’re stuck on a particular breed, like I am with my boxers, rescue one of those. Each breed has its own rescue centres.
But don’t rescue a dog unless you know what you’re in for. My daughter rescued a little French bulldog/staffie/dachshund/Jack Russell cross last year. I thought that cross-breeds were healthier than pedigree dogs, but bad luck, Ernest inherited his parents’ weaknesses rather than strengths: with eye problems, stomach problems, and an inverted corkscrew tail, which means that my daughter has to clean his bum twice a week, or more, for the rest of his life. Lovely.
Usually, dogs with screw-tail are put down at birth by breeders, because the screw tails they were bred for became too screwed, or the dogs must live on with their illnesses and deformities, like the too-wrinkled bulldog, and the King Charles spaniels with syringomyelia, the overly wrinkly shar pei with skin infections, the brachycephalic dogs with breathing problems, the droopy-eyed bloodhounds with eye infections, the miniature dogs with dislocating knee caps, the long dogs with spinal problems and the giant dogs with leg tumours. All from raving mad selective breeding.
Perhaps the Crufts judge has done us all a favour, by giving the prize to this German shepherd, and showing us what’s wrong with dog breeding, and that ownership is out of control. Hopefully we’ll take notice this time, and refuse to buy any more battery-farmed or selectively bred, sick and distressed dogs. They are, after all, meant to be our best friends.
