Three cheers for Pedigree Chum. It is on the brink of joining the RSPCA (even if that is an anti-hunting political party with charitable status) and announcing that it will be having nothing further to do with Cruft's. The BBC's involvement also looks increasingly unlikely.
If breeding from brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and grandparents and grandchildren is not cruelty to animals, then nothing is. If the result that pugs, for example, are so inbred that, although there are ten thousand of them in Britain, there are in genetic terms only five hundred distinct individuals, is not cruelty to animals, then nothing is.
If the situation whereby fifty per cent of Cavalier King Charles spaniels have heart problems, and many have a truly horrific condition in which their brains are the wrong size, is not cruelty to animals, then nothing is.
If the fact that dachshunds, bull terriers, beagles, basset hounds and those German shepherd dogs bred for show are freakish, unhealthy parodies of what they ought to be, and used to be, is not cruelty to animals, then nothing is. (The German shepherds still used by the Police are the real, healthy ones, scorned by the world of dog shows.)
If the plight of most bulldogs, which now cannot mate without assistance and cannot give birth naturally, is not cruelty to animals, then nothing is.
If the destruction of newborn Rhodesian ridgeback puppies because they are perfectly healthy rather than having the mild form of spina bifida required by the "breed standard" is not cruelty to animals, then nothing is.
And so on, and on, and on.
Her Majesty, no less, must now decide. Patron of the RSPCA? Or Patron of the Kennel Club?
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I suspect that Pedigree Chum has made a financial decision in a recession, just as the RSPCA and others have done.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think happens in the wild? Think of any group of horses. The lead stallion will serve all of the mares including his daughters and grand daughters. He will most probably have fought his own father for the privilege.
A group of wolves or wild dogs will likewise consist of inbreeding between close family members.
Do you really believe that 50% of Cavaliers are dying of brain disease? How many of these dogs have you ever met?
Perhaps you should take a look at the other side of the RSPCA. Did you know that they have a criminal conviction for perverting the course of justice?
Take a look at http://cheetah.webtribe.net/~animadversion/
and
http://the-shg.org
and
http://www.rspcainjustice.blogspot.com/
Now would you care to define 'crulety to animals'????
You are wrong in your statement regarding Rhodesian Ridgebacks. The Ridge is NOT a mild form of Spina Bifida and NOT every breeder destroys healthy puppies.
ReplyDeleteThey are predisposed is Dermoid Sinus which is a mild form of Spina Bifida but ridged ridgebacks and ridgeless ridgebacks which are not affected by Dermoid Sinus have the same expectancy for a healthy life.
The reason for this post being anonymous is that many good breeders are getting abusive emails when they have done nothing wrong.
"I suspect that Pedigree Chum has made a financial decision in a recession"
ReplyDeleteWhat, not to advertise their dog food at the world's most famous dog show, and easily this country's largest? No credit crunch there, obviously.
"just as the RSPCA and others have done"
The RSPCA is a charity. And which "others", exactly?
"What do you think happens in the wild?"
For the present purpose, I couldn't care less. Nor can I imagine anything less like "the wild" than the breeding of show dogs. Indeed, I had rather assumed that that was the whole idea.
"NOT every breeder destroys healthy puppies"
I never suggested that they did. But the practice is very widespread, and the showing of a dog without the ridge is impossible under "the breed standard".
The above is as far as I will go with either comment, because I can't see what the rest of either of them has to do with the original post.