Muzzled but still making a noise!

An extract from today's Sunday Times:

Dogs Today magazine has also been tapped sharply on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Last year it published a guide called The Little Black Dog Book, which warned about hereditary problems in pedigree dogs. The magazine’s editor, Beverley Cuddy, described the breeding of pedigree dogs — a pastime in which the Kennel Club is something of a specialist — as “a genetic timebomb”.

This year Dogs Today was told that its journalists would not be allowed official accreditation at Crufts. Whoever thought the world of the dog show could be so fierce?

“They won’t tell me why we’re banned,” said Cuddy, although it might well have something to do with a headline that screamed “Stop breeding ignorance — reform the Kennel Club now!”

“They have totally cut us off,” she said. “I am very upset that we’re excluded from the show.”

Comments

Unknown said…
Id love to see a time when there was no such thing as a 'pedigree dog' but theres money in it and people are getting stupider and greedier by the day.
Im trying to work out a way to bring an action of 'gross animal cruelty' against the KC, .. perhaps using the 'duty of care' side to the Defra, Animal Welfare Act' as I would have thought that deliberatly setting breed standards which are known to cause hip, breathing, whelping, skin or other such problems would be against the "keeping animals free from pain, suffering or disease" part of the laws??
any ideas where to go with this or how to push forward with an affordable lawsuit would be most welcome
Beverley Cuddy said…
Hi Llynpadarn
Why not email me? I can't contact you to reply.
Best wishes
Beverley
Chapstaff said…
Llynpadarn....I couldn't agree more.

When I look at the suffering of breeds like the Dachshund for example, bred deliberately with achondroplasia (dwarfism)I could cry for the loss of dignity for the breed, for the pain & suffering that can be caused by them doing simple things like going up & down stairs; Another deliberately bred dwarf is the Basset Hound...just look at those poor little bent legs trying to hold up that long, heavy body.

When I look at the poor old Bulldog with its breathing problems & its inability to give birth naturally most of the time.......the Shar Pei with its grossly exaggerated wrinkles which cause such dreadful skin diseases & all the other poor breeds which have been deformed by the Kennel Club's "breed standard" ................well - I just despair.

The "Duty of Care" angle is certainly an interesting one.

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