Monday, August 18, 2008

Inbreeding Causing Pedigree Dogs To Suffer

The BBC will be doing a documentary on how the dog world of pedigree dogs has suffered from breeding. They are having a genetic disease that shows spaniels with their brains being too big (syringomyelia) while boxers are suffering from epilepsy and pugs with breathing problems.

The Scientists from the Imperial College in London say that there are only 50 distinct individual types of pug dogs out of ten thousand. A professor named Steve Jones from the genetics at the University College said; People are carrying out breeding which would be first of all entirely illegal in humans and secondly is absolutely insane from the point of view of the health of the animals.

Mark Evans who is the chief vet at the RSPCA said; The welfare and quality of life of many pedigree dogs is seriously compromised by established breeding practices for appearance, driven primarily by the rules and requirements of competitive dog showing and pedigree dog registration.

Read the article here.

Catch the Pedigree Dogs Exposed on the BBC One today at 9pm

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Inbreeding has always been a issue breeders wrestle with with AKC registered dogs. We breed English Bulldog puppies and it's a big concern with us.

Anonymous said...

I am a former veterinary nurse, Cavalier King Charles owner and have had various breeds over the years including collies and a border terrier cross. I was horrifed by what I saw on teh BC programme. I think all concerned dog lovers should contact their MP and ask them to get government to pass an act to prevent father to daughter and brother to sister in breeding in an attempt to eliminate some of these health problems seen in the BBC programme. People wanting a pet would be better off getting a first cross my vet advises. Dogs Trust &RSPCA kennels are full of them. I dont know how breeders of dogs with syringomyelia can breed from them and then sell the puppies for £500 a time knowing the puppies will be in unbearable pain and have to be put to sleep causing heartache to the owners. This should be made a criminal offence in my opinion.Maybe a petition to the house of commons would help too?