Dogs Trust, the largest dog welfare charity in the UK has formerly announced it will be withdrawing from Crufts and Discover Dogs and will also not be involved in this year’s Westminster Dog of the Year Show.The Dogs Trust announcement follows in the wake of the blow back from the airing of the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed which told, in graphic detail, of how The Kennel Club's closed registry breeding system, coupled with exaggerated standards, has resulted in a rapid rise in diseased, deformed, and defective dogs that too often live lives of preventable misery.
BBC has announced that it is re-evaluating its sponsorship of Crufts, and most observers believe that, barring major changes at The Kennel Club, that they will withdraw their sponsorship of Crufts when their current agreement is up in two years.
The Dogs Trust blog summarizes their position, which is decidedly reform-centered:
Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity has announced it will be withdrawing from Crufts and Discover Dogs. Dogs Trust will also not be involved in this year’s Westminster Dog of the Year Show. This follows consultation with the charity’s Trustees and requests from its supporters.
Dogs Trust believes that this removal of support is the strongest signal it can give to the Kennel Club and breeders to achieve immediate action to ensure that the health and wellbeing of pedigree dogs is ranked over appearance and artificial breed standards.
Dogs Trust hopes that this will lead to rapid changes in the manner in which dogs are bred and is in talks with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and The Kennel Club to help bring about the following much needed changes:
1. The review of breed standards to ensure they are firmly focused on the health and wellbeing of the dog, not the supposed aesthetics of the breed. Breeders and show judges must be required to adhere to these revised breed standards.
2. The introduction of secondary legislation, so as to prevent inappropriate breeding practices, especially the intentional inbreeding of closely related dogs or dogs with known debilitating genetic illnesses.
3. The introduction of genetic screening of all breeding stock and the assured integrity of such a process.
4. Purchasers of dogs should first consider a rescue dog. If it is a pedigree, they must understand the importance of determining and questioning its genetic heritage.
Dogs Trust has had a long history of working with The Kennel Club in order to promote rescue dogs at pedigree shows and we hope to be able to continue this relationship as soon as these vital animal welfare points have been put in place.
Dogs Trust, formerly known as the National Canine Defence League, was founded in 1891 at the first Crufts dog show.
Dogs Trust currently has 17 canine rehoming centres around the UK, with its first international rehoming centre currently being built in Dublin. The charity provides kennels for dogs which are abandoned or given up by their owners, and it also runs microchipping and neutering services in order to reduce the number of stray dogs which must be put down.
The charity is best known for its slogan "A Dog is for Life," a phrase coined to help change the ethos of abandoning dogs when their care becomes more difficult than first thought.
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