The "Show of the Week" in Australia

The Sydney Morning Herald TV Guide features Pedigree Dogs Exposed as their "Show of the Week". Their review:

British filmmaker Jemima Harrison spent two years investigating the horrific health problems that decades of calculated inbreeding have created in many dog breeds.

Thankfully, the resulting documentary has already been influential. Pedigree Dogs Exposed was first broadcast in 2008 in Britain, where it created a furore and brought about a number of positive changes to dog-breeding practices. Hopefully it will do the same in Australia.

Harrison has done a fine job of editing a lot of material on a confronting subject. There is enough footage of animals suffering as a result of breeder obsessions with pure bloodlines and bizarre physical characteristics to make her point but not so much that viewers are likely to run screaming.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniels with syringomyelia are perhaps hardest to watch. Syringomyelia is a genetic condition where the dog’s brain grows too large for its skull and intrudes into the spinal canal. It can be agonising and it’s now very common in the breed.

Also tough on the heart strings are the show Alsatians whose hind legs are so splayed – they’re described as “part dog, part frog” – they have trouble walking. The splaying is deliberately bred for and wins the breeders prizes.

Harrison digs up some fascinating archival photos showing dogs considered ideal examples of their breed 100 years ago and compares them with much-mutated contemporary specimens. Pity the unfortunate 21st-century daschund.

A number of breeders and Kennel Club officials also have their say, happily facing Harrison’s camera to provide blithe and unsatisfactory answers to her questions. In later parts, some breeders become openly hostile towards the filmmaker – particularly after she confronts a breeder at a dog show who has just won a major prize with a dog with syringomyelia.

Harrison does an impressive job of maintaining her equilibrium and persisting with her line of questioning.

Next week’s episode of Catalyst will feature a report on the state of play of dog breeding in Australia.

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