Back to HOMEPAGE German Shepherd dog breeders face action
from Kennel Club over 'deformities'
Valerie Elliott
Consumer Editor: The Times
Filed 05 Aug 09
©Valerie Elliott
This article was originally published in The Times on 4th August 2009.
It is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author and of the newspaper.
The Kennel Club has told British breeders of German shepherd dogs to improve health standards or lose the right to hold championship shows.
The threat has caused anger among the country’s 33 breed clubs. Some are advocating a breakaway movement.
The club is determined to tackle changes in many of the dogs appearing at shows. A letter outlining health and welfare concerns was sent to all breed clubs ten days ago.
In particular, it highlighted legs that are so weak that the dogs look as if they are crouching, and the fashion for an exaggerated bump or roach in the back, when the backline of the dog is supposed to be gently sloping.
Breeders are alarmed by the uncompromising tone of the letter and the threat to withdraw challenge certificates for shows in 2012 unless new breeding standards are agreed. Without these certificates the breed will have no status and the value of pedigree champions will plummet. A German shepherd puppy can be bought for about £1,000, but a puppy from top competition dogs and bitches can be worth £6,000-£10,000.
Some people now believe that they are being deliberately picked on by the club to show that they are being tough with pedigree breeders.
It is a year since the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed highlighted breeding techniques which encouraged deformed and diseased dogs.
The programme featured a prize-winning Cavalier King Charles spaniel suffering from syringomyelia, a condition which occurs when a dog’s skull is too small for its brain. It also showed boxers with epilepsy, pugs with breathing problems and bulldogs that were unable to mate or give birth naturally.
The uproar over the disclosures prompted the BBC to end its coverage of Crufts Show after 42 years. Public reaction was also hostile and the club was forced to review competition standards for 209 pedigree breeds.
Last autumn the club lodged a formal complaint with Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, about the programme’s alleged bias, but there is still no sign of any adjudication.
Joe Summerhill, co-ordinator of the German Shepherd Dog Partnership, said that breeders felt victimised because they had been vocal critics of the club’s failure to insist on the screening of dogs and bitches used to breed pedigree puppies.
There are an estimated 200,000 German shepherds in Britain, most of them pets. Around 1,200 a year are bred by breed clubs. The puppies and their parents are subjected to strict checks for hip dysplasia — an abnormality that can cause crippling lameness — haemophilia and healthy eyes and legs.
Yet the Kennel Club registers more than 12,000 German shepherds a year and does not insist on mandatory health screening before allowing them to be registered as pedigree.
Mr Summerhill, who is also a championship show judge for the breed, said: “We are definitely being singled out even though we have been talking to the Kennel Club regularly about health and welfare.
“We also think the issues they are raising are a matter for the judges in our breed shows. The Kennel Club should be strict and tell them to choose dogs with straight legs. As far as their concerns about the back, we say there is nothing wrong with backs and there are no health problems.”
Caroline Kisko, the secretary of the Kennel Club, said that action had to be taken. “German shepherd breeders do not accept they have a health problem and need to change the way they breed their dogs,” she said. “They do not meet our standards and until we see some movement the challenge certificates are on hold.”
Jemima Harrison, of Passionate Productions, which made the breeding documentary, said that the club was absolutely right to demand changes: “The dogs are a disgrace and are wincing evidence of how the show-ring has ruined some breeds of dog.”
©Valerie Elliott
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