Tracey Cook, who co-runs the Jay Gee Sanctuary in Brixworth, said she had dealt with numerous dogs which had been bred without thought towards health or temperament and were then left without a home.

She said: "You might get a male and female with bad temperaments and they will be bred to create puppies who also have a bad temperament. It's a huge problem. A lot of dogs in rescue come in with many problems with their behaviour because of inbreeding."

She spoke out after a BBC documentary, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, aired last night, accused the pedigree dog breeding industry of encouraging a high incidence of inherited diseases.

The programme showed a prize-winning cavalier King Charles spaniel whose skull was too small for its brain, as well as pugs with breathing problems and bulldogs who were unable to mate or give birth unassisted.

Selective or line breeding is commonplace among pedigree dogs and the Kennel Club has registered dogs whose parents were brothers and sisters, or mothers and sons.

RSPCA chief veterinary adviser Mark Evans said: "The show world takes no account of your temperament, or your fitness for purpose potentially as a pet animal, and that to me makes no sense at all.

"It is a parade of mutants; a freakish, garish, beauty pageant."

Andrew Rose, who breeds golden retrievers at Gayton Wood Affix in Kislingbury, said the problem was money.

He said: "If people think they can make money out of something they will do it, to the detriment of the dogs."