Dog shelter owner warns on inbreeds
The owner of a Northamptonshire dog shelter has spoken out against the cruelty of some dog breeders after a documentary exposed inbreeding in the pedigree dog industry.
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."
Email to a friend
Print this page- BREAKING NEWS: Man dies following motorway smash on Northamptonshire border
- BREAKING NEWS: Police inundated with hundreds of complaints over snowball fights
- Huge cigarette haul by masked burglars in armed raids at Northampton stores
- BREAKING NEWS: Police name man killed in crash on motorway in Northamptonshire
- Student flats planned for Northampton town centre revealed
- BREAKING NEWS: Fishmarket art gallery offered new home
- Student flats planned for Northampton town centre revealed
- New manager of Northampton’s Grosvenor Centre says ‘This is the beginning of a new era’
- Neighbours raise concern about bid to build new house three inches from their home
- Four-storey replacement for Fishmarket gallery should open in September
- Exclusive: Saints voluntarily move key Heineken Cup match to Milton Keynes
- Sooty may be left with bullet in neck following senseless attack
- Ashton determined to end Saints career on a high
- Sons honoured for care of their father
- West Northamptonshire Development Corporation in bid to purchase site of former power station
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Northampton
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South west
