tagged w/ Kennel Club
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Is your pooch lonely and craving some action? Well fret no more, the British Kennel Club is here to help you pimp your bitch/dawg. They have set up Mate Select, a online dating service for dogs who want to meet that special someone. The thinking behind the site is that dog owners will be able to find good matches for their dogs to ensure pedigree puppies are healthy and free from genetic problems. It's an interesting move from the Kennel Club whose chairman Ronnie Irving and other high profile members in 2008 admitted to promote incestral inbreeding (you can watch him say it at 21:45min below) in a controversial BBC documentary called "Pedigree Dogs Exposed." The film was so shocking to many that BBC decided to drop the annual Crufts dog show from it's schedule. The Kennel Club claims that the new online dating service will "promote in every way, the general improvement of dogs" and will also connect pedigree dog breeders.If you have a dog and you haven't watch this documentary - you need to now.
Is your pooch lonely and craving some action? Well fret no more, the British Kennel... more
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Pedigree dogs should be bred with more normal specimens to end mutations that have left bulldogs, spaniels and other species with painful abnormalities such as tiny skulls or overly jowly faces, according to a review.
In a wide-ranging report into dog breeding prompted by an undercover investigation into the Kennel Club, Patrick Bateson, a professor of zoology, found large commercial "puppy farms" were often unhygienic and tolerated disease and inbreeding, causing a range of "welfare costs" for dogs.
He recommended a new law requiring micro-chipping of all new puppies; stricter local authority inspections of puppy farms; an independent council to identify the removal of inherited inbreeding and disease; and a monitoring system based on vets' reports to catalogue unhealthy traits. He also recommended a new publicity and education campaign to inform buyers how to acquire and keep healthy dogs.
Professor Bateson, a Cambridge University academic, was asked to chair the independent inquiry by the Kennel Club and Dog's Trust, following a Panorama programme in 2008, Pedigree Dogs Exposed. The BBC show found serious health concerns caused by inbreeding, prompting the RSPCA and BBC to pull out of Crufts, the club's annual showcase. The Kennel Club introduced new standards for 209 breeds last year. In a 65-page report, Professor Bateson said interviews with vets, scientists, campaigners and breeders had revealed "widespread concern" about commercial puppy farms.
As well as exacerbating unnatural features by breeding dogs with close relatives, many failed to check for disease, keep kennels clean, care properly for puppies or socialise or exercise them properly before selling them aged six to eight weeks, he said. Some Irish puppy farms produced 5,000 young dogs a year.
"Many breeders exercise high standards of welfare, but negligent management on puppy farms is a major welfare issue as is inbreeding in pure-bred dogs," said Professor Bateson. "Fashions for extreme conformations are also a cause of welfare problems."Pedigree dogs should be bred with more normal specimens to end mutations that have... more
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