EN:An open letter to the Kennel Club

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EN:An open letter to the Kennel Club

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An open letter to the Kennel Club.
From Mike F Shaw
We need an open discussion on your breed standards and how it allows deformities in dogs to become the norm and not the exception. You are putting form over function for your own gain.
I have an English bulldog called Grumble, I did not buy him but adopted him as buying a dog with so many in rescues goes against so many ethical principles.
I adopted him because I like the breed but know of their issues, he has a superb character but more because he was one of many sat in a rescue looking for a new home.
He is according to your breed specific that many breeders adhere to a typical bulldog. What you have specified has meant the following:
His head is too large for his body, when he sleeps he tries to find something to rest his chin on to take the weight.
His tongue is too large and makes eating difficult when combined with his loose and oversized jowls.
His teeth and jaw structure means he has too small teeth and an over exaggerated overbite, once again making eating difficult.
His nose is too snub to his face and sits almost directly under his eyes, his thorax is too small making breathing difficult a lot of the times. He constantly snores when asleep whilst trying to breathe.
His front is shorter than his back giving him an excessive bow to his front legs. This makes walking difficult and he used to walk with an excessive radial outward swing, this is improving as we strengthen his legs but will always be with him.
The excessive folds around his face can be prone to large build ups of dirt, we have to clean them out several times a week with antiseptic wipes to ensure they don’t become infected.
His paws are too large and toes are webbed, they actually get in the way as he tries to walk and has been known to fall over his own feet.
You have allowed a breed to be deformed and called it a pedigree, let’s not beat about the bush, this breed and many others have been bred disabled because you have stated they should look in this manner regardless of the detriment to their health and well being.
To add to this you have cut their lifespan to only some 8-10 years with less than 9% actually making it to old age, some studies have shown it to be closer to 7 years.
This came to a head for me last night, we are having a heatwave in the UK at the moment with temperatures reaching 30 degrees C in some places. All dogs will struggle in this heat, I understand that and took precautions to counter this, keeping them cool and indoors including no walking at all.
This is the first flat faced dog I have ever had as part of the family but I’m not foolish enough to not have researched first so I knew what to expect.
Last night my bulldog Grumble spent most of the night simply trying to breathe, we brought the air conditioner upstairs, placed a fan on close by and had all the windows open. We kept him as cool as we could with a fine spray of water now and then but dried it off before it warmed up on his body.
I woke at 5 this morning to get the house ready for my dogs, opening all the windows, fresh water down and so on. Grumble would normally follow me down with Piglet for his breakfast but he has stayed in bed. He is exhausted from spending the night trying to simply get comfortable and breathe.
For this I lay the blame squarely at your feet.
You require dogs to look in such a manner with your breed specifications that breeders will then adhere to so they can sell puppies registered to your organisation. Your breed specifications tell the breeders to introduce deformities and disabilities into the dogs for nothing more than aesthetics regardless of the implications for the dog itself.
Putting it bluntly it’s disgraceful and your organisations regulations, specification and condoning of his practice is disgraceful too.
I call on you to look at what you do.
You allow deformities and disabilities to breed INTO an animal simply for aesthetic reasons.
The Kennel Club UK
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Nur wer einmal seinen Windhund jagen gesehen hat, der weiß, was er an der Leine hat!
Michaela
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