New report backs the RSPCA's fears for pedigree dog health and welfare

Tuesday, 3 November 2009 12:00 AM

A new report published today (Tuesday) echoes calls for urgent action to safeguard the welfare of pedigree dogs and has been welcomed by the RSPCA.

A Healthier Future for Pedigree Dogs, the conclusions of an inquiry by the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW)1, says that current breeding practices cause dogs 'significant health and welfare problems'.

This supports the findings of an independent report commissioned by the RSPCA, Pedigree Dog Breeding in the UK: A Major Welfare Concern?2, and the charity's view that exaggerated physical features and inherited diseases cause serious welfare problems for pedigree dogs.

RSPCA senior animal welfare scientist Claire Calder said: "This inquiry has come to the same conclusion as the RSPCA: pedigree dogs urgently need our help and the way they are bred must change. APGAW calls for an independent panel to be set up to help tackle this complex problem, an idea the RSPCA would also support.

"The report lacks some detail about how the problems facing pedigree dogs can be solved and doesn't recommend all the measures the RSPCA believes are necessary; for example, we believe a strategy for monitoring how effective any changes are is essential.

"However, I hope this inquiry stimulates much more detailed and action-focussed discussion amongst everyone involved in order to identify practical solutions that will really make a difference. Pedigree dogs need our help and they need it now."

The APGAW report also concludes:

¿ Breed standards should ensure dogs are 'fit for purpose' rather than look a certain way

¿ A database to collate the occurrences of hereditary diseases and health and welfare problems would provide information to all stakeholders on the problems and their frequency

¿ Future regulations concerning the breeding of dogs should impose clear restrictions on the breeding of closely related dogs.

The RSPCA believes all key stakeholders should meet after a third report into the health and welfare of pedigree dogs is published in early 20103 in order to agree a way forward.

The RSPCA is extremely concerned about the unacceptably high levels of disability, deformity and hereditary disease affecting these animals, as is the public, following the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed which sparked a national debate on the issue.
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Notes to editors:

1.APGAW is a long-standing cross-party parliamentary group made up of more than 80 MPs and Lords and over 70 associate animal welfare organisations, including the RSPCA. APGAW seeks to influence the development and introduction of effective wide-ranging legislation to improve animal welfare.

2.Commissioned by the RSPCA and published in February this year, Pedigree Dog Breeding in the UK: A Major Welfare Concern? is a review of the relevant science and was compiled by highly respected scientists, vets and dog welfare experts who also propose 36 possible ways of improving pedigree dog welfare. These include: systematic collection of data on the diseases all dogs suffer from and causes of death, changes to current registration rules to prevent the registration of puppies born from the matings of close relatives (including grandparents and offspring and half siblings), and changes to current registration rules to allow new genetic material to be introduced into breeds.

Although the Kennel Club has put some new initiatives in place since Pedigree Dogs Exposed was broadcast, the RSPCA questions whether they have gone far enough and consulted widely enough with relevant experts.

3.This inquiry is being funded by the Dogs Trust and the Kennel Club and has Professor Patrick Bateson as its chairman.

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