First of all, I am a United States citizen who has watched Pedigree Dogs Exposed: Three Years On.
I know what you’re thinking.
It was only recently show on the actual BBC, so how on earth could I have seen it already?
We have our ways. Over at BorderWars, Chris will show you how, and he now has links to the first Youtube uploads of program. These will likely be taken down soon, so I’d get over there posthaste.
Now, there is a lot of good in this documentary.
Well, initially, Jemima Harrison promised to put up a positive and optimistic portrayal of what breeders are doing to solve problems.
And in the case of Fiona, the LUA Dalmatian, she did. Fiona’s breeder is portrayed as the forward thinking breeder that she is, and she makes a nice point. Not a single one of these dog breeds was created by nature. Their bloodlines are not written in stone, and if modern science says we need to sully the purity of these bloodlines for increased health, we should do it.
The other breeds discussed in the documentary don’t have very good stories.
The Cavalier King Charles spaniel may be utterly ruined. The incidence of syringomyelia in the breed has increased. A large majority of those bred in the UK will be affected by the disorder in some way by the six years old– and virtually all of them have mitral valve disease by the time they are ten. Carol Fowler, the campaigner for Cavalier health in the first PDE, now says it may no longer be responsible to be breeding any dogs of this breed. The risks of a breeding producing dogs with these disorders is so high that it may no longer be ethical to produce them. That’s very sad.
And the UK boxer population is going down virtually the same route. Dr. Bruce Cattanach has discovered that juvenile kidney disease in boxers has an hereditary basis, and he was able to trace this disease to a single popular stud boxer. And then he traced it to a single top show kennel in the UK. Because these dogs win a lot of shows, their studs are in high demand, which means that a huge proportion of boxers produced in the UK are going to derive from these dogs. And they are likely doomed to die at very young ages.
And then there’s the pug. I actually learned quite a bit about exactly how awful it is for a dog be bred with such a brachycephalic face. I have often mentioned that these dog have a hard time breathing and cooling themselves, but I didn’t know that the big sinus in a dog’s muzzle is quite crucial to its cooling system. In normal dogs, this sinus is pretty large, but in pugs, it is almost vestigial, and the dogs cannot cool themselves at all.
Pugs have such a hard time breathing that many cannot sleep well lying down. They always want to have their heads propped up a bit. The documentary shows the classic Youtube video of a pug falling asleep sitting up, which is something we all think is cute.
But it’s not. The truth is these dogs would like to sleep like normal dogs, but they just can’t breathe properly.
The documentary then shows a German veterinary surgeon who specializes in correcting the various problems associated with the brachycephalic dogs and their airways– which is now called brachycephalic airways syndrome. The surgeon is shown working on a pug. He makes its nostrils larger, and he pares back some of the soft palate in the back of the throat. He opens up the airways more. The same airways that bizarre selective breeding has clogged up.
Even though this film used a lot of recycled footage, I think it was a better documentary than the first.
I think its real strength is that Harrison clearly divided the problems with purebred dogs into the two distinct categories that should not be confused.
One of these is gene loss through inbreeding. I think she made a good attack on breeders who do really, really tight breedings. However, I don’t think that’s the biggest issue. The problem isn’t that these breeders are doing these kind of breedings. The problem is that these dogs exist within closed off populations, and an elite number dogs produces a huge chunk of the puppies born every year. Even if people are not doing very tight breedings with their own dogs, the dogs within in a breed will become more and more related over time. And all of the dogs within a breed will descend from the same founders– unless you’re talking about Africa basenjis, Tibetan lhasa apsos, and COO salukis, which may not be as closely related to the dogs in the closed registry populations.
I know that Jemima Harrison knows these facts, and she has written about them extensively. I just think that people need to know that inbreeding in dogs isn’t just that people are doing tight breedings. It’s that the systems in which dogs are registered are forcing the populations of these breeds into more genetically depauperate gene pools.
This is what is causing the problems with Cavaliers and boxers in the UK. Elite stud dogs are transmitting their defective genes into a larger and larger proportion of the breed, which is itself founded from a finite number of dogs. No new blood is being brought in, and the bloodlines are becoming saturated with genetic diseases.
This would happen in any closed or relatively closed registry population. It would not matter if the dogs were bred for show or for work. Disease would wind up saturating the population over time.
There was also no discussion of MHC haplotypes in the film, but from my own experience, this discussion tends to be ignored by those who just don’t want to hear it. It is Kryptonite for the closed registry system and for virtually all defenders of very tight breedings. That’s because the only way to keep MHC haplotypes diverse and heterozygous is to test for them before breeding.
And very few people are doing that. The tests are only now becoming available, and as far as I know, only one breed club is actually encouraging its members to do these tests– the Dandie Dinmont Club of America.
You can’t seen immune genes, so they are very easily lost.
And if seeing is believing, then we get to the second category of purebred dog problems: health and welfare problems that result from exaggerated and unhealthy conformation.
The documentary focused mostly on the problems of brachycephalic breeds, including the pug and bulldog. The initial documentary covered these problems in greater detail, but the scene involving the German vet opening up the pug’s airways really showed how extensive the problems are with their extreme brachycephaly.
The only issue I had with the film was her call for a big regulatory agency that would oversee the welfare of all dogs in the UK.
I worry that such an agency would be very prone to regulatory capture.
What would happen if an agency were given teeth to go after bad breeders and this agency wound up being run by people who want to engage in a witch hunt against anyone who intentionally crosses two breeds?
I don’t know what procedures exist to prevent regulatory capture in agencies in the United Kingdom, but the US has very little control over it. Lobbyists regularly wind up heading agencies that they once lobbied for.
So we have to be a little bit careful here.
I think the best way to take these people down is to keep on educating people about what is actually happening within the institutions that claim to be looking out for the best interest of dogs. The public needs to know that dogs are in a lot of trouble because of the strictures and paradigms that rule them.
And the only way to save them is to ditch the strictures and paradigms.
***
Jose Cruz of the Chatham Hill Kennels has uploaded the entire documentary onto the RDW Blog Readers group on Facebook, so you can watch it there!
You have to join the group to see the posts and watch the film, but I’ll let you in :).
I watched it thru Youtube in four pieces.
What an excellent summary! Your writing skills are superb, Scottie. I hope you write a book about this whole issue.Or rather, a book included in which, you make it clear there are
two main issues that bear repeating many times.
1. Closed registries, inbreeding, and loss of immune function.
2.Qualzucht, or the problems caused by breeding for exaggerated conformation.
I am glad you are harping on the loss of immune function with the increase in homozygousity. People do not seem to be hearing it yet, but this is why cancer rates are increasing in purebred dogs. While I do not understand the mechanism of how the loss of heterogygousity in a trait a breeder wants to “fix”, also causes loss of immune function and a higher rate of autoimmune diseases; I hear you that it does do so – and wonder why it is not better known.
This documentary calls for so many more videos to be done. A reality series- each week with a different issue. It could be a 13 week series, easily!
1. Closed registries, inbreeding, and loss of immune function.
2.Qualzucht, or the problems caused by breeding for exaggerated conformation.
And the third topic in the wings mentioned only fleetingly:
3. Regulation, registration, and tracking all dogs in the world.
People really need to watch out or there will be no more dog breeding except by corporate breeders.
“Elite stud dogs are transmitting their defective genes into a larger and larger proportion of the breed”
The only thing I would add to this – and I don’t think it was addressed in the film – is that it wasn’t just that Gucci had bad genes and if a different Boxer had happened to be the hot dog of the moment everything would be alright. Every dog, heck probably every organism that reproduces sexually – has defective genes. Defective genes are inescapable. But they don’t harm an individual, they aren’t expressed, unless they’re doubled up on. Doubling up on genes happens when you inbreed. This is why “inbreeding to uncover disease” is a terrible argument. You’ll always find something, there are no clean animals of any species, and you can’t eradicate that something without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, namely MHC diversity.
A heterozygous individual has a lower chance of genetic disease than a homozygous individual. A heterozygous population is less susceptible to environmental disease than a homozygous population.
Yes. You’re correct.
But if you’re already existing within a closed registry system that is using elite studs, this will be a problem no matter what.
It doesn’t matter if the dogs are shown or trialed. If you’re doing this, that’s how it winds up.
Gucci’s genes could be found in any dog. The way his ancestors were bred and the way he’s being bred are the problem.
That’s the problem. Gucci is not solely responsible.
It’s systemic.
The film has already been taken off Youtube.
I figured it would be.
Eventually, it will be on youtube for good.
Bear with me as I lament what has happened to the Cavalier and bitch about it please. I was in tears listening to Carol’s statement about the breed. I made the same one to her five years ago when we were on the cangen list together, but I’ve held out hope.
A list of popular sires that quickly come to mind, and their litter numbers as per the KC database.
Cavaliegh Alexander b. 29 Jan 1989
293 puppies from 82 litters
Lymrey Royal Reflection Of Ricksbury b. 16/01/1993
209 puppies from 58 litters
*Lymrey Royal Scandal At Ricksbury b.16/01/1993
183 puppies from 51 litters
Linjato Ace Of Base b. 19/12/1993
314 puppies from 97 litters
*Mareve Indiana b. 05/10/1992
251 puppies from 68 litters
Telvara Top Hat b. 14/02/1989
219 puppies from 48 litters (full sibling died of epilepsy at young age – finish database)
Telvara Karbon Kopy b. 07/06/1992 – grandson to Telvara Top Hat
455 puppies from 112 litters
Miletree Dream On b. 21 Nov 1997
182 puppies from 53 litters
*Loranka’s Celebration b. 20 Sept 1999
107 puppies from 30 litters
Pascavale Ryan b. 15 May 2001 – son of Loranka’s Celebration (grandson to Karbon Kopy)
128 puppies from 35 litters
Maibee Montrose b. 02 Jan 2001 – Grandson of Lymrey Royal Reflection
493 puppies from 145 litters
—–Lanola Santana Of Maibee b. 03 Feb 2007 – son of Maibee Montrose
—–134 puppies from 36 litters
———-Maibee Make Believe b. 01 July 2008 – son of Lanola Santana
———-155 puppies from 49 litters
—–Keyingham Branwell b. 24 Aug 2002 – son of Maibee Montrose
—–205 puppies from 54 litters
———-Cinderlace Cromwell b. 9 April 2007 – has thrown HC
———-147 puppies from 39 litters
Tameline Northern Dancer b. 2 Nov 1998
113 puppies from 32 litters
—–Miletree Nijinsky b. 08 Nov 2000 – son of Tameline Northern Dancer
—–180 puppies from 58 litters
———-Aranel Cosmic b. 28 Mar 2005 – son of Miletree Nijinsky
———-298 puppies from 85 litters
—–Pascavale Enchanted b. 08 July2001– son of Tameline Northern Dancer
—–392 puppies from 125 litters. There are more in the USA
———-Wandris Entertainer b.12 Sept 2002– son of Pascavale Enchanted
———-295 puppies from 84 litters
———-Beauella Radzinski b. 03 Oct 2003 – son of Pascavale Enchanted
———-140 puppies from 40 litters — he is the champion featured on PDE
———-Loranka’s Enchanting b. 19 Oct 2004 – son of Pascavale Enchanted
———-104 puppies from 28 litters
——————–Pascavale Jamie b. 07 June 2005
——————–280 puppies from 82 litters – grandson to both Pascavale Enchanted and Miletree Nijinsky
Kary
“———-Maibee Make Believe b. 01 July 2008 – son of Lanola Santana
———-155 puppies from 49 litters”
This dog is not even four years old. I thought most recommended breeding practices for Cavs were to breed from older male dogs.
That may be recommended, but it doesn’t mean all Cav breeders would follow them. To those people, it’s more of a guideline rather than a rule.
It’s disgusting that we breed brachycephalic dogs given all of their problems, it is certainly highly unethical. That it is bad, I understand but not quite as bad as the documentary so magnificently demonstrated, it was an eye opener.
Concerning breed clubs that recommends MHC tests, I do not know if you are only referring to the U.S. but I know several breed clubs in Sweden and Finland who have worked pretty hard to get their members to mhc test, it’s really interesting, and one can only hope that it will be used more as a tool for a healthier breeding in the future .
I was referring to the breed clubs in the US.
The Scandinavian dog fancy is light years ahead of those in the English-speaking countries.
“The Scandinavian dog fancy is light years ahead of those in the English-speaking countries.”
The AKC should be hanging their heads in shame.
it’s really scary, especially if you take in to account that the Swedish State considers it is necessary to amend the Animal Welfare Act to strengthen the breeders and kennelklubbs obligations when it comes to dog breeding.
These poor breeding practices fuel the animal rights movement’s fire. The denialism of the fancy is just a shot of gasoline.
Kate is right. I read a study that concluded that African village dogs showed more genetic variation than other dogs. The data was procured in the course of a program to S/N the dogs! Furthermore, there was a prominent statement to the effect that the study had met ethical standards for animal research at UC at Davis.