Comments on: The Kennel Club, Crufts and the BBC: The Whole Story

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:18:21 +0000

what right does the BBC which is a public broadcasting company paid for by you and me to tell us what we can watch. It still chooses to broadcast program's like Pedigree Dogs exposed which was the most bias programme I have seem for a long time. It gave no credence to the enormous amount of time any money spent of the research of genetic conditions in various breeds of dogs. Research has been going on for years trying to eliminate many of these conditions which are often found in humans too and much of this research can and will help find cures for human conditions as well. I have kept and breed ridgebacks for over 40yrs and my dogs are very healthy. Demoid sinus can be detected at birth and the percentage of puppies born with demoid sinus in the u.k ridgebacks is far less than 10% probably around 2%.in many cases it is possible to remove the sinus and the puppy will go one to have a normal healthy life although it must never be bred from & Puppies born without ridges still make lovely pets but are sold by most responsible breeders on the conditions that they are not bred from and lets face it, in the present climate unless you have at least 10 people looking for a ridgeback puppy( average litter size is around 10 puppies) why would you want to breed any way.
Crufts is a great day out and it is not a showcase full of crippled dogs, If you like many other people love watching all the doggie activities complain to the BBC and tell them they have no right to pick on this one event. If they ARE going to take the moral high ground then ther is a lot of other things they had better stop showoing. I don't like horse racing and I think the grand national is cruel but many people seem to enjoy it and the BBC seems to think its o.k. to film these events. At least we don't have dogs breaking their necks at crufts.

By: Christina D

Christina D — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:34:22 +0000

This is ridiculous. The RR has less health problems than most breeds out there, but for some reason they're being picked on (Bulldogs anyone?). The BBC is stupid to do this, it's not their place. These documentaries have not explained the numbers behind these health problems. Dermoid Sinus occurs in 10% of RRs and can be prevented with folate supplements… and the ridgeless thing, well, it affects 1 in 20 RRs. Americans don't have a problem with breeding the occasional ridgeless if it has awesome other points. Culling ridgeless with sterilization is not cruel or bad for the breed in any way if it is chosen to be done. And adding ridgeless dogs back into the breeding population will not really increase any genetic health or reduce the amount of DS, since DS occurs in the ridgeless dogs too.

Stupid stupid stupid. The BBC is being dumb about this and are the victims of breed hysteria.

By: Carol Vinzant

Carol Vinzant — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:01:26 +0000

Thanks for the excellent reporting

By: Bear

Bear — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:41:43 +0000

It will be interesting to see what happens – I would suspect that the BBC have broken the contract, whether damages will be pursued or paid, should be interesting !

As for broadcast, there are other broadcasters – it has a very large audience – Why not pursue those ? – and for the long term, the BBC had their chance.

Sometimes it seems like the KC are apologists – Crufts is a great product, with another channel all kinds of commercial opportunities exist.

By: John Lilburne

John Lilburne — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:06:24 +0000

Brilliant idea, why not put it onto another channel where you may have to pay before you can view it! At least the BBC was a terrestrial channel where it was available to all even though you have to pay the licence fee in general? QVC might be a good commercial opportunity, they could sell things in between classes?