Mar
Kennel Club Issues Response to Healthy Puppy ‘Culling’ Advice from Breed Club
In response to the story we featured at the weekend, Breed Club Recommends Healthy Puppies Be Killed we asked the Kennel Club to give their opinion on the advice given by the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Great Britain to ‘cull’ perfectly healthy puppies who are born without a ridge (a line of hairs running in the opposite direction along the dog’s back)
“The Kennel Club has recently written to the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Great Britain regarding the code of ethics and asked them to remove the clause requiring the culling of ridgeless puppies. We are currently considering their response.”
We are delighted to learn the Kennel Club views this matter seriously and commend them for asking for this horrific, antiquated advice to be removed from the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Great Britain’s code of ethics.
We will watch with interest and encourage the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Great Britain to do the right thing and stop advising breeders to kill healthy puppies. This type of attitude has no place at all in a modern, civilised dog owning society and should be consigned to the history books.
Excellent news, well done K9 magazine for highlighting this issue and getting a result!
I’m impressed! Well done to Dog Magazine and well done to the Kennel Club for a positive response. Lets hope that the Breed Club also react positively.
Culling is an old antiquated practice that I cannot condone.
I would much prefer that the unsuitable puppies be neutered and sold for a much lesser amount as pet quality. And if the kennel owners have a pair that consistently produces these pups, then breeding between the two should be suspended. There are enough dogs in the world. If your breeding plan does not produce quality pups, then STOP IT!
The practice will not end that quickly most likely go underground. In reality up to 40% of a litter can be ridgeless and furthermore many breeders “cull” pups who have short ridges, extra crowns or anything short of perfect. I have seen RR puppies born with double ridges and the “wrong” amount of crowns but one rarely sees these in the show breeders. They amazingly have smaller litters of perfectly ridged pups. The practice of culling(killing) perfectly healthy RR puppies with the wrong markings lives on in the US, Europe and Africa. Hopefully ethical breeders who admit to having pet quality Ridgebacks will expose the crazy show dog breeders for who they are; murderers. Sell the Ridgeless pups as pets quality dogs with a spay/neuter contract…so simple. They are the same dog without a fancy cowlick on their back, great pets, and loyal sweet canines. Stop the culling/killing, but in order to change this barbaric practice, first they must admit they have a problem.