BBC: “Bateson Report a Kennel Club Own Goal”

BBC correspondent Jeremy Cooke, writing on the BBC’s news website, has echoed the views of many canine health campaigners, draws attention to the spectacular own goal the Kennel Club has scored having spent so much time and energy rejecting, opposing and criticising the award winning, Pedigree Dogs Exposed documentary (aired on the BBC) only to have their own commissioned and joint funded report vindicate the findings of that programme.Cooke writes:

“The Bateson inquiry may leave some in the Kennel Club feeling they have scored something of an own goal. Officially they welcome the report – which the Kennel Club itself commissioned in the light of damning allegation in a BBC Panorama documentary.

But Professor Bateson’s report hardly gives pure bred dog breeding a clean bill of health. He concludes that inbreeding and breeding dogs for specific characteristics such as wrinkly skin are serious welfare issues.

The problem can be that breeders who produce puppies with the most exaggerated “desirable” characteristics have often won awards at top dog shows. And that means the puppies they produce can fetch higher prices.

Professor Bateson called it a classic example of “Private Gain versus Public Good”.

Following the airing of Pedigree Dogs Exposed, the BBC withdrew coverage of Crufts dog show.

That has now fallen to the much smaller, niche channel More4 – who have claimed the programme will have more of a health focus.

Pedigree are no longer the sponsor of Crufts. That position is now taken by the furniture store DFS, a company that does not appear to offer any dog related products but whose chairman, Lord Graham Kirkham, has a personal affection for dog showing.

Professor Bateson himself has called on the public to put pressure on breeders.

He also told the BBC: “The public plays a big role here. A dog will be with a family at least 10 years, so they should take trouble in finding a good breeder, making sure that the proper health checks have been done and making sure the dog has been microchipped.

“When all these things are done, I think the public can exert powerful pressure on the breeders.”