Thank you for your observations and for informing me that I have got things wrong.

We live in an apparently democratic society/country, so surely we are allowed to comment on issues?

The issue is that there are bad breeders out there in whatever form and that the supposedly head organisation, the Kennel Club is seemingly not doing anything about it and acting in an arrogant manner to address the concerns of the public whether dog or non dog owners.

If they are unable to do anything to control bad breeding, just what is the point of the organisation.

This is a serious issue, to be debated by people with serious views. No place for wallflowers. If my ‘bullish’ attitude puts people off commenting I can only apologise and point them in the direction of http://www.disney.com

If I am an idiot (which I undoubtedly am) my views won’t affect anyone’s thinking – so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The fact that this is still an issue being kept in the public eye is important to me. I care about dogs, see.

As a reader of Our Dogs I am very disappointed you will be offering Ryan a chance to write an article in the next issue. He has evidently been most unhelpful with his comments on the website and has almost been trying his hardest to make it appears worse to your normal Joe public. I am afraid i will have no choice but to boycott reading the paper and will cancel my online membership.

Such a shame.

I’ll say it again, I don’t present myself as an expert but if you wish to deduce that from what you read, that’s up to you.

My advice is stick to one posting name, you’ll get less confused.

Ryan
“I am passionate observer but a simple dog lover first and foremost”- I would stick to that Ryan cos that is all you are good at!

once you start i just switch off!

We applaud April Fearns’s criticism of the Kennel Club’s Accredited Breeder Scheme as we, too, have grave concerns on the KC registration of pedigree puppies which are all too often reared in unsuitable conditions by greedy back yard breeders and sold to an unsuspecting public at unreasonably high prices.
Of the 260 calls received following our advert on “sale of sick puppies”, nearly all of which were K.C. Registered, 30 complaints were made to the Kennel Club by the new owners, 15 of whom had spent £29,755 on veterinary fees. The Kennel Club provides a service to non-commercial breeders (namely puppy farmers) at a charge of £15 whereby K.C. Reg. puppies are placed on a list of breeders which is distributed to a prospective purchaser of a puppy. The K.C. strongly deny that they “recommend” but how else is this advice to be viewed? In some of the cases received the owners had contacted the K.C. and had indeed been recommended to a breeder, two of the pups purchased died within 24 hrs.
Under the K.C. Code of Ethics Item 9, by which the K.C. expect breeders to abide “Owners will not sell any dog to commercial dog wholesalers etc” yet a Labrador was sold from a Pet Shop carrying K.C. 6 weeks free insurance , the pup suffered from a skin allergy, diarrhoea and sickness, vet’s fees incurred were £1,000.
Three separate complaints were against the same breeder, one case of a Lab with an inflamed bowel and hereditary allergies, another of a Staffordshire Bull Terrier that had its back legs reconstructed, another Golden Lab with joint problems resulting in more operations. In each case the K.C. stated there was nothing they could do even though all the pups were given 6 wks free insurance by the K.C. Four Yorkshire Terries were sold by another breeder, one had no hip bone, one had systemic liver shunt, one was pts after two months, in all cases the testicles had not dropped resulting in further surgery. One furious owner was told by the K.C. that inbreeding is not illegal. In one letter from the K.C. they offer their condolences but state that private sales of dogs do not come under their jurisdiction and advised the owner to contact Trading Standards.
In all the cases whereby owners had contacted the Kennel Club they were either not interested or refused to make an investigation.
In our view the Kennel Club is instrumental in propagating puppy farming and whilst they believe that it is necessary to keep the lines open in many of the cases inbreeding is merely causing suffering and death because of congenital and hereditary diseases being carried forward.