The BBC to Continue Crufts Coverage?
UPDATE TO THIS STORY – CLICK HERE FOR CLARIFICATION OF CURRENT BBC POSITION
The BBC has today hinted that it intends to carry on covering ‘events like’ Crufts despite the mass of public outrage following the programme Pedigree Dogs Exposed.
The documentary, which highlighted shocking levels of suffering endured by badly bred dogs and which prompted a much publicised withdrawal from Crufts by the leading animal welfare charity the RSPCA, caused a flurry of complaints to the public service broadcaster.
I personally wrote a complaint and this is the response from Nick Vaughan-Barratt, Executive Editor, BBC Events:
‘I am sorry you feel the BBC should not be covering Crufts because you believe it is cruel to dogs. I appreciate the points you have raised and I accept that some people feel that events of this kind cause suffering. However, the fact remains that many other people see them in quite a different light and coverage of Crufts has always attracted a very appreciative audience.
The BBC has a duty to provide licence payers with a wide variety of programmes and as long as events like this remain freely practised, responsibly governed, and attract a significant level of public support, we will continue to cover them. This does not mean that we are taking sides on a controversial issue (in fact we are prevented from doing so by our Charter), it merely reflects our concern to serve the legitimate interests of our audience.’
Nevertheless, I appreciate the strength of your views on this issue. Accordingly, I would like to assure you that I have registered your comments on our audience log. This daily report of audience feedback is circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers. The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content. They are also published on the BBC’s intranet site, so are available for all BBC staff to view.
Thank you again for your interest in the BBC and for taking the trouble to contact us.
[Emphasis added by me]
I have made bold the part of most interest. The BBC has, it is reported, set up an advisory group to provide guidance on the issue of Crufts and possible links to cruelty. This comment from Mr Vaughan-Barratt uses the word ‘remains’ as in ‘remains responsibly governed’. Surely that’s the whole point? Crufts IS ‘freely practised’ but ‘remains responsibly governed’? If dog shows like Crufts are in and of themselves leading to an animal welfare crisis (which many believe they are) then responsible governance of the actual event itself is of little significance. Crufts, as an event, is well governed. The Kennel Club do a tremendous job on that front. But that’s not what’s at stake here. The facts are in 2003 a dog won Crufts which had to cool down on a bed of ice when having his photographs taken. By any stretch of the imagination, it would be hard to call such a dog ‘perfectly healthy’ – dogs are not meant to need ice to cool down, they should have that function ‘built-in’.
It is inescapable that the flagship dog show in the British calendar is influential in terms of the popularity of certain breeds and types of dogs. If the BBC simply feels that good governance and it being ‘freely practised’ is enough to justify the welfare issues exposed by a documentary broadcast on one of its own channels, they are very much mistaken if it is also the case that the filter-down effect of this ‘well governed’ event is leading to shameful, shocking health problems in dogs bred for appearance over function.
Mr Vaughan-Barratt writes:
the fact remains that many other people see them in quite a different light and coverage of Crufts has always attracted a very appreciative audience.
Wind the clock back and the same could be said about dog fighting, bear baiting and carnival freak-shows.
Times change, the burning desire of people to carry on doing what they’ve always done unhindered by reformists, does not.
Come on BBC. You have a big decsion to make here. Get it wrong and dogs will suffer, make no mistake.
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Poor response from the BBC.
Althought they infuriate a lot of people who accuse them of usually left wing bias, to me they are just part of the establishment. So you have yet another ‘establishment’ organisation ignoring the ‘people’ and carrying on regardless.
Let them televise it and see that they have a drop in viewing figures, they will then see that they wasted time and resources filming a show that many people state that they will not be watching or attending.
Great use of the mandatory licence fee!
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Personally I think the KC should NOT allow the BBC to cover it after the careful editing that was done to make all pedigree dogs sound poorly bred.
Show people put a lot of money and health testing into their dogs.
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Why don’t they broadcast from abattoirs. These “remain freely practised, responsibly governed, and attract a significant level of public support”. Animal cruelty is animal cruelty and should be exposed, not encouraged, no matter what the level of support. All mainstream beliefs began as fringe beliefs.
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The treatment of dogs worldwide in puppy mills is far worse than any horrid treatment from an irresponsible breeder. The BBC and the Kennel clubs ignore this to the dogs detriment.
Journalists these days are lazy and always take the easy road to publish a story equal to yellow journalism.
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