Just a quick heads up that in the UK on Monday, at 9pm, BBC4 will be showing a follow-up documentary to the 2009 'Pedigree Dogs Exposed'. I have pretty strong feelings about the suffering caused by dog breeders (you can read some of my thoughts in my recent post, Breeds Apart) - and I can still remember sitting and watching the original programme with my wife. We were both overjoyed - not by the content, which was pretty horrible - but because someone was finally saying the things that we had wanted to say for years.
I think it's no exaggeration to say that the documentary, and the fact that BBC has stopped showing the horror show that is Crufts every year, helped dramatically to help the public understand why some vets (sadly not all of them) are constantly harping on about this. It used to be that when I told people that a 'pedigree' was a potted history of inbreeding, and that a crossbreed (can I still say 'mongrel'? Some people take offense, but I quite like the word, and the connotations of a scruffy, loyal mutt with one ear up and one ear down.) is (genetically speaking) a far healthier specimen, whatever the Idiots (sorry, sorry, I meant to say 'Kennel Club'. I don't know why that keeps happening) may tell you.
I'm overjoyed that attitudes are changing, but there's still a lot to be done. I'm aware there are many terrible things happening in the world, many of which seem more important that this. But I've seen first-hand the misery that inbreeding causes, so please, don't buy a pedigree dog. Then I can start going on about this, and find something else to get on my high horse about.
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