Is There A Light At The End Of This Tunnel

Yesterday Adelaide Now run a story about Designer Dogs which the general public should be aware of. It is one a few and far between stories about the negative impact designer dogs have had on the beloved canine. Purebred dog breeders have been shouting loud and clear about the disastrous problems associated with these animals for it all to fall on deaf ears. It is some what encouraging to read this particular story and especially now that there is such a huge push for mandatory spay/neuter laws to be added to the Animal Care Bill 2007 in Victoria by the RSPCA's Dr. Hugh Wirth.

Here is the full story-

Designer dog breeding disaster

Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)


October 27, 2007 11:30pm

DESIGNER dog disasters are flooding animal shelters, dumped because of deformities, disease, and overshot jaws.

The fad varieties, which include cross-breeds such as Labradoodles, Cavoodles and Pugaliers, are too often being bred with genetic faults, experts say.

And a surge in demand for designer dogs has resulted in production-line breeding, causing health problems for dogs and their puppies.

The Animal Welfare League and South Australian Canine Association have called for regulations on cross-breeding to stamp out the health problems.

Animal Welfare League spokeswoman Donna Sullivan said its shelter received designer-dog disasters daily, including puppies with genetic defects and others that had been used excessively for breeding.

"Their reproductive systems are so overworked to feed the want for `designer dogs', their mammary glands are loose or enlarged and occasionally the uterus of an overworked dog sits outside the body," she said.

"They are abandoned when they are unable to produce more pups."

Ms Sullivan said the designer crossbreeds came from unregistered breeders who were under no obligation to limit the number of litters they forced their dogs to have. "The parent dogs in many cases have no paperwork to guarantee they have no genetic health disorders," she said.

Sue Whelan, who runs the Hahndorf Interim Animal Shelter, said designer cross-breeding was a massive industry with no rules to stop faults being bred.

"Our records over the last seven years show a dramatic increase in these designer dogs ending up at our shelter with all kinds of defects," she said.

"There is a whole pet farming industry and you don't really know what has been crossed with what and a lot of these dogs aren't bred responsibly," she said.

"Most of the time they come in totally matted because people are buying these cute and fluffy poodle crosses and not realising they need to be almost sheared like a sheep at least twice a year. We clip them back and find all these problems with their shoulders and hips and jaws."

SA Canine Association president John Carter said he was "fed up" with overpriced crossbreeds and their associated problems.

"We have spent years literally breeding out the faults in dogs and here these people are just putting dogs together and breeding the problems back in," he said.

"We're talking hip dysplasia, eye problems, temperament problems – all kinds of things.

"And they are not under the control of anybody. Pedigree breeders are disciplined if they breed a dog under 12 months of age or use a mother and son or father and daughter."

Mr Carter said puppy farms had become money-making ventures where thousands could be paid for "what is essentially a mongrel".

"These people have no conscience – they aren't dogs to them, they are animals," he said.

State Government Dog and Cat Management Board chief executive Deb Kelly said all breeders – whether pedigree or crossbred – had a responsibility to ensure they were producing healthy animals.

"In relation to genetic deformities, it is something we are monitoring and if there is a need to regulate, we would be making such recommendations to the minister," she said.

There is an underlying hit from Deb Kelly that all breeders should be bundled together yet there is no acknowledgment from her that Purebred Dog Breeders are very far removed from those others, the Puppy Farmers in that they actually do everything possible, through health testing, possibly to breed healthy animals. Once our politicians, the law makers, actually acknowledge this very important fact, the purebred dog may be able to be saved.