Is the Kennel Club instrumental in propagating puppy farming?

Letter published in Dog World on 27th July 2006

The following letter was published in Dog World on 27th July. The letter was written by Moreen Davie from A Dogs Life, a voluntary organisation based in Wales. We have been given permission to publish.

Interesting reading and KC have not responded to it!

'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 diseases being carried forward.'

Moreen Davie. A Dog’s Life, Cardiff

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