Cavaliers Take The Prize…
When it comes to inherited health problems, Cavaliers take the prize. As the Kennel Club (KC) prepares for the start of Crufts on Thursday the organisation is coming under increasing pressure to take meaningful action to tackle a health crisis affecting Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. The breed is plagued by hereditary health issues, and over 25,000 have signed a petition demanding the KC makes testing for the two most serious mandatory. I’ve written previously on why this links closely with issues in puppy farming.
The online petition, which was started by long-time Cavalier health campaigner Margaret Carter, wants the KC to only register puppies whose parents have been tested for Mitral Valve Disease and a distressing neurological condition called Syringomyelia, caused by dogs being bred with skulls too small to accommodate their brains. Margaret told me:
The ‘great and the good’ of the dog world will gather at Crufts on Thursday but they seem impervious to the pleas of pet owners. Four out five Cavaliers live in pet homes. Over 25,000 is an awful lot of people for the KC to be ignoring. These are the people at the sharp end of this health crisis, and many have even resorted to writing to the Prime Minister.
Thousands and thousands of heart-breaking comments have been left on the petition by distraught and angry owners describing the stress and expense of caring for ill dogs and the very real grief of losing them, some at shockingly young ages.
The campaign is being backed by the RSPCA and also a host of celebrities, including Craig Revel Horwood, Binky Felstead, Deborah Meadon and Pixie Lott. Mounting scientific evidence pointing to the extent of the problem faced by Cavaliers is also heaping pressure on the Kennel Club.
Rates of MVD are 20 times higher in Cavaliers than other breeds, while a 2011 study into UK dogs revealed that by 70 per cent of those aged six and over suffer from Syringomyelia. Data from the KC’s own breed health report published last month reveals that the Cavaliers, along with many other breeds, are dying younger than they did 10 years ago. In the case of Cavaliers, life expectancy has reduced by 17 months.
Margaret Carter says,
The KC and Breed Clubs are experts at paying lip service to Cavalier health issues, they have been talking, but not doing, for years. It’s time for proper action. Otherwise, it will be too late for this much-loved breed. There are recognised health breeding protocols that are widely ignored, including by many of those who will be showing their Cavaliers at Crufts this year. Figures show that in recent years approximately 50% per cent of show litters broke breeding guidelines because of the tender age of one of the parents.
According to the television vet Emma Milne, much of the KC’s reluctance to upset Cavalier breeders by getting tough is motivated by money:
When will the KC stop seeing pound signs and start seeing sense? The UK is way behind much of Europe where other countries have seen dramatic improvements in disease in Cavaliers through robust testing.
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium all have mandatory health testing for Cavaliers. Despite data, such as that coming out of Denmark that showed its compulsory heart scheme has reduced MVD in Cavaliers by 73 per cent, the Kennel Club maintains that mandatory testing isn’t the answer.
Margaret Carter’s response is clear:
The Kennel Club says the way forward is the production of a tool called Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs). We agree these would be incredibly useful but how is the KC going to produce these EBVs without data?
At an International Cavalier Health Symposium at the weekend researchers told breeders of the importance of testing and making the results – both good and bad – public. Even the Kennel Club’s geneticist Tom Lewis told them “data is your ammunition”.
Campaigners say that for years the majority of breeders have shown their unwillingness to follow breeding protocol, test thoroughly or make results public. An official BVA/KC scheme for Syringomyelia has been boycotted by breeders and only 200 scans have been submitted since its launch in 2012, despite £30,000 being allocated by the KC last year to allow pre-2012 scans to be submitted to the scheme.
Hopes were raised after a delegation from the Kennel Club visited Copenhagen in February to discuss the Danish heart protocol. However, Caroline Kisko from the KC announced last week any official heart scheme would only be mandatory for members of its Assured Breeders Scheme (ABS). This is not going to make much difference according to Margaret Carter:
Given that last year Cavalier litters registered by ABS scheme breeders accounted for just 7.6 per cent of the total it is hard to imagine this is going to have a big impact on levels of MVD in UK Cavaliers.
Pet owners and truly health-conscious breeders have had enough of the soundbites and meaningless gestures. Thousands of Cavalier puppies are born each year, many to suffer from painful hereditary disease and die young. It makes a total nonsense of the Kennel Club’s claim to be “Making A Difference To Dogs”.
To sign the Cavalier health petition visit:
this link.
Thanks to Charlotte Mackaness from Cavaliers Are Special for helping me with this article. Please support their work and sign the petition, the dogs are relying on us as the Kennel Club continue to fail them.
