oh the joys of Europe :)

Save the sausage dog!

Is this a joke? April 1st was a few weeks ago.
And what's the point? Maybe these breeding associations should take up the job of animal welfare themselves, for if their efforts are leading to production of unhealthy animals, it is to their (the associations) own detriment, as well as to the animals. I always preferred "mixed breed" dogs, ie mutts, with some identifiable breed characteristic. I currently have a lab mixed with chow/shepherd and who knows what. He's great, and very healthy.

Here's a shining example of British tax money being wasted by the EU meddlers.

We stupid, ignorant, retarded Scots are evidently too stupid to understand that our continental ubermeisters know far better than us, and always will?

We all need to sit down and shut up and do what our continental masters tell us.

Mind you, I do love the Orwellian title of the agency that is managing this issue; the 'European Convention on the Protection of Pet Animals' - and will achieve its aims by making those 'pets' extrinct.

See; our European ubermeisters ARE smarter than us Scots.

If they ban the basset then they should ban that stupid Fred Basset cartoon they put in the paper. He's just not funny.

Gnasher, the sausage dog will still be safe. In fact, it will be safer because breeders will not be permitted to breed for EXCESSIVE length of the back which causes so much back trouble and suffering for that breed.
No dog breeds will be banned! This is an animal welfare measure that is long overdue. It will restrict the breeding of dogs with such extreme breed characteristics that their lives are made miserable for the sake of the breeders' vanity.
Think how many dogs have trouble breathing because they are one of the many breeds who have been bred to have severely shortened muzzles. There are so many dogs suffering because their particular breed has been bred to ridiculously extreme standards!

Pug

breeding to a standard, didn't your friendly local nazis try taking this to the next step?

No7 Robin in California,
Very well put!
No2 Mark in Alpine
Got to agree. Mixed dogs are far more healthy than so called pedigrees.

The Kennel Club should hang their collective heads in shame over this issue. For years they have been saying they are addressing over breeding of some dog breeds. Rubbish, just have a day at Crufts & look at the results!!

My Gran has always kept Pekes, inspite of their respiratory problems, & painful eczema too due to the excess of skin folds around their muzzels. Photographs of these feisty clever little dogs, when they first were introduced to the UK.... different looking animals altogether.

Money counts with too many dog breeders.

Can we ban Marmaduke too! Just not funny. Never was!

I will vote for whichever party will tell the EU to go take a running jump and get their ugly great noses out of our business.
If they have the guts to say the same to the animal nutters all the better.

Prats in power soms it up.

There is absolutely no reason for any government to inervene in this issue.

This is a sign of a nanny state gone wild. (oops ! I see Bryon beat me to it!)

A pox upon the EU and the fecklessness of those willingly submitting to its "authotrity".

best they not mess with westies or i'll see to it their ass is kicked

I am entirely in favour of the basic idea as laid out above:

"The convention states that animal breeders must be held accountable for any "anatomical, physiological and behavioural characteristics which are likely to put at risk the health and welfare of either the offspring or the female parent"."

However I think many pages of specific measurements etc is just getting silly.

Umm, Byron, you have noticed that the EU is devoted to furthering free trade and crushing small traders, like any good corporate shill?

There is one dog I would support lengthening its back and that is the hot dog. The last few moves in its breeding cycle, have been to shorten its outer jacket and try to fool us into thinking its longer because it over hangs the roll. We are not fooled!!! no matter how much mustard or sauce is covering the hot dog WE ARE NOT Fooled!!!. What happened to its legs??

There are people all over the world starving. The planet is getting hot. The seas are polluted and over fished. You can't by a conventional Cathode Ray TV in the shops anymore (except little square ones which don't fit the programmes)!

Aren't there higher priorities for the EU?

There are unscrupulous breeders out there.. and woe betide the breed that becomes popular and a good money earner. They will breed them indiscriminately and carry on breeding faults into them.

Westies have skin problems and ear problems. Labs and German Shepherd have hip problems, Bulldogs, Pugs and certain other breeds have problems giving birth naturally and require Caeserean Sections, they also have breathing problems.

Some of the breeders are only in it for the profit and do not care about the welfare of individual dogs or the breed in general.

I have a dachshund named Otto.. His back is fine, and I've never had a more affectionate, playful, or personable dog in in my life. I'm definitely going to breed him in hopes of passing those traits along.

6 I must agree there are no bad dogs just uninformed and careless owners.

7 I chose him because his back wasn't excessively long. I doubt he is pure bred.

BAN THE E.U.

#22 Al, one would think!

#23 RP, #24 Joanna, well said.
Dogs should be bred for even temperment and good conformation to reduce hip problems, etc. If people would stop supporting these silly dog shows and the warped view of what a certain breed should look like, then maybe there will be some change.

I agree about the nanny state, though...tell them to stay out of your business, and just do what needs to be done, yourselves. What next, they tell you what your kids should look like??

"Pedigree dogs are bred for their appearance rather than for their good health, which often suffers as a result. They are being 'designed' to conform to ideal 'breed standards' which often involve exaggerated and unnatural physical characteristics that are detrimental to the dogs' health and welfare," said Ross Minnett, the group's director.

I do not agree with this article nor the nature of the quote above. Being a fifth generation dog person I understand that yes we are breeding for appearance but we are also taking into consideration the health of the dog as well. For instance, a Labrador should have good hips for swimming and retrieving birds. The standard, at least represented by the American Kennel Club, has taken this into consideration and hip dysplasia has been an ongoing feat of trying to breed out of the breed. Secondly, some breeds have heart problems in their lines. Good breeders are trying to breed those problems out of their lines, thus improving the breed. While this may be a European issue it affects everyone throughout the world. My last litter had a sire from England. If this rule were to take into effect it would inable us to not tap those sources in Europe and elsewhere to improve our lines.

I wonder what is next, only dark eyes, people with size8-14 bodies will be able to mate.. come on people these are your rights being chipped away one at a time by people who are not getting laid on a regular basis and have nothing to learn from life.. the fact that they are blaming the bitch and the puppies for the fact that the male contributes to the gene pool and it will take at least 4 generation to change the looks in dogs and you can not change the look of any charactertics overnite, so as the elite brains that they seem to sit upon is that if they all have a Doctoral degree in gentic science, then they better back off.. and let the kennel club do what they know how to fix things and not get involved.. becarefull people you will lose you right to wear purple pants in public or nothing under the klits...... no more public airing.

Lots of the usual suspects whinging about the EU. But if the UK didn't drag its heels so much, there would be no need for EU intervention. As it is, the Kennel Club is culpable in that it hasn't taken any steps to protect dogs from the more outrageous examples of bad breeding.
Animals suffer because people are trying to produce dogs with ridiculous breed characteristics, just to make money. None of these breeds is going to "disappear", they dogs are simply going to be protected from Man's greed and stupidity.

A good piece of legislation, and long overdue.

Nanny state? No; just government doing what it's supposed to do, and protecting those who need protection. nd if our OWN government won't do it, then it's just as well the EU is there to push them into it.

Hmmm perhaps next they will look to domestic agricultural animals such as the dairy cow. Bred so it produces huge quantities of milk for only 3 to 4 lactations then it's useless.

Then doubled muscled cattle and sheep. The extra muscle causes joint pain and stress.

Pigs, well the pigs we see just now are far fa removed from ones even 20 or 30 years ago, let alone wild pigs.

So on and so forth until we live in a sterile, unintersting and repressed world.

I don't suppose all our MEPs could band together and draft some obscure euro-legislation that makes euro-legislation illegal could they? Then we could get on with our lives without the never ending stream of excrement from Brussels....

Are they, crazy, the Breats the wand to get read off ,been around for a many of years,I think you all lost it

Folks, when you allow these kinds of rules and regulations to be put in place, you lose your rights.
You lose your right to make appropriate decisions about YOUR animals.

This should not be a EU or UK ruling. There has been a tremendous amount of propaganda by the animal rights nutters about the breeding to standards of dogs and cats.

Breeding to a standard has been a historical precedent for hundreds of thousands of years for humans...that is where we managed to develop poultry, cattle, hogs, as well as domesticated dog and cat breeds. Responsible animal breeders always take into consideration the overall issues of health and welfare, as well as appearance.

Realistically, there will always be a few irresponsible animal breeders, but should we put in place restrictive laws and regulations which end up harming the responsible breeders just so we MIGHT catch a few of the bad boys? That doesn't seem to be a reasonable action to take and I doubt the welfare of dogs and cats in the UK is going to be improved by this proposal.

Dave fae Barra

Too true about the change in pigs...I caught one driving a car the other day with a set of golf clubs in the back!!! The progress has been remarkable if a tad disturbing....I mean golf...how ridiculous!!:)

Right, AJ, but will the pigs be able to play alongside the men at St Andrews??

AJ fae Fife and Dave from Barra (congrats on baby btw :)

Maybe, George Orwell's Animal Farm was a grim premonition of the future......

We are breeding the pigs to be cleverer and cleverer ..... they could take over ...!!

We are all equal but some are more equal than others!!! We're all doomed!!!

Lanna,

Funny thing was...that's where he was headed...must've been a lawyer pig!!:)

You do realize this ban will include the Queen's Corgis. Do you want to tell her?

#39 right, we have to get the Queen on our side to stop this nonsense!

#37 Joanna, maybe we should head for the hills while there's time!!

#38 AJ, well, at least you didn't say it was a policeofficer on his day off!! He might have looked at you and said, 'make my day'...

In The First World War There was A Bantam Regiment which got round the height limitations' If only we had had the advantage of the current EU Regulations think how many more Bantam People would have bred instead of having died to make way 90 years later for current clinical EU Regulations. As an afterthought were any of (The Broons) undersized. Lastly my Basset is very Happy the Way He Is. He is called LONG FRED!

As an afterthought,however,accurate reporting, I used to get fresh eggs from a local farmer in Germany.When the hens first came onto laying their eggs were small and the Farmer sold these at a cheaper prize. A local Official inspected him and told him that accordind to EU Regulations he was only permitted to sell eggs of 3 standard EU sizes. Thes first Pullet eggs were below Standard size and therefore Farmer Giles was committing an offence. Our friendly Farmer got round this by breaking the eggs and selling them as Seconds. I doubt this will help the Dog Breaders but I gope it shows how idiotic the EU has got.

No one appears to be reading my input> The farmers egs were then scrambled. Could the EU Boffins unscramble their Doggie Mess. ?

A well overdue piece of legislation. It is doubtful if it can be effective but at least it is in place (or will be). Why restrict the legislation to 'breeders' when there are owners incapable of feeding and treating animals properly, indeed, even Vets! Read the study notes (not other people's interpretation) of the Pottenger Cat's Study carried out in the 30/40s era yet never replicated (one wonders why) to find out how best to feed animals and the implication Pottenger's observations have on the human diet and how it affects us.

Why restrict this to pet animals, why not similar legislation to cover us humans; like those Lowery-type skinny models or any contact sport in which injury is caused like boxing and wrestling?

#42 Dismayed: Are you serious...they told him what size eggs he could sell?!!!

#11 Janis: It's not just the Kennel Club and it's not just dogs. Some birds (my expierience is in canaries) have been bred for specific traits and their health has suffered because of it. But it should be up to the breeders and clubs and associations to police themselves.

I have to disagree with the notion that mixed breed dog are inherently better in terms of health, temperament, etc., and that purebreds are rife with all sorts of health and behavioral problems. It all depends upon what you begin with. Witness what is happening in the so called "designer dogs" such as Goldenoodles, puggles, etc. As they are getting into subsequent generations, all sorts of health and behavioral problems are cropping up.
As one other poster stated, conscientious breeders work very hard to eliminate problems such as hip dysplasia, thyroid deficiencies, and a whole host of other health problems which affect various breeds. They also breed for sound and stable temperament, as well as conformation to a standard.
I will agree that some standards need to be examined and perhaps changed. And there are alwyas those who are willing to put the pursuit of money above any other consideration. But isn't that true of almost every aspect of human existence?
To claim that all mixed breed dogs are sound and healthy, and all purebreds are somehow flawed is simply not factual.

We are fighting BSL here. Personally I think if someone is going to make rules for me to follow they should be spayed/neutered first. That way stupidity can be bred out of the human breed.

I have 2 German Shepherds (no sloped backs), 1 Tibetan Terrier and 1 Standard Daschund. Only the TT has been dejeweled and that was prior to us smuggling him out of Ohio because he ate a jogger's bum.

The problem with dogs is owners do not have to pass a test before they get one.

Many shows in Europe and England will be missing the monies from America because of no docking rules. I swear I'm going to make a bumper sticker that says: Touch My Dog & I'll Bite You!

If the EU can pass laws dictating control of animal breeding, what is next? HAS ANYONE LOOKED DOWN THE ROAD? It smells like a NAZI resurection to me!

Bravo "Dragonhead" (Post # 6) -- Hit the nail squarely on the head. BB

Ontario Canada no longer allows Pitbulls or cross breeds of pitbulls to be owned by resident of Ontario. It's not the breeds we need to elimaniate, if one wants a large dog then one must have certification on the care and handling of large breeds. There is far too much animal abouse. We need to regulate ourseleves.