Animal Welfare Issue: Pedigree Dogs

Throughout history dogs, of various breeds, have been trained and used to aid humans in numerous jobs such as herding and hunting (Arman 2007). More recently, dogs are being brought as companions of your everyday family (Serpell 1995). Although working dogs do still exist and are still used today in their ‘original’ jobs many have advanced to carry out tasks that better fit the modern day (Olson 2002). For example, dogs are being trained to be able to identify certain changes in humans before an epileptic seizure occurs and are able to signal their owner to warn them (Strong & Brown 2000). Many people feel their dog has helped them in some way or another (Cohen 2002) but have we done the same for them?

Within the UK the pedigree dog industry has often been under criticism due to the specifications in which the UK Kennel Club (UKKC) set as dog breed standards as these can often have an effect on the animals welfare (Asher et al. 2009). The UKKC was founded in 1873 and set breed standards which included details of preferred conformation, colour, and other desirable traits that completed the breed (Collins et al. 2011)(Arman 2007). This lead to highly selective breeding with the use of popular sires being constantly bred from which caused a large decrease in the breed's population genetic diversity and so, in turn, increasing the occurrence of inherited diseases (Leroy 2011).

If you compare photos of breeds then to the modern day it is easy to see the deviation towards exaggerated phenotypes (Farrell et al. 2015). Bulldogs are a particularly extreme example of this (Figure 1) with now having bowed limbs, broad chest and large, flat-faces they are far from their sporting ancestors (Farrell et al. 2015). Brachycephalic airway syndrome, a respiratory condition that can lead to overheating, exercise-intolerance and death, is just one condition caused by selective breeding that has caused changes in canine morphology (i.e. flat-face) (Farrell et al. 2015). Within the UK there are 396 known inherited disorders (Collins et al. 2011), the strict regulations set by UKKC (Arman 2007) has created a breed barrier and so lead to this high number (Farrell et al. 2015). For example, the UKKC states that a Pug’s tails should be curled as tight as possible over the hip, however, this is highly known to be a trait that causes hemivertebrae (Asher et al. 2009).

Although there may be organisations that still push for these standards there are others that are trying to avoid the passing of these traits. Pug breed club recommends all pugs are scanned for hemivertebrae before breeding (Asher et al. 2009). There are also many exceptional breeders that have the health of the dog as paramount and work hard to remove these inherited diseases (Collins et al. 2011). However, removing inherited diseases from a breed is not a simple task and will require coordination from the UKKC in altering their standards (Arman, 2007) and the use of scientific understandings to slowly reduce these diseases in small steps (Collins et al. 2011).

Acknowledgement that breed related defects were connected to the preferred conformation of certain breeds was recognised as early as 1868 when Charles Darwin hypothesised that the muscular deficiencies of Scottish Deerhounds were related to their increasing size (Asher et al. 2009). Due to selective breeding such as this being carried out throughout the years it has led to many of today’s dog breeds no longer being able to carry out the jobs they were bred for due to deformities restricting them (Arman, 2007). In conclusion, restrictions placed on breeders are a major contributor to the increased inherited diseases and it is unlikely that there will be much improvement unless these restrictions are relaxed. Hopefully, with cooperation between the UKKC and scientific researchers, it will come to a point where healthy dogs are the new standard.

References

Arman, K., 2007. A new direction for kennel club regulations and breed standards. The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne, 48(9), pp.953–65. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17966340 [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Asher, L. et al., 2009. Inherited defects in pedigree dogs. Part 1: Disorders related to breed standards. The Veterinary Journal, 182(3), pp.1–10. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023309003645 [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Cohen, S.P., 2002. Can Pets Function as Family Members? Western Journal of Nursing Research, 24(6), pp.621–638. Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/019394502320555386 [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Collins, L.M. et al., 2011. Getting priorities straight: Risk assessment and decision-making in the improvement of inherited disorders in pedigree dogs. Veterinary Journal, 189(2), pp.147–154. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023311002267 [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Farrell, L.L. et al., 2015. The challenges of pedigree dog health: approaches to combating inherited disease. Canine genetics and epidemiology, 2(1), p.3. Available at: https://cgejournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40575-015-0014-9?site=cgejournal.biomedcentral.com [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Leroy, G., 2011. Genetic diversity, inbreeding and breeding practices in dogs: Results from pedigree analyses. Veterinary Journal, 189(2), pp.177–182. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023311002309 [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Olson, P.N., 2002. The modern working doga call for interdisciplinary collaboration. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 221(3), pp.352–355. Available at: http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.2002.221.352 [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Serpell, J., 1995. The domestic dog : its evolution, behaviour, and interactions with people, Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=I8HU_3ycrrEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA161&dq=dogs+as+companions&ots=Bd7zTyo6ta&sig=jCEpjSmvUJxWo4EALe3yl6bpIAw#v=onepage&q=dogs as companions&f=false [Accessed October 18, 2017].

Strong, V. & Brown, S., 2000. Should people with epilepsy have untrained dogs as pets? Seizure, 9(6), pp.427–430. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059131100904291 [Accessed October 18, 2017].