Publication of the Bateson Report (Blog 3 #oneaday)

This morning the ‘Independent Inquiry into Dog Breeding’ by Patrick Bateson was finally available for reading, and interesting reading it makes. You can read all 69 pages of it here.

Some of the key points are:

More education for those buying dogs on finding a good breeder.

From this point onward all recommendations should be made on a breed by breed basis enforced by scientific evidence gleaned from record keeping in veterinary surgeries. The goal to be a case anonymous database on which action can be based.

It will be made illegal for puppies to be sold without microchips, hopefully leading to indiscriminate breeders being tracked.

The creation of an independent body to develop breeding strategies to tackle inherited disease and extreme confirmation.

Changes to the Dangerous Dog Act so it is not restricted to known dangerous breeds, to tackle the growth of dog breeding for the sole purpose of fighting.

Promoting healthy breeds (and healthy examples of breeds) in the local show ring, all the way up to Crufts.

This is all good.

Problems I can see:

There is already education available for the sensible, informed dog buyer. Anyone who is researching into the idea of buying a dog, with the view to keeping it for it’s lifetime, will have usually done their research. Maybe shock tactics might stop  impulse buys in pet shops still licensed to sell puppies.

Those breeding dogs in puppy farms will microchip with microchips assigned to other breeders/ houses etc. making them hard to trace. The average dog owner will not own a microchip reader to check if their puppy is indeed microchipped. The puppy could be checked at his first visit to the vet.

All in all however, it is definitely a step in the right direction! Anyone who saw Pedigree Dogs Exposed was shocked by what they saw, and we are ready for change. Hopefully these recommendations will be taken on board and we will see change. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. But if even one dog’s suffering is prevented, then we will have achieved something great.

Comments on the Bateson Report:

Dogs Trust and Kennel Club statement
Times Online Article
Less Ironman, More Fudgeman – Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today