Photo by Jemima Harrison.
The above image comes from a 2011 post on Jemima Harrison’s blog. It is a part of series of photos she took at Crufts, most of which would make any rational person with any sense of empathy wince. Why is such unnecessary suffering celebrated in the world of dog?
In it she writes:
These pictures were taken today at Crufts.
This should be the moment the Kennel Club realises that if it wants to be seen to have any shred of integrity, self-respect – or humanity – that it has to ban the Neapolitan Mastiff.
This is cruelty.
No ifs. No buts. Ban them. Now.
These dogs were produced by “responsible breeders.” They were “bred to standard,” but when we really think about it, a dog with open loose eyelids, constantly infected skin, and terrible structure suffers far more than any animal that is hunted. The animal that is hunted suffers only in the last seconds of its life– if at all. A dog like these Neapolitan mastiffs suffers through its entire life.
I should note that she is not calling for banning the breed as pit bulls are in the UK. She calling for them to be removed from the Kennel Club’s registry.
I pretty much said the same thing a few days ago. Until saner, more rational people take the helm in this breed, it should not be given any legitimacy by any major breed registry.
When breed registries allow dog breeds to be bred like this, they lose all moral authority.
It is enabling people with absolutely no empathy.
The only difference between these people and dog fighters is that at least dog fighters don’t make up nonsense about how loose skin makes the dogs better in combat. Game-bred pit bulls and even traditional shar pei don’t look like these Neapolitan mastiffs.
The Neapolitan mastiff as we know it now is just one giant flight of fancy. It was created by a Swiss science fiction writer, then mass-produced by Italian con-men trying to sell the “true Italian dog” to ignorant Northern Europeans and North Americans, and finally wrecked under the guise of “breed improvement” as it entered the international dog fancy.
It is perhaps the most pathetic dog story ever told.
Of course, it’s not the only one.
But it is so obviously messed up that any reasonable person can see it.
And it also tells you that by and large, the people who breed this dog in this way are not reasonable people.
They’ve bought into something that defies reason and logic which they will defend against any and all criticism.
It’s a faith-based position.
But it’s a faith-based position that leads to a great deal of suffering– but hey, it’s the only faith-based position that has caused suffering, is it?
Reblogged this on Pippakin Hates This!.
I agree that the deliberate production and rewarding of such gross and unhealthy deviations from normality is unconscionable. However, to simply blame it on “the registry” is not helpful. The fact that the dog’s ancestry is on record does not create the problems; the real problem lies in what Dr. Temple Grandin has called “the radicalization of inexperience” (see article in Discover magazine, May 2005, if I remember correctly).
People today have so little connection with animals, and the natural world, that all too often they simply have no idea what “normal” is. Dogs are thought of as either animated toys, or “little people in fur suits”, or merely as units of commerce to be produced/bought/sold. And of course, novelty sells; for some weird reason, many people are attracted to exaggeration, excess, and grotesquery.
One of the meanings of “empathy” is the ability to put oneself in the position of an other. If one cannot do that (how does it feel to live in that horrible overabundant drapery of skin?) then indeed, there is no empathy. And that goes for breeders, owners, judges, observers, all involved.
The breeders creating these dogs don’t have an empathy problem, they have a denial problem. And the AKC is an enabler and a large chunk of blame goes to them for actively supporting, awarding, praising, and legitimizing these breeders.They aren’t passive bystanders in this.
It is that lack of empathy that, at least in part, enables the denial. Another part is the lack of understanding of what a dog is, and should be.
As for AKC, that requires more space than is appropriate here.
Hey, do you have an easy-to-share link to the true history of Neos?
There isn’t one. You have to read between the lines to figure it out.
Another good piece on the travesty that is show dog breeding.
The comments on that PDE post, especially by the health chair of the UK Neo club, are telling. Ima just copy part of one of my own comments that sums up what I think about these bloody morons:
“What has gotten you so upset is that you can’t just exist with these dogs in your own little corner of the universe any more, among people who excuse this type of exaggeration. The public eye is on you, and you cannot even come up with a defense that sounds plausible to the general public. When it comes time to decide whether there should be government oversight of dog breeding, who do you think legislators listen to? The outraged public? Or a tiny minority of dog breeders? Sounds like it’s time for the Neo club to hire a PR firm.
I pity you. I pity you not only because you have such a bad case of cognitive dissonance that you can’t see what a deep hole you’re digging for yourself, but I pity you because you’re like the woman that comes out of the bathroom with her skirt tucked into her pantyhose and her derriere hanging out for all to see. You have no idea how ridiculous you look.
I also pity myself, because people like you are one of the reasons that dog breeding is no longer a respectable hobby. After reading this thread I am ashamed to call myself a breeder, lest I be lumped in with people who have no respect for the living beings whose appearance they so blithely manipulate.”
well done on that, Jess Evul. If there is a worst example requiring the English Kennel Club needing to take action to deregister a breed then maybe this is it. (though arguably there are a number of other breeds running it close) The fact that the KC take no action on this one is an example of why this organisation has become on the wrong side of domestic dog culture history in the UK – if it was ever on the right side, that is.
I don’t think de-registering the breed will accomplish squat. Breed clubs are perfectly capable of holding their own shows and giving out their own prizes, which is what happens here in the US before a breed gets recognition with a major registry like AKC.
The impetus for these people is competition. The dogs didn’t get that way overnight, and they didn’t get that way by themselves, they were selected into that mess because that is what was being rewarded in the ring.
If you do not change the perception of the breeders and the judges you will get nowhere. I don’t know how far the UK KC has gotten with their ‘watch the judges’ program.
I have no clue what the answer is. I walked away from conformation shows because they had no value for me. I don’t automatically assign conformation to the evil category because I know too many breeders who show that aren’t monsters.
I think it would be a political statement to de-register them.
It might not have any practical value, but it would get everyone’s attention.
I’m not interested in semantics per se. Whatever the breeders’ claimed motivation and irrespective of whether they have other flawless attributes, results like this need to be criticised and hopefully discouraged. We have a saying – “one day the penny will drop” meaning in this case all you can hope for is that people breeding in a way that causes pain and discomfort to the creatures they claim to love will eventually realise that what they are doing is wrong – usually after they have been told often enough. As you say, you yourself “walked away.”
I think de-registering them would make them more desireable – I can see it now: Get the dog that AKC wont permit you to have! The Doodles anre boutique dogs are very expensive and very popular without a kennel club – even OFA lists Goldendoodles and Labradoodles as a breed in their search engine. Gross exaggeration is a propensity of humans and the “eye” of the beholder gets skewed through promotion and advertising. The finger of shame unfortunately has been only with those who want to get rid of all pure bred dogs. Those who want to return function and health often go unheard.
Sorry I have no answers
I can see the point of what you say, but I’m thinking that if those breeds which lead short painful lives according to their very standards are banned from all national recognition then that is one layer of ‘respectability’ and publicity denied them. Most of these breeds are thankfully low in numbers so there is no alternative public platform for them when they are denied exposure at important shows such as would be the case with a deregistered breed.
However, I can see sense in what you say when it comes to, say, the Cavalier Spaniel. As we know, this is paradoxically a much loved but hopelessly compromised breed for which there is unlikely to be any long term future but, as you imply it could get a negative ‘rebel’ following through official abandonment.
Conversely if the cavalier was denied recognition then this might just be the catalyst for giving greater encouragement to people who would take up the challenge of experimentally outcrossing cavaliers with the aim of eliminating their genetic diseases – with the aid of dna testing of course. A more positive form of ‘rebellion’ this which could eventually save a popular breed in this position. Just a thought.
But then what should be done about the pug, another breed so popular and involved with vested interests that it would be politically impossible to ‘outlaw’. Thousands of pug owners seem happy in their denial that pugs suffer enormously. Maybe this breed could have a better future if there were to emerge a group of people willing to sacifice the immediate financial rewards of just breeding the same old unhealthy pug in order to develop one which can at least breathe comfortably for heavens sake.
Maybe as we speak there are indeed positive experiments going on in various places with the aim of producing that healthy pug of the future, let’s hope so.
Germany has the Retropug.
http://www.retro-mops.de/index.php/short-english-version
and
http://www.mprv.de/
Three cheers for the RETROPUG initiative!
Danke shone for that pai, wunderba! Obviously a great pug initiative is going on there in Germany. Hopefuly it is giving inspiration to others even as vir sprecken.
How often will those with years invested in breeding, showing and selling a breed – even one as unhealthily constructed as for example the pug – will easily admit they were wrong all along? “Fair cop guv” (to put it cockney style), and then join in with pioneers breeding for a more ethical design – not many I suspect. No, the ethical revolutionaries will predictably have to do it all from a lonely place, in the face of entrenched opposition from the status quo breed establishment – and with little or no help from either a breed club or Kennel Club which ruke that these establishments – and no one else – have the last word on all these matters, never mind the possible mysery caused to the dogs and treatment costs charged to the public who buy them, malformed it seems just from being bred to the ‘official’standards.
I still say the neo should be crossed out to Cane Corso to produce a far less exaggerated breed. Some loose skin would be fine but clearly they have taken it to far.
Oh the number of completely made up histories of breeds is phenomenal, it’s pure promotion. Lion killing, ancient, Roman gladiators blah blah its used over and over again……
Yes all domestic dog breeds are invented at some stage or other but it seems the older the supposed invention the more gravitas. There is no such thing as a domestic dog breed just existing a product of natural evolution, no problem if some of them go extinct either.
Bring on tomorrow! Healthier happier dogs.
Dogs like the present Neopolitans are a disgrace who ever invented them. I’ve never liked that weak sway back and excess skin and hanging eyelids. The whole package is so badly put together if it was a horse I would have it shot.
We’ve all been raving since the seventies thank heavens someone like Gemima Harrison was in a position to do something about it for real. No one was listening before absolutely no one but a hand full of working dog enthusiasts. Now the whole world (almost) is getting the truth with blogs like this one.
It’s very refreshing approach too, some of the doggie blogs are run by wacky dictators almost fascist in their belief in themselves be they pro showing or not, same same just as bad, closed books…….always a warning sign somethings not quite right.
Good work Retriever.
Registered breeds which come as close as any to being a result of natural selection are the basenji and the Canaan dog. Both native pariah dogs in their respective countries. Basenjis have benefitted on at least two occasions from infusion of native African dogs into registered stock. Both breeds remain very much as the originals.
Im not too clued up on the evolution of the dog, but believe it looked something like a smallish grey wolf from Eurasia if Im not mistaken.
Primitive domestic dog species do exist. I think the Basenji is quite primitive but would’ve most definitely been selected for various traits be they size or selecting only the non barking dogs and etc by Western enthusiasts.
Interestingly we had a Jack Russell cross whippet before she was remarkable and made a very useful specialised hunting dog because she never ever barked. The JR part was gameness the whippet sight. When she silently spotted something which she was incredible at doing she would freeze and stare it down, unwaveringly. Very very useful in dense forest when you’re hunting things in trees, you don’t want them to bolt through the canopy. Our farm manager used to take her monkey hunting as they raided our crops. She was also excellent at silently pointing out wild pig in deep forest cover. Brilliant never got excited stealth the key.
This tippy toe approach to hunting made me think.
How useful a non barking dog must have been or is still I imagine to hunters in the Congo basin who mostly hunted in deep forest. (:
Almost all domestic dogs we know have only been around a couple of hundred years or so. This is remarkable to me considering the range of breeds that exists.