After hours of being preened, paraded, posed and prodded by judges, one dog will be declared “Best in Show” at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this month. But make no mistake—there are no “winners” in the appearance-obsessed world of dog breeding.
The American Kennel Club’s (AKC) “breed standards”—against which dogs at Westminster are judged—call for dogs to be contorted into shapes that nature never intended, with devastating results. The excessively wrinkled skin that judges prize in Chinese shar-peis is a breeding ground for bacteria, so many of these dogs suffer from recurring skin infections. If the skin folds rub against their eyes, they can cause lesions and even lead to blindness. Bloodhounds also suffer from chronic eye irritation and infections because of their droopy eyelids.
Breeds with long necks and large heads, such as great Danes, often have compressed spinal cords in their neck vertebrae, which can cause them to wobble and fall over. There is even a name for this malady: “wobbler syndrome.” Many bulldogs, pugs, Pekingese and other brachycephalic (flat-faced) dogs can barely breathe—let alone go for a walk or chase a ball—without gasping for air because of their unnaturally shortened airways.
To increase the odds of passing down certain traits that are favored by show judges, breeders resort to orchestrating canine incest, mating mothers with sons and fathers with daughters. This also greatly increases the odds of passing on recessive genes—which cause debilitating afflictions such as hypothyroidism, epilepsy, cataracts, allergies, heart disease and hip dysplasia—to puppies.
The same genes that give Dalmatians their spots also cause them to produce high levels of uric acid, which can result in bladder stones and urinary blockages. German shepherds may inherit degenerative myelopathy, a spinal cord disease that causes dogs to lose coordination in their limbs, become increasingly weak and eventually become paralyzed. Doberman pinschers, great Danes, Irish wolfhounds and German shepherds are prone to sudden death from cardiac disease.
Even dogs who never set foot in a Westminster show ring lose because of breeders’ pursuit of ribbons and trophies. All the new puppies breeders bring into the world in the hope of producing a “Best in Show” contender will either fill homes that could have gone to dogs in shelters or will end up homeless themselves. (About one out of four dogs in shelters is purebred.) And many of these puppies will go on to have litters of their own, bringing even more dogs into a world that doesn’t have enough homes for those who already exist.
Westminster sends a not-so-subtle message that dogs with “papers” and long names are somehow preferable to mutts—even though mutts have demonstrated superior intelligence and longer lifespans than their purebred cousins and are free of many of the health problems that plague purebreds. Westminster even makes an announcement during the show every year urging people to buy dogs from breeders, while thousands of lovable, friendly, healthy dogs sit in shelters across the country, waiting for homes.
Dogs deserve better than to suffer and die for a “beauty” pageant. Please, stand up for the underdog: Refuse to watch Westminster and other dog shows, and always adopt your canine companions and have them spayed or neutered instead of buying dogs from breeders or pet stores. When you adopt, everyone wins—a dog gets a second chance at life, and you get a friend who’ll take first place in your heart.
