This won't be my final comments on this program, which, if you haven't watched by now, you should. Here's the link.
Caveat has a good post on the topic as well. Well worth the read. She has quite a few pictures of several different breeds and how they've changed over the years. She focuses a lot on the changes between among Pekignese and German Shepherds and insists that show dogs should be tested for health, and not just looks.
Meanwhile, Fred at One Bark at a Time has a humorous, yet sad, story of a German Shepherd that was brought into the Toronto Humane Society that had noticably week hips and knees and was barely deemed suitable by a veterinarian for adoption -- that ends up almost perfectly meeting the breed standards for show German Shepherds.
Terrierman has an excellent post following the airing of the show entitled Deformaty and Diseas Due to Exaggeration with even more health problems in dogs that are caused by the exaggeration. In a later post,he notes that some of the exaggerated characteristics require some breeds, like English Bulldogs, to mate in rape stands because they can no longer mate naturally -- this is clearly not what mother nature intended
At least some good news has come from the program. Today, Terrierman notes a lot of positive changes that are taking place, including Pedigree yanking their sponsorship of the Crufts dog show, the BBC no longer airing the show, and the Australian Kennel Club Announcing they will be reviewing all of their breed standards to reflect a policy more focused on the health of the animals.
All of these are great reads. Check them out. All of this conversation on this topic has sparked a nugget of a post on a related, but different topic that I'm going to get to as soon as the tech geniouses at my office get my own computer up and running again. More soon (I hope).
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