26 Feb 2021
Online audience of vets, dog breeders and welfarists believes urgent action is required to curb the activities of canine fertility clinics that have sprung up to satisfy the public demand for puppies from flat-faced dog breeds.
John Bonner
Job Title
New regulations are needed urgently to curb the activities of canine fertility clinics that have sprung up to satisfy the public demand for puppies from flat-faced dog breeds, according to speakers on an online meeting.
These businesses are using AI and other reproductive technologies to produce puppies from English bulldogs and other breeds that have “alarmingly poor conformations”, the audience of vets, dog breeders and welfarists were told.
The meeting on 23 February was organised by the UK Centre for Animal Law, which represents academic and practising lawyers with an interest in animal welfare issues.
It explored the various options available to tackle the welfare problems experienced by brachycephalic breeds.
Jake Lloyd from Animal Protection Services, a charity that investigates and seeks to prosecute organised animal cruelty, said he favoured legislation to deal with this increasing problem.
In many cases, the services are provided by people who are neither veterinary surgeons or vet nurses, he said.
Veterinary historian Alison Skipper argued there was no point in demanding that the RCVS should deal with such cases unless the offenders were presenting themselves to their customers as qualified vets.
If not, any prosecution would have to be the responsibility of the local authority trading standards department and she feared most councils had neither the manpower nor the will to intervene.
Dan O’Neill, senior lecturer in veterinary epidemiology at the RVC, believed the welfare problems associated with these breeds were complex and there were no simple solutions.
The emergence of fertility clinics was due to the increased popularity of these puppies and so efforts need to focus on “bursting the brachycephalic bubble” to reduce the need for these services and the opportunities to profit by offering them.
With his colleagues at the RVC, Dr O’Neill has tracked the increasing numbers of cases seen in first opinion practices of the various conditions associated with a brachycephalic conformation.
But many owners show a remarkable tolerance towards the health problems suffered by their pets, he said.
Often the owner will only seek veterinary attention when the condition begins to affect them – “it only becomes important when it starts to be a human problem – when the dog has chronic diarrhoea, seizures or a skin problem starts to create a noticeable smell”.
Research by his RVC colleague Rowena Packer has shown owners of brachycephalic breeds regard many of these health problems as just being normal characteristics of the breed.
Indeed, owners will often encourage other people to buy a brachycephalic pup by highlighting what they mistakenly regard as positive features, as when a dog with severe breathing problems is said to need very little exercise, she said.
While respiratory problems are generally the most obvious health issues affecting flat-faced dogs, many others exist that may become too much for the owner to cope with.
Despite the popularity and high prices paid for the French bulldog breed, many are relinquished to the rescue group run by Teresa Cargill. She noted that for many rescue cases, “their skin problems are off the scale; these poor dogs are allergic to life – they react to dust mites, pollen, nearly everything”.
Dogs with cleft palates and heart murmurs are also being seen frequently, but there are others where the problems are due to nurture rather than nature.
She said: “We are having to spend a lot of our veterinary budget on behavioural therapy – the owners have treated the puppy just like a baby and it is we that will have to pick up the pieces.”
It is usually claimed that ensuring prospective owners are better informed about the needs of a particular breed and its potential health issues will be the solution to most of these welfare problems. But Dr O’Neill is sceptical that education alone is the right strategy.
He said: “No, it is about changing hearts, not their minds. Education is hammering away at people with facts – it is what we have been doing for 10 years and it doesn’t work. Instead, it is about changing what people want and what they believe.”
He said persuading people to make better decisions about their choice of pet was a matter of regularly enforcing positive measures: “It is not telling them that they shouldn’t do that because we say so. It is about getting them to think for themselves – tell them to go and talk to a good breeder and find out what it is like to own one of these dogs, and whether it is right for them.”
Dr Skipper agreed that collaboration between different groups – vets, breeders and welfare bodies – was the only way to deal with the welfare problems facing brachycephalic dogs. She said: “We all want the same thing – to promote better animal welfare – it is just that we are approaching it from different starting points.”
Formerly in practice in Surrey, Dr Skipper is working on a PhD at King’s College London exploring the changing attitudes towards inherited disorders of dog breeders and the veterinary profession.
She insisted that the often confrontational relationship between the two groups has long been a barrier to improving canine health.
