Westminster Dog Show 2012: Fiddling While Rome Burns

So Malachy the Pekingese won Best in Show at Westminster last night. Was anyone really surprised? Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the Westminster Kennel Club dropped Pedigree as a sponsor -- because Pedigree's Shelter Dogs campaign was "too sad." A few thousand dogs were lavished with attention during Westminster, while an estimated 4 million dogs die in shelters each year, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

This is a typical reaction of the dog show world in America. The American Kennel Club does everything it can to protect dog breeders and the sport of showing dogs -- and yet it does very little to help dogs in general. For example, it gave Best in Show to a Pekingese -- a breed notorious for health problems. The abnormal pushed-in face makes dogs more prone to heat stroke and respiratory illnesses.

Best In Show Class

To better understand just what dog sports reward, look no further than the Westminster Best In Show line up. A German shepherd with exaggerated lower legs; a Doberman Pinscher with a chopped off tail and mutilated ears; a wire-haired Dachshund with such a long spine that many Doxies become paralyzed and Malachi. The rather unspectacular Dalmatian, Kerry Blue terrier and Irish Setter didn't have a chance.

That's because dog breeding and showing supports an entire industry of groomers, handlers, breeders and equipment. Dogs that win Best In Show often have hard to manage coats or bodies that need constant and expensive attention. The AKC condones practices like ear cropping, tail docking and ear training (taping floppy ears up for days at a time so they will stick up) because these practices are "traditional." So was foot-binding.

The Myth of the Purebred

Many people mistakenly believe that purebred dogs are healthier than mongrels or mixed-breed dogs. This is not true. Breeders don't always breed from healthy dogs. The AKC does not check all breeding facilities or even verifies if a dog's pedigree is true. All a breeder needs to do is fill in a form, pay a fee and the pedigree is registered -- no matter what the dog's actual bloodlines are.

And what happens to all of the puppies whelped that do not meet breed standards? The traditional way was to kill these puppies. Many breeders do NOT do this, but do give away or sell dogs that wind up in shelters or breed rescues. Many breeders (not all) never keep track of what happens to the pups they sell. Breeds with closed stud books have a limited gene pool. This makes it far more likely for puppies to inherit genetic disorders.

Conclusion

It costs tens of thousands of dollars to produce a winning show dog like Malachy. But for each Malachy, there are thousands of abandoned dogs, including purebreds. Instead of spending the money on lavish dog shows or promoting unhealthy dogs or dogs that must suffer unnecessary surgeries like cropping and docking, the AKC should instead penalize breed associations with unreasonable breed standards such as having a normally long-tailed breed having their tails chopped off.

They could also do more to stop so many dogs from getting euthanized in shelters. They could fund shelters, hold low-cost dog training classes or spay-neuter clinics. They could stop emphasizing how a dog looks and instead on how a dog performs. They should also prosecute AKC members who run puppy mills or who breed unhealthy dogs.

But all of that would make too much sense, wouldn't it?