http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/2107

Signed it. :) Can't see it getting through but certainly would like it to! Bye bye back yard breeders and puppy farms if it does.

Why the heck didn't they make it an official petition on the government webiste, instead of using a mickey-mouse site like this?

I have mixed feelings between seems OK (although I'm certainly not overwhelmingly impressed) and it owes it's origins to someone living in cloud cuckoo land :(  I can't see it being acknowledged never mind put into law even if they had a million signatures.

I'm still holding out hope that the KC gets a good PR firm in to do away with the mealy mouthed and wishy washy approaches and press releases et al and that will perhaps give them a fighting chance of being taken seriously.

Predictable >rolls eyes<   They never seem to get anything quite right, hence the credibility problem.

seems like a good thing to me anything to get rid of dodgy breeders etc.  I suspect there will never be licensing of breeders but the more publicity generated that educates buyers in what to look for in a dog and where to get them must be a good thing.

It does seem like the KC is being a bit reactive to all the negative publicity recently, it would have been better if this was proactive which would have given the general public a more positive view of the KC.

Just bumping this up a bit as it would be interesting to get some more views. The petition is front page news in Our Dogs this week, but Dog World doesn't seem to be so enthusiastic.

why as it taken something like the bbc to get the kc to change the standards of breeds if this had not happend they would still be having bulldogs that cant self whelp with breathing problems not to mention the other breeds and if there was not any problems with breeds before the bbc programe then why change them

Perhaps you should read all the various press releases on the KC website relating to this topic before jumping to the wrong conclusions :)  but FTR Breeds Standards are and always have been regularly reviewed - not necessarily changed.

>I have mixed feelings between seems OK (although I'm certainly not overwhelmingly impressed) and it owes it's >origins to someone living in cloud cuckoo land :-(  I can't see it being acknowledged never mind put into law even >if they had a million signatures.

>I'm still holding out hope that the KC gets a good PR firm in to do away with the mealy mouthed and wishy >washy approaches and press releases et al and that will perhaps give them a fighting chance of being taken >seriously.

totally agree

Also no matter whether all breeders have to adhere to the same standards or not, it will still be a case of 'catch me if you can' with the volume producers and BYBs :(

The technology is already available for the KC to refuse to register dogs from 'volume' producers, but they are still able to register with the KC as can be seen from the BRS :(

>why as it taken something like the bbc to get the kc to change the standards of breeds if this had not happend they would still be having bulldogs that cant self whelp with breathing problems not to mention the other breeds and if there was not any problems with breeds before the bbc programe then why change them<

Many of the changes were already being implemented as part of a regular review process, long before the film was broadcast. The BBC had nothing to do with any changes which are now taking place. The only thing that has altered is that more of the general public are now aware of this and unfortunately believe it is because of the film and the BBC. What really made all responsible breeders angry was that we were doing everything in our power to make sure we bred healthy dogs with good temperaments, as Prof Peter Bedford said to me when we running our eye testing session "Why have we been bothering all these years?" Last year was our 27th year of running eye testing together, we even discussed not running the eye testing this year because of it.

Caring responsible breeders were made to feel like some kind of "uncaring back yard scumbag breeder". This is definately not the way forward! Now most responsible caring breeders are barely daring to breed a litter and the "back yard couldn't care less but it will fund a nice holiday/new car breeders" and puppy farmers are rushing to fill the gap. So I suppose in one way the BBC has been exceptionally successful.... It has encouraged the worst breeders and handicapped the best breeders, yes perhaps you are right to congratulate the BBC I am sure the puppy farmers are... all the way to the bank! The cavaliers in the film were not bred by caring responsible breeders they were bred by pet owners, the film makers admitted this on this forum.