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Cross-breeds have become overly popular over the last 5 years. There are now dozens of new cross-breeds all over the world with most of them coming from Great Brittan. With celebrities joining in on this trend and cute names being used for these newly created breeds it is easy to see why this is a trend that will continue to get even bigger. The problem? Cross-breed dogs are the ones suffering due to more health issues and mental ones as well.
Here is some more information on why this is a growing issue:
Today, thousands of ‘toy dogs’ sit in freezing cold, cramped cages and filthy sheds across rural England and Wales, awaiting new owners. Many suffer from parasites, kidney problems, heart disease and respiratory disorders.
Earlier this month, the creator of the first Labradoodle — a Labrador crossed with a poodle — expressed his regret at creating these ‘Frankenstein’ dogs. The man behind the breed, Wally Conron, said that by inventing the first designer dog in the Eighties, he had ‘created a lot of problems’. The 85-year-old crossed a Labrador and a poodle to help a blind woman, whose husband was allergic to most guide dogs, find a puppy that did not shed its fur.
The heart of the problem lies in the false idea that, by crossing breeds, you get so-called hybrid vigour: that a greater genetic mix produces a healthier animal. Instead, in the new, unscrupulous world of puppy-farmers, they produce much unhealthier animals, by breeding without the health checks long-term pedigree breeders have insisted on for decades. ‘You end up cross-breeding breeds which each often have their own genetic faults. So Labradors are prone to hip problems, and poodles to eyesight problems. Cross-breed them and you get puppies prone to both conditions.’
‘It’s also much easier to get dogs nowadays, thanks to the internet. But that makes life much easier for the puppy farmers, too. They can deliver to your house — or even to a motorway service station. ‘You never get to see how they’re bred as you do when you visit a proper pedigree breeder. And they’ll bring you a different dog to the one you saw online.’ The Kennel Club estimates that one in five puppies, bought via social media or the internet, dies before it is six months old.
‘If you cross a dog that has one instinct, with another that has an entirely different instinct, it will not know if it is coming or going,’ says Caroline Kisko, secretary of the Kennel Club.
When you cross-breed a dog with one natural instinct with one that has the exact opposite one, it creates a physiological disorder that may never be able to be resolved or properly treated.
Isn’t it easy to see why this is such a serious and growing problem?
Image Source: John Hark on Flickr
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