@lvoss:
Surgically altering a dog makes it ineligible to be shown under AKC rules. There are still people who will do so but it is cheating. Anyone who is considering stud service needs to their homework just like anyone looking for a puppy. There are good breeders and bad ones and you need to use the resources available to you to sort through them.
This wasn't plastic surgery, so then they can't be denied from the ring, right? I do think that everyone should do their homework, but for a normal puppy buyer a breeder with a Crufts BIS winner looks very very responsible.
@lvoss:
As for rules for breeding, I truly believe that the statement made at the end of the GI Joe cartoons they played when I was kid was great advice, "Knowledge is Power". Education is the best tool, educated buyers make educated decisions and will require more from breeders. Most of the dogs in my city are unlicensed even though it is against the law. The kennel club is correct when they say making rules are not going to stop people from doing the wrong thing. Public searchable health databases and an educated public who knows how to use them and interpret results has an effect.
I think that it would help to 1. educate people about the importance of a dog with a pedigree and 2. make sure that a pedigree can be trusted.. And therefore you need rules.. No healthtesting before breeding?? No pedigree.. And without healthtesting, no championship title.. And I really do think that this would help. (with a good control system)
@lvoss:
Breeders are able to sell offspring of untested parents or parents who have a high likelihood of producing Affected because the public isn't educated enough to walk away from those breedings.
Yes, and of course you always have people who ignore important information… :mad: