It’s less than a year since we made our Final Countdown movie with the clever and kind people at Superstar Pets. Together, we spent a long time choosing a song that would make a big impact and also emphasise the desperate fight Cavaliers find themselves in against inherited disease. The result was everything we hoped for: impressive; informative and, above all, moving.
All the Cavaliers in the “choir” suffered with either the heart disease MVD or the neurological condition Syringomyelia (SM). Some had both. Little did we know that before 12 months had passed five of the 13 dogs would have lost their battle with disease: a powerful, albeit cruel, illustration of the message behind The Final Countdown.
While making the case for (or indeed against) health testing, it is easy to get lost in a sea of statistics and scientific data. While these are essential and important, it is also crucial not to forget that behind the numbers are flesh-and-blood dogs and their families dealing with the consequences of these horrible conditions. So, we thought it appropriate to remember the five special dogs from the Cavalier choir.
One was Sophie, beloved companion of Damon Scott who shot to fame on Britain’s Got Talent. Damon also provided the voiceover for our version of The Final Countdown. “I can’t believe that so many of the Cavaliers that were featured have passed away, including my own little Sophie who lived with MVD pretty much all her life,” he says. “It saddens me no end to know that, even though we are a nation of dog lovers, those with the power to make real change refuse to act to save our precious pets from suffering.”
In September six-year-old Poppy Burgess died suddenly while on holiday with her family in Cornwall. Poppy was bred by a top show breeder but her parents were not health tested properly. All her short life she suffered from SM and heart issues. “Years of taking 13 tablets a day to relieve her pain and deal with her heart problems had taken their toll,” believes Claire Burgess. “I’m not sure we will ever get over those last few hours with her. The day before we’d been on the beach together and the next we were doing the long drive home with her little body.
“We are heartbroken. I can’t express how much we miss that beautiful face and her sweet character. When you have a poorly Cavalier, the worry never stops: it is endless visits to the vets and specialists, constant clock watching to make sure you give them their medication at the right time. And then suddenly they are gone and everything stops.”
“I’m not sure I will ever get over saying goodbye to my precious boy. He had the kindest and most loving heart but was robbed of his life prematurely”
Dr Lynn Sudbury-Riley is a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool but when she brought home Scarlett, a beautiful ruby Cavalier, she found herself on a very steep learning curve. “Scarlett was four years old when I bought her from someone I soon realised was a puppy farmer. Even though she had a grade three to four heart murmur she’d had Kennel Club registered puppies,” reveals Lynn.
Scarlett also had luxating patellas and a mouth so neglected that most of her teeth had to be removed. “The cardiologists were used to seeing serious heart problems but they were shocked at the extent of the damage to Scarlett’s heart,” she says. “The last 18 months of her life she battled stoically helped by a huge and heady cocktail of drugs but eventually her liver failed. Scarlett was just nine years old. A Kennel Club registration means nothing in terms of health and welfare. It is worse than useless because it misleads people into thinking it represents a dog bred to the highest standards.”
“A KC registration means nothing in terms of health and welfare. It is worse than useless because it misleads people into thinking it represents a dog bred to the highest standards,” Dr Lynn Sudbury-Riley
Another one of our Cavalier choristers to find his angel wings was Milo Young, who had SM and MVD. He’d been in heart failure for two years when he died aged nine. “His death has destroyed me,” admits Shell Young. “Five months on from losing him, I am still struggling and not sure I will ever get over saying goodbye to my precious boy. He had the kindest and most loving heart but was robbed of his life prematurely.
“Despite being dealt such a cruel card in life in terms of his health and despite everything he went through, Milo always had a wagging tail. I miss him so much,” she continues.
Pretty tricolour Bella was a birthday present for a 12-year-old Jonny Meah. “It’s safe to say that she was the best birthday present I’ve ever had. I’d waited all my life for a dog. She was the most gentle, expressive and warm dog, not to mention gorgeous. I was so proud of her.
“The day we lost Bella to MVD, soon after her 10th birthday, was heart breaking for my family; she was so much more that ‘just a dog’,” maintains Jonny. “I’d grown up with her and for every memorable occasion in my life for a decade – good or bad – Bella had been there. She used to talk to me. I know it sounds crazy but whenever I spoke to her, she’d grumble something back. When she went, the silence was deafening.”
In addition to saying goodbye to these five brave Cavaliers, what else has happened in the last 12 months? Signatures on our petition for mandatory health testing have reached 30,000 but little has changed for Cavaliers. Breeders continue to boycott the official SM scheme; a breed club health representative recently admitted to Dog World magazine that the numbers doing any scanning at all had fallen.
Perhaps the most significant announcement came in November 2016 when the Kennel Club declared it was going to introduce an official heart scheme along the lines of the hugely successful Danish model that has seen the risk of MVD fall by 73 per cent for Cavaliers. This was going to “dramatically improve heart health in the breed” the press release promised. What it failed to mention is that, unlike the Danish version, the UK KC had no plans to make its scheme compulsory.
Fast forward to January 2017 when a meeting was held between the Kennel Club and representatives of some Cavalier breed clubs, who made their feelings about the proposed new scheme very clear. As a result the KC appears to back peddling at a rate of knots Sir Ben Ainslie would be proud of. An official heart scheme of any sort now appears as far away as before the November announcement while a “working party” looks again at the issue of Cavalier hearts. It would be wonderful to be proven wrong and discover this isn’t merely more delaying and stalling tactics.
“It saddens me no end to know that, even though we are a nation of dog lovers, those with the power to make real change refuse to act to save our precious pets from suffering,” Damon Scott
The last word goes to Jonny, who expresses so powerfully the feelings of thousands of dog lovers: “This breed suffers because of greed, carelessness and complacency. Heath testing must become mandatory so the likes of Bella and countless others don’t have to die before their time and spend years on medication.”
If you agree, please sign our petition
To watch The Final Countdown and our other videos, please visit our YouTube channel