Last Monday Beebee the Cavalier was live on BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme. It wasn’t her first appearance on the show. Beebee was invited in April 2015 to raise awareness of Cavalier health issues and the petition to the Kennel Club asking for mandatory testing for the breed. Going on live radio may be a daunting prospect for me -trying to balance a small dog on one’s knee while thinking on the spot and speaking makes for interesting multitasking – but said small spaniel seems to take it in her stride and has dozed off during both her visits to the Salford studios.
But what if Beebee were able to talk into the microphone herself and address hundreds of thousands of listeners? Would she explain the pain caused by her cruel neurological condition CM/SM? Might she speak of the days where the seven different drugs and 13 tablets seem to make little difference and she can barely lift her head? Perhaps she would talk of her frustration at feeling and looking like an old lady despite being only four years old? And maybe she would talk of her own heartbreak when as a puppy her world must have fallen apart when her best friend, Kitty our first Cavalier, left this world at just eight because of Mitral Valve Disease (MVD)?
Beebee, and those who suffer like her, can’t tell us. Maybe that’s a blessing because it might be so unbearably sad to hear their thoughts. But that is all the more reason why we must be their voice and speak up for them, as the 30,000 who have signed the Cavalier health petition have done so already.
We were invited on You & Yours again to update listeners on what has happened to improve Cavalier health in the months since our 2015 appearance. In a word, nothing. Nothing has changed for the better for Cavaliers in that time, despite reassurances from the Kennel Club and some promising-sounding initiatives that have either never seen the light of day or have been given the cold shoulder by breeders.
Cavaliers can’t tell you that the Kennel Club has no means of producing the Estimated Breeding Values(a very useful breeding tool used to calculate the risks of dogs passing on inherited health problems) because it doesn’t have anywhere near the number of health test results required to produce them. But we can point that out.
Cavaliers can’t explain that the £30,000 funding promised two years ago in order to encourage breeders to submit older scans to the official CM/SM scheme has resulted in just 22 scans being graded. The total of scans from KC-registered Cavaliers submitted since the scheme launched in 2012 is a pitiful 256.
Cavaliers can’t read the results of the Kennel Club’s own breed health survey that reveal life expectancy for KC-registered Cavaliers has now fallen to just 10 years old.
Cavaliers can’t express their feeling of dismay that we are still no closer to an official heart scheme, despite MVD being 20 times more prevalent in Cavaliers than any other breed and there being negligible improvement in their cardiac health in this country for decades.
Is it any wonder that Bill Lambert, health and breeder services manager at the Kennel Club who appeared on the programme in 2015, declined the second invitation? What could he possibly say? Obviously, he could have said “Yes, far too few Cavalier breeders are testing and following breeding guidelines properly, so in order to save this wonderful breed and live up to our own slogan of ‘Making a difference for dogs’, the Kennel Club is going to make testing mandatory.” But he didn’t.
Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today, appeared on You & Yours instead and confirmed this is what many people have been calling for over many years. She believes outcrossing might be the only hope for the breed given the number and severity of afflictions affecting it. She’s written a very interesting blogabout her thoughts
Dog World reported the contents of the radio show and the ensuing debate. It appeared the same day as an editorial entitled “The Overscrupulous Puppy Buyer”. While the author, Sheila Atter, did not write the headline, Cavalier puppy buyers formed the backbone of her piece. She cited examples of puppy buyers arriving armed with lists of questions, some – shock horror – with clipboards and pens. While there is never an excuse for rudeness, puppy buyers should never, ever, ever be discouraged from asking questions.
It’s a very interesting read and reveals a lot about the attitude of breeders towards puppy buyers. Ms Atter talks of Cavalier puppy buyers who “demanded the answers to a lot of questions, some rather oddly phrased and some where they obviously didn’t really understand their own questions, let alone the answers.” As the Kennel Club and breed clubs are so keen to tell us, these conditions are complex. Yes, there is a great deal to understand: not just what the conditions are and what tests are available but why it is so important with MVD and SM that dogs are not tested and bred too young and that knowing the health status of previous generations is also vital.
Given the fact that so many “respected” and well-known breeders don’t seem to take this into consideration when breeding their Cavaliers, it would appear a great proportion of them don’t understand these conditions either. Any decent breeder would not feel threatened or offended by a scrupulous puppy buyer. Again, this is where our voices must be heard but sometimes pet owners just can’t win. How often have you heard us criticised for “not researching the breed’s health issues” or “not doing their homework”?
CM/SM might be common in Cavaliers but it is extremely rare in people. However, human suffers do have a voice and are horrified that Cavaliers could be bred without knowing their SM status given the risk this poses to the offspring. Many have lent their voices to our campaign, and organisations such as the Ann Conroy Trust in the UK and the Worldwide Syringomyelia and Chiari Task Force in the US have been supportive of the campaign to help Cavaliers and other breeds.
But back to Beebee. If she were able to understand the breath-taking irresponsibility that went into her own breeding by her own hugely successful breeders, perhaps her reaction would not have been suitable for broadcast on the BBC. Certainly even in print, it might require a liberal scattering of ****** However, if she came across these people again, I know exactly how she’d greet them: like her newest best friends, with her tail wagging. And that is exactly why we must do the talking for these dear dogs, the love-sponges of the canine world. We must fight for a healthier future for them.
To sign the Cavalier health petition, please sign here