Television vet Emma Milne has long been a champion of plain speaking and animal welfare. She doesn’t mince her words or apologise to anybody for telling it how it is. This is why she’s been a long-time supporter of the Cavalier health campaign.
Emma Milne, TV vet and author
In a powerful article – read in full here – Emma blasts the Kennel Club for not making health testing mandatory for Cavaliers when for decades the majority of breeders have proved they will not play by the rules or health test voluntarily. “The KC and many breeders point the finger at backyard breeders and puppy farms… it is blatantly clear that this is a much bigger problem and goes right to the roots of the KC, the show judges and the breed clubs,” she writes.
She also highlights the fact there is no official heart scheme in the UK: “For decades every vet in the world has known that the prevalence of heart disease in these dogs is through the roof. Shockingly, there is no heart scheme in the UK. In 2008 the KC promised in a meeting in the House of Lords that they would be introducing one. They’ve been a bit quiet about it in the eight years since then.”
Emma also calls on the veterinary profession to do its bit in being a catalyst for change. “It’s time the veterinary profession put real pressure on those responsible to do the right thing,” she writes. As a result of her website article, Emma was interviewed by the Veterinary Times. The feature appeared on the paper’s front page and she called for veterinary bodies to sever their links with the KC if the organisation doesn’t toughen up on health testing. You can read a short online version of the piece here.
Explaining why she felt the need to speak out – yet again – about the plight of Cavaliers, Emma said to us: “In my 20 years as a vet I have never to this day come across a nasty Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. It breaks my heart to know that these animals are still being bred to die of painful of frightening diseases simply because their breeders do not care enough to health test them.
“I am so tired of being told the majority of breeders care. This just can’t be true when you look at how many of these animals are still suffering. The show world, the breeding community and the Kennel Club have an absolute duty of care to sort this out. They are all to blame and it’s time they started being properly held accountable for their appalling track record when it comes these much-loved dogs.”
In response to the Veterinary Times article, Caroline Kisko from the Kennel Club seemed to suggest the fact there is no official heart scheme was down to vets, saying “the veterinary profession has been unable to agree testing protocols.”
Emma’s reaction will be shared by many: “It is typical of the KC to blame the veterinary profession. It beggars belief to say a heart scheme is too complicated when many other countries have them already in place. At the very least the KC could insist on the well-accepted MVD breeding protocol being followed for Cavaliers. It would be a start. If we never do anything because it’s not perfect, how will we ever evolve change? Looks like us vets will just have to continue to pick up the pieces while dogs carry on dying.”
Thank you Emma for lending a paw and not being afraid to say publicly what many know and think in private.
Although not all Cavaliers show symptoms, the pain is written all over the face of some