The past, unfortunately, is
not gone -- it lives on in generations and generations of dogs affected by poor breeding practice. Appalling, compassionless breeding practice that continues
right now.
I can promise you that the problem does not reside solely in puppy farmed dogs.
There is absolutely NO difference between a puppy farmer who doesn't health test and follow good breeding practice and a show breeder who doesn't health test or follow good breeding practice -- they both play a revolting game of roulette with individual dog's lives and with the future of the breed.
If anything, the show breeder who knowingly breeds like this is far WORSE than the BYB and puppy farmer. I know I can speak for many owners of SM affected dogs who would argue a life of relative health in small cage might well be preferable to
the pain of SM ignored for the sake of a bank account filled with stud fees. Poor breeding practice MUST be exposed.
I am well aware of several club breeders who have willfully and knowingly bred -- and who continue to breed litters from -- MRI-diagnosed, symptomatic SM dogs.
I know of breed club members who have bred dogs at well under the MVD protocol age, with no heart testing done. I know of breed club members who have recommended pet buyers take the dogs from breeders who do not follow the heart protocol because apparently it doesn't matter if they privately say it doesn't matter, regardless of what they say publicly. I am not even talking about vet tested parents -- I am talking about underage dogs with NO heart testing done on them at all.
I have been threatened by lawsuits by these people and know others who have been similarly threatened. As if WE are doing something wrong!
There is no way I will not continue to work to have these individuals exposed for the sake of every dog that dies early of MVD or shrieks in pain from SM. They have NO PLACE in the breed yet they retain their positions in the clubs and show ring. I may not be able to name them -- until this documentary I hope might expose some of them with obvious and unequivocal evidence! -- but I would like to know how these supposed guardians of the breed are not as despicable and ethically and morally barren as the worst puppy farmer.
Many of these people underestimated the power of puppy buyers that actually care about the breed, not rosettes -- people who have seen their behaviour and know what is going on. I know every caring breeder will also welcome their exposure.
If such a documentary encourages broader discussion about the whole breeding industry from top to bottom, including the lack of regulation of puppy farms that means those 'breeders' too cause the proliferation of genetic problems, then that will be a wonderful achievement.
But if it can expose some of the individuals that many of us know conspire to keep their and their friends' actual breeding practice hidden, then roll on Passionate Productions and let the evidence stand on its own.