UK members: please submit health info to help cavaliers

[Karlin]

Permission given to crosspost. Please note submissions are needed by February 1!!

Twelve MPs from different political parties have now formed a working group to consider the welfare of pedigree dogs and they are asking for written evidence.

It is important that they hear from ordinary pet owners as to how they have been affected, and what they would like to see changed.

It would really help if UK owners of cavaliers affected by suspected inherited health problems would take time to write just one page to help bring about change in pure bred dog breeding.

There is a simple way of submitting a short written piece of evidence. If you can help there are a few notes below that you may find useful.


How to give evidence about health problems in dogs.

• To be considered as evidence there must be a front page with your name, address, telephone number & email address.

(You can also use this page to ask if you want your letter to be confidential, with your reasons for asking)

• Then write ONE PAGE ONLY explaining how living with a sick dog has affected you.

(If you want to write more then it becomes a little more complicated, and you will need to look at the Parliamentary Group Call for Evidence sheet)
Send to admin@apgaw.org by 1st February 2009


There are some suggestions below, that may fit in with what you have experienced.. Don’t forget to say what breed & what illness your pet suffers from.

• How old was your pet when you got him/her. Was there already a health problem when your pet was bought

• Did your pet have Kennel Club papers.

• Were you shown any health certificates or given any health information

• How did the illness affected your dog.

• If you told the Breeder about the illness, were they helpful, or did they then ignore you.

• You may want to talk about the cost of vet & drug bills.

• You may want to talk about the emotional distress to you and your family.

• If you had any contact with any of the cavalier clubs, or the Kennel Club, were you satisfied with the information and/or correspondence you received from them.

• Say what you would like the Kennel Club and the Government to do about the problems of inherited health problems in dogs.

This is the formal announcement:

THE ASSOCIATE PARLIAMENTARY
GROUP FOR ANIMAL WELFARE

An all party group for members of both houses at Westminster formed to promote and further the cause of animal welfare by all means available to the Parliaments at Westminster and in Europe

Chair: Eric Martlew MP; Joint Vice Chairs: Dr Nick Palmer MP & Rt Hon Eliot Morley MP
Joint Honorary Secretaries: Norman Baker MP, Baroness Gale, Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior; Treasurer: David Amess MP

Press Release 18th December 2008

PARLIAMENTARY GROUP CALLS FOR WRITTEN EVIDENCE ON DOGS

The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) has now formed its working group on the welfare of pedigree dogs from 12 cross-party politicians and is ready to begin the investigation.

APGAW invites written evidence from all interested parties. In particular we seek evidence on any information you may have on regulation of the industry, structure of the breeding and showing industry, identification of dogs to establish parentage and how current breed standards work.

The evidence should be presented in the following form;

A covering letter containing:
• the name and contact details of the persons or organisation submitting the evidence.
• any request that the committee treat the whole, or part, of the written evidence as confidential, with reasons for the request.

The evidence should be presented;
•with a word limit of 2,000 words
•in electronic form to admin@apgaw.org unless agreed otherwise with the secretariat.
•by the deadline of 1st February 2009

A self-contained memorandum containing;
• an executive summary of the main points made in the submission.
•any recommendations for action by the Government or others which the submitter would like the committee to consider for inclusion in its report.

NB The memorandum can be omitted if the evidence given is only one page long.
NB If evidence is submitted which falls outside of these conditions it will not be considered by the committee.

This is an open call for evidence and you are welcome to circulate the call more widely to those you feel may be interested in responding. Evidence submitted to APGAW may be published in the final report of the working group. Please direct any enquiries to Marisa Heath on 07736 899 547.

[Jan Bell]

I haven't looked at Dog World for a while, as it's getting rather boring to see the same few people slinging mud, but I did have a glance in an idle moment last night.

There is a curious post complaining about the above notice, which seems to believe that publicising this is somehow a move against Cavaliers.

So apparently, it is against the Cavalier breed for a pet owner to accurately report their experience to the working party which at this point is simply gathering information (basic market research).

Why the concern about publicising this to pet owners this if they are so confident that there are few problems? Perhaps while they were reading the above post they also had a look on the SM thread on this board, and saw the many sad cases of pet owners having to cope with their much loved pet being diagnosed with SM or MVD.

So who is trying to hide something? And who is really against the Cavalier breed?

[Karlin]

Just bumping this up as the deadline is THIS SUNDAY, FEB 1.

Please note that this committee has said it is only interested in replies from UK residents or those who own dogs imported from the UK, please; other submissions will be discarded. Also keep in mind the remit of the panel in your reply as they have stressed recently that they are NOT seeking general comments about owning dogs, but instead are concerned with "the welfare of pedigree dogs", and again will discard irrelevant submissions.

In particular we seek evidence on any information you may have on regulation of the industry, structure of the breeding and showing industry, identification of dogs to establish parentage and how current breed standards work.

If you have any questions, you can ring Marisa Heath at the number supplied above. You can also mail in a submission, though I suspect most here can easily email a submission if they are reading this forum anyway .