Can't they just be ignored and forgotten about? :?
It has already been said they are such a small group of people after all who are specialist breeders for the show ring.
It's like having a go at the top horse racing stables, and blaming all the diseases of all horses on them - no ordinary person would get the chance to buy a foal from any of those stables so does anyone care what they do? (as long as cruelty isn't involved)
At the end of the day most of us don't buy puppies from these people anyway as they trade amongst themselves. It's breeders in general that supply the pet market. that need to clean up their act. Anyway that is how I see it.#
I understand what you are saying, but unfortunately the influence of the small band of top breeders /exhibitors that have no intention of letting the health protocols or health schemes affect their breeding programme is wide spread.
They do not just trade among themselves, the majority of the puppies they breed will be sold to ordinary people, and their stud dog services are routinely used by the "breeders in general" that go on to supply the pet market.
A top winning puppy that, it now appears, has sired NINE litters before he is one year old, has been used by a few owners with no kennel names. They may have well bred bitches but their owners are not one of that specialist group of show breeders you are writing about, and the ordinary pet owner will buy those puppies.
Most of the puppy farm dogs will have well known kennel names at the back of them. Many of the BYBs have Champion dogs in their pedigrees. It is inevitable in the UK where only a very few breeders have spay/neuter contracts.
The reverse does not happen, dogs of unknown non-show lines do not usually get incorporated into top lines. The traffic is one way, and continuous.
Breeding to unscanned dogs does involve cruelty, both to any bitch that has symptomatic SM that is being ignored or discounted, and to the puppies that are being born with an increased chance of inheriting the condition at a young age.
It is cruel to the families that buy a pet that suffers.
These breeders also have influence because the Kennel Club bends over backwards to give it to them, and while the KC is kowtowing to the breed clubs and assuring the world that there is no problem, and no need to tighten up on their registered breeders, there is no chance of tightening the regulations on puppy farmers. Reform has to come from the top.
After all what difference is there between these breeders and puppy farmers when none of them health test their dogs? Their dogs live in sheds. Their dogs are not exercised ( unless they are current show dogs ) Their dogs are bred from as puppies, their bitches mated when only just over one year old & some of them breed their bitches twice in a year.
The only difference is they go to shows.