If it is felt this documentary offers a biased version of the dog breeding industry, I would place on the other 'biased' side, the breeders with whom many of us have argued over many years now, who never circulated information on SM even after it was identified over a decade ago as a serious and growing breed problem by several neurologists seeing more and more cavaliers with the problem (how many breeder websites note the problem?); who consistently said the research figures were knowingly inflated in order to enable a prominent researcher to get her PhD (yes really -- as laughable as this is, this was stated publicly by a prominent UK breeder very involved with the breed club); who have said that the research was all flawed, that the problem was only in a few lines, that there was no point in MRIing, that the condition might simply be normal in the breed (having your brain forced into your spinal canal is not generally considered an acceptable 'normal' condition), That those of us with dogs with SM have made it up, that those of us with multiple dogs with SM have made it up and have psychological problems (even though they were MRI-confirmed and the breeders knew this), that their lines were clear and they had no intention of MRIing, that threatened owners of young symptomatic dogs with lawsuits if they revealed their kennel name of the dog ever or who refused to help pay for the decompression surgery as a health issue (as per their own contract!) if the person ever revealed the kennel name, and most disgustingly, who knowingly *continue to breed dogs that they know have SM, which have been MRId and are symptomatic in the ring, simply because they are winning championships*. And on the MVD side, that recommend pet buyers take puppies from dogs they *know* were bred outside the MVD protocol, with no heart clearances on the parents, simply because their breeder friends are selling those pups. And then there are the well known breeders that buy puppies from such litters for their own breeding programmes, despite their unknown heart health. The UK breed club's own heart expert Simon Swift has told the breed club their MVD rates have not improved in a decade of having the MVD protocol because so few of them follow it and so few get meaningful cardiologist clearances rather than meaningless vet clearances on their dogs. If prominent club member breeders disregard the protocol because they believe they know better, even while advocating everyone else follow it, how many do you think actually use it? Might the end result not be obvious from the poor MVD rates that continue in the breed clubs tested dogs, according to Simon Swift?).
The problem is that many of these actions remain totally hidden and so such biases are never seen and understood. These biases have been directly affecting the breed, and puppy buyers who end up with ill dogs with costly, tragic conditions, now for quite some time. So I am quite ready for a different 'biased' view to be shown, if it is actually pro breed and dog health.
I so, so admire the breeders of all breeds who have continued to focus on health. Many of them are regularly, publicly attacked on discussion lists and elsewhere -- you see it in many breeds, not just cavaliers. But the atmosphere is already changing for cavaliers because of the meetings Margaret notes -- for the first time, I believe the breeders who have tried to downplay the problem have heard from their own 'neutral' experts that the breed is in serious trouble. And there is growing public pressure from better educated puppy buyers to do something.
I'll be interested to watch the documentary and see what the biases, if any, on both sides are.