Pedigrees: are they worth the paper they’re written on?

In issue 26 of Edition Dog (November 2020) I look at the need for traceability when it comes to buying puppies.

To spay or not to spay…

…that is the question

In issue 20 of Edition Dog (May 2020) I question the need for spaying and neutering in modern times.

TIME FOR THE TAXMAN TO GET TOUGH?

From my Dog World column ‘Crossing the headlines’ (12th November 2014).

A few days ago an elderly neighbour from several doors down knocked. I was quite surprised to open the door and find her standing there as we have only ever exchanged the usual polite pleasantries but I immediately knew something was troubling her.

Wringing her hands she said the words I suppose many of us dread; “I hear you know a bit about dogs… I wonder if you could help me?”

CHOOSE THE BREEDER FIRST…THEN THE PUPPY

From my ‘Crossing the headlines’ column in Dog World (11th June 2014) about puppy farmers and bad breeders.

A story that certainly got a lot of attention in the press recently was the case of Lisa Walsh, a ‘dog breeder’ who swindled money from puppy buyers in and around Norfolk. Norwich Crown Court heard that ‘customers’ would pay around £500 per puppy for what they were led to believe were Kennel Club registered and health tested puppies. Ms Walsh also cruelly falsified paperwork declaring that the puppies had been inoculated against deadly diseases such as parvo when they quite clearly hadn’t been – a truly despicable thing to do, potentially condemning those poor puppies to such a painful and totally avoidable death all to save a few pounds. Not surprisingly a number of the puppies bought from Walsh suffered vomiting and diarrhoea when their new owners took them home. One Labrador pup needed a £5,000 operation on its hip and another had to be put to sleep after it contracted parvovirus.