You have to think carefully when a petition is worded.
Quote:
we the undersigned urge the Prime minister please instigate legislation to ensure pedigree dogs are saved from unnecessary future suffering
Unquote

How will such pedigree dogs be saved from unnecessary future suffering? Are they to be culled as puppies as their heritage shows they are most likely to have potenitally debilitating conditions such as hip displasia? Well there go the Pugs, over 60% of them displastic, and with eye problems and breathing difficulties -PDE never commented on the hips though did they? And if the Pugs go ( and I personally would not miss them but I accept that others would) then all the Designer Dogs with this as a cross should go too.

And what about the cross breeds and just honest mongrels, no legislation to ensure that they are saved from unnecessary future suffering?

Mongrels and cross breeds do not suffer from genetically controlled conditions that are adverse to health?

Take a Pug and cross it with a Beagle (over 60% of the breed dysplatic from the Pug and over 18% of the breed from the Beagle) and you might get something 40% displastic and call it a Puggle - I think they do. ESS as a breed are about 14% dysplatic but with 8.0% having excellent hips - the best you could say for a Puggle is the Beagle rating of 2.4% excellent (Pugs are 0.0% BTW) and say (about) 40% dysplastic for the cross bred. There would be only about 15 pedigree dog breeds worse than this, call it 20 to save unnecessary argument.

I am totally for the welfare of all dogs and totally against knee jerk and ill-informed reactions.

Let me put a case - Rytex Racine (ESS) won both the All Variety Spaniel Championship and the Irish Spaniel Championship in the very early 1990's. Probably the first spaniel ever to win two national championships - and to the best of my knowledge only two others have done it in nearly thirty years. Racine had the same sire as her half brother to whom she was mated. I do not condone this but I realize what it achieved in terms of a fit for purpose dog.

So we stop breeding pedigree dogs and just adopt rescues, and when the rescues run out we do what they are doing in the USA and import rescues from the third world? No we don't need to do that, we are already importing rescues and farmed puppies from Ireland and ensuring that dog welfare there is secondary to a quick buck or should I say punt? (edited to say Euro)

No, Iam not signing such an ill thought out petition.
There is much more to be done for all dog welfare, but this is not the way forward.

Sgurr