PETA MEMBER DISRUPTS 'BEST IN SHOW' AT CRUFTS

Animal Suffering Linked to Breeding for Unnatural Physical Traits

Birmingham – Tonight at the Crufts dog show, a PETA supporter rushed the main floor at the National Exhibition Centre as judges announced the "Best in Show" winner. The protester carried a sign reading, "Mutts Against Crufts", in reference to the dogs who are bred to be born looking how nature never intended, with devastating results. Many bulldogs, pugs, Pekingese and other brachycephalic (flat-faced) dogs cannot breathe well – let alone go for a walk or chase a ball without gasping for air – because of their unnaturally shortened airways. The protester was detained by security and escorted from the building.

Images can be seen here, here and here. Video footage can be seen here.

"Dogs deserve better than to suffer and die for a 'beauty' pageant", says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. "Crufts' shameless promotion of 'breedism' is the dog or cat equivalent to racism, and the consequences are pedigrees born to suffer from abnormally high rates of disease from being bred for unnatural physical traits."

Breeding pedigree dogs results in genetic predispositions to epilepsy, heart disease, deafness, hip dysplasia and many other health problems. Breeders and breed lovers who purport to care about dogs need to consider the effects of their actions and recognise that it is animals who pay, often the ultimate price, for their frivolous pursuit.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.