by Pat Drew, England ~ Mahjon Pekingese

Anything that could possibly be detrimental to our breed in any way, must be investigated and eradicated. I know many sensible, caring people are working hard on health issues that pertain to this breed but I can also see ignorance and small-mindedness playing a big part and impeding progress.

Why would anyone wish to ignore the possibility of life threatening health problems?  After all, we are the custodians of this breed.  If we do not care, who do we expect to pick up the pieces?

If you have bred for any length of time, you learn and have first-hand knowledge of some major defects and maybe this is where the problem lies. Are certain breeders frightened we will pull skeletons out of the cupboards?

If we have a brain at all, we have learnt to sidestep, avoid carriers of health defects, which are not as numerous as in some breeds but nevertheless, threaten the survival and well-being of our breed.

There will always be the unscrupulous that will breed from or sell for breeding, dogs with inherited defects.  Human nature being what it is, the greed for gold will always be paramount. We in England now have the situation with the EUC (European Union Commission) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) because of this.

Health problems are like any other fault and steps must be taken to breed them out by using only healthy stock for breeding. I thought every breeder would want dogs in prime condition and everyone was striving to that end.

I have seen dogs that could not breathe and have died young, those struggling to survive with heart defects, back problems and of course the fertility problems.  As a collective body, can we not face up to our shortcomings and deal with it?

Are we frightened no one will buy our dogs or use our stud dogs?  The demand for Pekingese is quickly diminishing with all the hype anyway.  And without intervention, no one will be able to make money from this breed, if that is their aim. Surely, if steps are taken, our reputation will improve and our healthy stock, will be in greater demand.

There are solutions to the problem and every dog/bitch must be screened for health defects.  Only healthy specimens must be used for breeding. Very quickly the problems would be eradicated and the rest I would have thought is common sense.  It all depends on the integrity of you, the breeders.  This breed is in your hands, don't fail it.