Crufts is cancelled this year. Whilst at first glimpse this may appear positive for the dogs usually subjected to this exploitative beauty pageant, undoubtedly the same abuse remains rife - though un-televised.

For years, Crufts has dodged in and out of the media, narrowly avoiding claims of cruelty and abuse. Back in 2008, Crufts moved from the BBC to Channel 4 after a documentary was broadcasted highlighting the health issues for dogs caused by certain breeding. The BBC requested that Crufts no longer showcased these specific breeds at their show - when Crufts declined, their appearance on BBC ended.

Crufts is run by The Kennel Club, which promotes itself as being “the UK’s largest organisation dedicated to the health and welfare of dogs”. And yet, the Kennel Club is built on the idea of pedigree dogs and not happy dogs; they believe in breeding dogs for their looks rather than considering their health and wellbeing. Indeed, the Club have their own ‘breed standards’, a code by which pedigree dogs can be ‘judged’ in accordance with how well they match these physical attributes. To achieve such breeding standards, two dogs of the same breed must be bred together. They are often very closely related, leading to an array of different health issues, according to the RSPCA.

Furthermore, breeding dogs to achieve certain ‘standards’ often comes at the detriment of their health and happiness. There are so many examples. Shar Peis are left with painful skin conditions and struggle to communicate using facial expressions because of the amount of excess and wrinkled skin they have, a result of their breeding. Pugs and Pekingnese have excruciating breathing difficulties because of their flat faces, considered a desirable trait selected for over generations of breeding. Bloodhounds with their droopy eyes and Basset Hounds with their droopy ears - both characteristics artificially exaggerated through breeding - lead to infections and more suffering. The most recent ‘trend’ - the sausage dog/dachshund left with spinal difficulties such as Intervertebral Disc Disease because of their long bodies and comparatively short ribcages. The list goes on, and on. And yet the demand continues for these traits and the suffering they cause to non-human animals?

Televising these dogs at Crufts encourages the audience to buy into the latest ‘trend’ or ‘aesthetic’ of dogs, opening up a hell of irresponsible breeders and puppy farms. What’s more, the dogs who are shown at Crufts often live lives devoid of any ‘fun’, and horrendous atrocities towards these sentient beings continue each year - poisonings, throwing puppies into the freezer, spiking dog food with sedatives, receiving no scoring penalties for tail docking and rumours about a judge being a ‘puppy farmer’ sound like the makings of a modern Agatha Christie thriller. They are the yearly realities of Crufts and the daily horrors of the underlying industry that encourages sentient beings to be produced as commodities to tick aesthetic boxes.

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We are a nation of dog lovers, and yet so many of us cannot see how our behaviours do not reflect our values. The Kennel Club registers on average 250,000 newborn puppies each year. And yet, approximately 130,000 dogs are given to rehoming centres in the UK each year. With the recent surge in puppy-buying over lockdown, the Dogs Trust fears an excess of 40,000 stray or abandoned dogs in need of support post-lockdown - potentially due to a predicted financial crisis). Devastatingly, if no room in rescue centres can be found for these dogs, then euthanasia rates could also increase by up to 25 per cent as was seen during the 2009 post-recession.

This madness continues. Dogs dying unnecessarily in shelters, desperately in need of a warm bed and a loving family, while cruel breeders continue to bring unhealthy and miserable puppies into the world. When will we learn that we need to stop buying dogs and encouraging people who put business and profit above the welfare of animals, and simply re-home the dogs that already exist?

As Lucy’s Law came into effect in England earlier this year - the long-fought for law that bans third-party sale of puppies and kittens – we can only hope that these destructive and disturbing patterns of treating animals like products will begin to change. If we now want to welcome a new companion animal into the family, we will have to go directly to a breeder or to a rescue centre. Whilst going directly to a breeder is still preferable above an outsourced and irresponsible puppy farm or the like, it is vital to continue to campaign for an end to all breeding whatsoever.

And so, this July, let’s celebrate that Crufts is not on our screens, but not forget that dogs are still suffering - Crufts is just the visible tip of the iceberg, the public legitimisation of harmful breeding practices that have left countless dogs with debilitating health. Let’s write to Channel 4 and demand that they stop airing Crufts in the future and no longer be complicit in the harm being caused to our four-legged friends. Let’s encourage others to rescue, and not buy from a breeder. And let’s love our companion animals because of their unique personalities, not because of unnatural beauty standards imposed on them by shallow humans.

Nina Copleston is a writer and non-human animal rights champion. Having been concerned with social justice issues such as disability rights and homelessness for years, Nina turned her attention to the rights of non-human animals and the moral inconsistencies rife within society's attitudes towards animals. Determined to make a difference, Nina hopes to highlight these inconsistencies with her writing.

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