Frequently Asked Questions

Animal Protection Norway believes that breeding must be based on scientific methods and controlled by geneticists. Animals must benefit from the last 50 years of progress in genetics and technology in the field. Breeding must be based on the collection of information on all individuals within the breed; selection based on show results is insufficient. Serious breeding work requires mass data on traits and health problems. Additionally, effective IT tools and geneticists with the knowledge to use them are necessary. Breeding efforts must focus on the whole dog, and all individuals in the breed are equally important. The entire dog must be healthy for the breeding work to be successful and for the dog to have a good quality of life.

Animal Protection Norway understands that many breeders do their best and want what is best for the dogs. Unfortunately, it is well-documented that dog owners themselves often do not perceive serious illness, such as respiratory problems in their own animals, and it is known that dog shows are not a suitable tool for selecting breeding animals.

These breeds consist of fantastic individuals with wonderful personalities, despite much pain and illness. They deserve good lives and good starting points in life. That is what we are working for.

Regardless of whether you buy a purebred or mixed-breed dog, it will always be wise to check for diseases in the lineage, both in the puppy’s parents and grandparents. This will provide a good indication of potential diseases. In addition, for purebred dogs, you can find out which diseases the breed is predisposed to, allowing you to know what you are highly likely to get. For some diseases, there will be more than a 50% chance that the puppy will get sick, and this can be useful to know when considering what kind of dog to acquire. Several insurance companies exclude breed-specific diseases from their policies. It may be advisable to check this with insurance companies.

A large study shows that purebred dogs are 2.7 times more likely to suffer from a hereditary disorder than mixed-breed dogs.

We want a clarification of current legislation, which regulates the breeding of both mixed-breed and purebred dogs. The essential point for Animal Protection Norway is that we breed healthy animals, and we believe that one can become just as fond of a healthy dog that looks a bit different as a breed-typical but sick dog!

Some believe that breed purity helps preserve breeds, but the truth is that such a breeding philosophy has led to dramatic changes in dogs’ appearance, health, and genetic makeup over the last 50-100 years. Our wish is not to destroy, and it is not part of our motivation in this work. Our wish is that we breed healthy animals. If one is to engage in purebred breeding in small, closed populations, this is a job for geneticists. The truth is that today’s purebred breeding has dramatically changed the appearance and genetics of breeds over the last hundred years. During this time, animals have changed a lot both externally and internally, and with this change, the health of most breeds has become much worse. Current breeding is not sustainable, and we have seen clear signs of this for a long time. If the desire is to preserve breeds, breeding must be based on science and mass data.

There are now over 770 hereditary diseases in dogs. Research shows that purebred dogs are 2.7 times more likely to be affected by one or more hereditary disorders than mixed-breed dogs.

For most diseases, there are no tests. Unfortunately, testing for individual diseases does not produce healthy animals and does not consider the animal’s overall health and genetics. Very often, the test is not aimed at the breed’s most pronounced problems.

Genetic tests are useful as part of a comprehensive breeding program, but as they are used today, testing contributes to excluding important individuals from further breeding.

You can read more about this here: https://nvt.vetnett.no/journal/2020/5/m-52/%C3%86rlig_talt:_Helsetester_legitimerer_uetisk_avl

Simply put, we do not share the same primary goal. Animal Protection Norway prioritizes health over breed. The NKK prioritizes breed over health.

We want animals to thrive and have no objective of engaging in breeding ourselves. Neither we nor NKK possess the necessary tools or employ geneticists to conduct breeding.

We believe that to breed healthy animals, breeding must be based on scientific methods and led by geneticists.

It is clear that everyone has a moral responsibility to breed healthy animals, to acquire updated knowledge, and to follow the law. In Norway, it is legal to sell sick animals, it is legal to own them, it is legal to show them, it is legal to award them prizes, but it is not legal to breed animals in such a way. If the FCI and show judges had taken responsibility and shown care for the dogs, ensuring their welfare, we would not have needed to address breeding practices. Today, we see the opposite; judges and the FCI are part of the problem, but they do not commit legal offenses, and thus there is nothing we can do about either the FCI or the show judges.

In Norway, we must follow Norwegian law. Here, all animals are protected by our Animal Welfare Act. In that regard, how they do it in other countries is irrelevant. We have worked with NKK, which is a member of the international kennel club.

The inbreeding coefficient is stated in the Norwegian Kennel Club (NKK)’s dog database, DogWeb, but there may be uncertainty associated with the reported figures. The inbreeding coefficient is reset for a number of individuals in Dogweb when dogs cross national borders. This means that for a great many individuals, the stated inbreeding coefficient is incorrect, and the animals are in reality more closely related than reported. It would give a more accurate impression if the inbreeding level in these cases had been registered as unknown, as the individuals in the pedigree may be much more closely related than what appears from the stated number. This resetting of the inbreeding coefficient for foreign dogs disappears in the system and, in the worst case, leads to the breeding guidelines becoming meaningless.

Dogweb also only looks at the inbreeding coefficient and does not consider either the increase in inbreeding or kinship values. There is little that can be done about the inbreeding coefficient itself, but the increase in inbreeding can be controlled in population management.

We believe that many different species are bred in violation of the law. This applies to cats, dogs, pigeons, horses, and rabbits. Dogs are the most common companion animals in Norway, and controlled breeding is systematized. There have already been many concerns about unethical dog breeding, and this should have been addressed long ago. If we achieve a conviction, this could have implications for other species.

In the breeding of companion animals, the health and welfare of the animals should carry more weight than the human desire to own an animal with a specific appearance, or the interests of breeders’ hobbies (shows) and tax-free income. For Animal Protection Norway, it is difficult to understand how the legally mandated intrinsic value of animals can be set aside in the breeding of companion animals. Animal Protection Norway therefore believes there is no good reason to allow current breeding traditions to continue.

It is common knowledge among professionals that good breeding work must be based on science, registration of animal traits and function, as well as access to comprehensive health data and kinship data. There is no reason why companion animals should not also benefit from the last 50 years of progress in data technology and genetics. The solutions already exist, and we must start using them.

Our intention is not to criticize anyone. Our intention is to help dogs, as we see that the law is being broken and that this is allowed to continue without intervention. Many of our breeds are predisposed to many diseases, and for several breeds, more than 50% of individuals have several of the most common diseases. This is a result of human breeding efforts.

No. Animal Protection Norway prioritizes health over breed. What is important to us is that we actually breed animals that have the potential to lead good lives. In this regard, neither breed nor mixed-breed is the main focus. The important thing for Animal Protection Norway is to breed according to the law; that is, healthy animals with good function and health.

We want health and function to be the basis for all breeding work. We seek a clarification of the legislation, both in the form of regulations and a judicial interpretation of current law. All dogs have the right to the best possible starting point. Therefore, health data and trait data must be used in breeding. It is then a natural consequence that NKK must change some of its routines. Our legislation does not discriminate by breed. It is no better to breed sick mixed-breed dogs than it is to breed sick purebred dogs. This, of course, also applies to so-called designer dogs. In other words, we want the same regulations to apply to the breeding of all dogs.

The most important thing is that the parents are healthy, as this increases the likelihood of them having healthy offspring.

Through this campaign, we aim to provide good information to potential pet owners about which animals suffer from health problems due to unethical breeding.

In addition to checking our website, we always recommend consulting veterinarians about whether the breed they wish to acquire is associated with various health problems. Many insurance companies offer different prices based on, among other things, the risk of health problems. There are also many diseases not covered by insurance companies, including C-sections for dog breeds that have difficulty giving birth naturally. Checking how much insurance will cost for the animal you are considering can give an indication of whether that breed is associated with many health issues.

Always contact the breeder and ask to see the pedigree, health certificates, and to meet the puppy’s/kitten’s/bunny’s parents if you plan to acquire an animal from a breeder. The parents’ health and pedigree can tell a lot about the health and temperament of the offspring.

Last but not least: If you are considering acquiring an animal, you should also contact our local branches. There are many wonderful, but homeless, animals that need a new home.

We have created a guide for everyone considering getting a puppy: https://www.dyrebeskyttelsen.no/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Brosjyre-R%C3%A5d-til-deg-som-skal-kj%C3%B8pe-valp-Dyrebeskyttelsen-Norge-2020.pdf

Animal Protection Norway believes it is a matter of course that both companion animal breeding and its supervision must be modernized and brought into our era, where databases, comprehensive health data, breeding values for traits, and scientific methods form the basis for breeding and its oversight. We can no longer accept that breeding in small, closed populations is based on lay understanding, or that breeding animals are selected at shows without regard for the animals’ function, health, and traits. Furthermore, it is unacceptable that the supervision of breeding is carried out without access to databases for health and traits.

We are now in a situation where we currently have a good database for disease registration (Pyramidion), a good database for registering traits (Biotail), and a database for kinship data (DogWeb). This means that everything is in place for the breeding of tomorrow to be based on science and databases. Animal Protection Norway believes that this must be described in the proposed regulations to be drafted by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. This could also enable the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to perform its inspections primarily via databases, making their oversight work regarding violations of Section 25 of the Animal Welfare Act more efficient.

At the same time, the situation for some of the hardest-hit breeds has unfortunately become so critical that we believe they can only be ‘saved’ by cross-breeding with another breed with different genetic material.

Furthermore, it is self-evident that all sellers of puppies must be able to provide information about the breed’s actual disease profile, obtained from a comprehensive health database and breeding values for various traits. In this way, breeders will also fulfill the requirements of paragraph 27 of the Animal Welfare Act, which, among other things, obliges puppy sellers to provide necessary information about conditions relevant to the animal’s welfare to the puppy buyer.

In the breeding of companion animals, the health and welfare of the animals should carry more weight than the human desire to own an animal with a specific appearance, or the interests of breeders’ hobbies (shows) and tax-free income. For Animal Protection Norway, it is difficult to understand how the legally mandated intrinsic value of animals can be set aside in the breeding of companion animals. We therefore believe there is no good reason to allow current breeding traditions to continue.

It is common knowledge among professionals that good breeding work must be based on science, registration of animal traits and function, as well as access to comprehensive health data and kinship data. There is no reason why companion animals should not also benefit from the last 50 years of progress in data technology and genetics. The solutions already exist, and we must start using them.

Veterinarians can follow the SVF form and thus grade uniformly. These gradings are registered with the treating veterinarian and are thus included in Pyramidion. We want veterinarians to take ownership. It is completely meaningless for NKK to certify veterinarians for BOAS grading.

We believe that much of today’s purebred breeding constitutes systematic, desired, and planned violations of the law. Many have raised alarms about this for decades. We can no longer stand by and watch violations of the Animal Welfare Act continue. The law is designed to protect animals from human actions, and therefore we need the courts to interpret how the law should be understood when it comes to dog breeding.

We do not wish to harm anyone, and we believe that one can love a dog that is almost identical in appearance to the original breed, but with fewer health problems, just as much.

We do not, in principle, want breeds to be eradicated, but we want to open up for scientific breeding and cross-breeding with healthy dogs from other breeds to combat common diseases in vulnerable breeds. In this way, the ‘breed’ can be preserved, while the dogs’ health is improved.

Dogs need a good nose to dissipate excess heat and to accommodate their airways. We are concerned that animals should have good function and good health, and that breeding work can document, using indices, that an animal has been bred with a high probability of good function and good health. It is unlikely that breeding based on dogs having very short muzzles will also result in a high degree of healthy individuals.

For many breeds, it is a truth that 50 or 100 years of allowing cousin breeding has led to all individuals in the breed having a high degree of kinship. This means that it can be difficult to make changes in the breed’s health without crossing in a healthy dog from another breed. Breeding within the same breed, where only a few animals are used for breeding, will eventually lead to an unfortunate accumulation of disease-causing genes, which in turn leads to disease. This type of breeding is, in other words, not sustainable in the long run, and the solution, when kinship becomes too high and the disease burden too great, is to cross in a healthy dog from another breed.

Animal Protection Norway has 28 local branches that provide practical help to animals in need, assist homeless animals, and take in animals that the police or the Norwegian Food Safety Authority have seized from owners due to abuse or neglect. Animal Protection Norway is a democratic organization, and our national assembly has determined our core issues and what the organization should work on at a central level. Although many are aware of the fantastic work with homeless animals taking place in our local branches, the national assembly has decided that we shall also work on other issues, including the illegal breeding of companion animals.

We want all breeding to be regulated by the same regulations and that puppy buyers receive information about the puppy’s traits and health through a breeding index. Breeding indices are used in the buying and selling of other animals and should also be used for dogs. If a dog is sold without a breeding index, the puppy buyer should be able to cancel the purchase. In this way, breeding work will be better regulated and can be based on science.

Breeds with a very high frequency of several different diseases have a disease guarantee. This means that all or almost all individuals in the breed will suffer from one or more hereditary diseases.

The English Bulldog is a breed with serious health challenges, resulting from breeding for extreme exterior traits characteristic of the breed’s appearance. The breed is also predisposed to several diseases due to a high historical inbreeding coefficient to achieve the breed’s current external features.

According to a comprehensive British study from 2009 on the 50 most popular breeds in the UK, the English Bulldog is one of the breeds where exterior breeding leads to the most disease and suffering (Asher et al 2009).

The English Bulldog is also a so-called ‘brachycephalic’ breed. This is a desired appearance created through targeted breeding. As a result of the breed’s characteristic head shape, the soft tissues in the head and nose are compressed into a smaller space, while the lack of nasal bone structure narrows the nostrils. The breed is therefore highly susceptible to severe breathing problems, which can manifest as panting, abnormal breathing sounds, sleep problems, and respiratory arrest.

The clinical term for such breathing problems related to head shape is Brachycephalic Upper Airway Obstructive Syndrome – or BOAS syndrome. Breathing problems lead to severely reduced quality of life for affected individuals and can be fatal (Ekenstedt et al 2020).

It is recognized through international research that BOAS syndrome is a consequence of the bulldog’s head shape, and that this shape is also linked to several hereditary disorders in the head and neck. In addition, dogs affected by BOAS are more easily overheated and are susceptible to heatstroke, due to their inability to regulate their own body temperature (Packer et al 2015).

In addition to breathing problems, the English Bulldog has been bred such that it can no longer reproduce naturally. An English study from 2010 shows that 86 percent of English Bulldogs in England require C-sections (Evans et al 2010). In Norway, there were 0 percent natural births in 2012 among dogs registered in the Norwegian Bulldog Club’s (NBK) registers (figures based on owners who responded to the survey). This is evident from NBK’s own health surveys cited in the breed club’s breed-specific breeding strategy (RAS).

The English Bulldog also has a very high incidence of artificial insemination. In 2012, this figure was 92.3 percent, according to NBK’s own figures reported in RAS. The reproductive difficulties illustrate, in Dyrebeskyttelsen Norge’s view, that the breed’s appearance is unnatural and highly problematic. It must, in Dyrebeskyttelsen Norge’s opinion, be assumed that the breed’s bred-for wide head shape and correspondingly narrow hips in females prevent individuals from performing their natural functions. It is clear that the inability to reproduce naturally does not align with good animal welfare.

The English Bulldog is also susceptible to several other diseases and disorders, including allergies, skin problems, and eye conditions. This is also illustrated by NBK’s own figures in RAS, which describe that the English Bulldog has several problems, particularly breathing problems, skin problems, and eye problems.

In a Swedish study from 2016, researchers found that English Bulldogs have genes that make them susceptible to a specific type of brain cancer and that repeated breeding for short muzzles and underbites may be the cause of this (Truvé et al 2016).

In a genetic study from the USA in 2018, it was found that all English Bulldogs (and other breeds with the same type of screw tail) in the study had a gene mutation. This mutation can give rise to a condition that we call Robinow syndrome in humans (Mansour et al 2018).

In a Finnish study from 2020, researchers found that all but one of the examined English Bulldogs had hip dysplasia, and a very high number also had abnormal gait, elbow dysplasia, and spinal deformities (Mölsä et al 2020).

Several of these disorders are consequences of breeding for the breed’s extreme traits, others are due to genetic causes related to inbreeding problems, or a combination of these.

The Finnish study mentioned above concludes that it is unlikely that changes within breeding can produce healthier animals, due to the large number of disorders the breed has. A cross-breeding project is highlighted as the only alternative to improve the breed’s health. The study concerns English Bulldogs in Finland, but there is no reason to believe that this does not also apply in Norway.

Low genetic variation within the breed prevents the possibility of breeding out such highly undesirable traits over time. An American study from 2016 on the genetic variation within the breed’s DNA concluded that the English Bulldog has very low genetic variation. This is a result of a small original population and artificial, genetic ‘bottlenecks’ in breeding throughout history (Pedersen et al. 2016).

The study further shows that brachycephaly, and the breathing problems associated with this head shape, are a result of complex changes in the bulldog’s head structure, which cannot be altered through targeted breeding for a longer muzzle. The study questions whether it is at all possible to improve the breed’s health through breeding measures without further reducing the genetic diversity in the breed.

Breeding to remove undesirable traits will in any case have to proceed gradually over several generations to avoid an even narrower gene pool, and thus an increased risk of accumulation of more hereditary diseases. The English researcher Jane Ladlow estimated at a seminar organized by NKK in June 2019 that such a strategy requires at least 10-15 years of targeted and organized breeding to succeed. Even if the most severely affected dogs are excluded from breeding, there is still no guarantee that new dogs will not develop severe BOAS syndrome or other disorders. This is related to the fact that the genetic material is initially very limited, and that in order to maintain the remaining genetic diversity, dogs affected by BOAS (to a lesser degree) must be used further in breeding. In Norway, dogs must be bred with good function and health according to the Animal Welfare Act. As we see it, it is therefore not permissible to breed dogs with BOAS grade 1. In other words, one cannot copy a system from England when this leads to violations of the law in Norway.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (Cavalier) is susceptible to 25 different known hereditary diseases (cavalierhealth.org), including disorders related to skin, teeth, stomach, and eyes (Summers et al 2015). The Cavalier is particularly predisposed to two serious disorders: the heart valve disease Mitral Valve Disease, and malformations in the head structure, Chiari-like Malformation, which can give rise to the neurological condition Syringomyelia.

Mitral valve disease is a hereditary heart valve disease that involves one or more heart valves ‘leaking’. In the worst case, the disease leads to acute heart failure, and is thus fatal for Cavaliers. As stated in the RAS for Cavaliers, among other sources, the disease affects approximately half of the breed by 5 years of age, and almost all individuals by 10 years of age. This is supported by figures from international research on the disorder (Bogarelli et al 2012).

The Norwegian Kennel Club (NKK) has itself stated that up to 50 percent of Norwegian Cavaliers have a heart murmur by 5 years of age, while somewhere between 80 and 100 percent have such a murmur by 10 years of age. A heart murmur is a symptom that the dog has heart valve disease. As the figures show, there is a correlation between the number of sick dogs and the dog’s age. Figures from the insurance company Agria show that such hereditary heart disease is by far the leading cause of death for Cavaliers. This is also evident from the RAS for Cavaliers.

In addition to heart valve disease, international research shows that almost all Cavaliers suffer from a skull deformity called Chiari-like malformation (CM) (Rusbridge 2014). The reason for this deformity is that the breed has been bred with a very small skull, even though the brain is as large as in other, larger dogs. This means that the cranium is too small for the dog’s brain, causing it to press against the back of the head and sometimes out of the cranium and into the spinal cord.

CM can itself be a painful condition, but it can also lead to the progressive neurological disorder Syringomyelia (SM). SM prevents spinal fluid from flowing normally, and fluid-filled cavities form in the brain and spinal cord, which can cause severe head and neck pain, and in the worst case, paralysis and epilepsy-like seizures. The disorder is genetically predisposed and hereditary, and is considered to be linked to the extreme head shape (Fawsett et al 2018).

NKK states that it is estimated that 70% of Cavaliers have anatomical changes consistent with SM. This aligns with figures from British research (Parker et al 2011). It is clear that the disorder affects the breed widely, and it is not possible to predict which animals will develop the condition. The diseased genes are very widespread. In an article, Knowler et al. discuss whether it is ethically justifiable to breed individuals with known SM. They also express that it would be problematic to eliminate the diseased genes without further reducing the genetic diversity in the breed, with the risk this entails for the accumulation of other genetic diseases (Knowler et al 2011).

It is illustrative of the severity of the problem that the Norwegian Cavalier Club (NCK), in collaboration with the NKK, has initiated a crossbreeding project for the breed. Although the English Kennel Club (The Kennel Club), which is responsible for the breed, allowed for such a project, the NCK chose not to proceed with it. As Animal Protection Norway sees it, it is highly doubtful whether a breeding project within the Cavalier breed can provide acceptable animal welfare. The suffering is most likely so widespread that it is not possible to remedy it within the breed’s remaining genetic material while achieving an acceptable level of welfare for the affected dogs. Therefore, crossbreeding is most likely required to ensure a satisfactory level of animal welfare.

It must, in any case, be clear that when such a cross-breeding project could not be carried out, the alternative was not to continue as before. The alternative should have been – and is – to stop contributing to further breeding of Cavaliers.