This is about a show dog but it could just as easily be about a show cat; in truth, though, it is about people. People who are involved with breeding show animals can tend to be too concerned about their “product” as a winner and not concerned enough about the fact that they are working with a feeling animal.
In the instance, I am referring to a beautiful show dog called Cruz. He was a three-year-old Samoyed. To a layperson like me he looked like an all-white husky; very handsome indeed.
Cruz had acquired enough ribbons or points over the season to be awarded the top dog of his breed. He was showing in New York at the Westminster Dog Show. He was bred and owned by Lynette Blue and two people from Indonesia. That is the background.
Cruz was poisoned to death after he appeared at the Westminster Dog Show, so says Lynette Blue’s husband Harold, who is a retired vet. He says Cruz began to bleed from the mouth and suspected rat poison as it stops blood clotting. Harold suspects foul play. A complete tragedy.
Sometimes breeders do become involved in foul play to further their own ends. They do this by nobbling competitors’ dogs. However, Harold blames animal rights activists. The dog’s handler saw a woman with ginger hair a and camera with now show entrance armband hanging around and implicates her.
This red headed woman had complained to the handler about the the fact that Cruz had been debarked. Yes, the breeder had debarked her dog. It has to have been the breeder who had this dangerous operation carried out. I can only presume that she did it to her prized dog to enhance the chance of him winning in the show ring.
Let’s just analysis that for a moment. A breeder put her dog through an acknowledged cruel operation for her benefit, let’s not forget. This is about people, as I said. Then when someone kills her dog her “team” allege that a crazy animal rights activist is the criminal. Isn’t funny how animal rights people are the easy target for people who are cruel to their animals?
That makes two wrongs by this dog’s breeder. Now, if a person is as cold as this breeder is, such that she can debark her dog, she cannot have any empathy for her dog. Perhaps then we could at least suggest (allege) that Lynette Blue and her Indonesian partners are in the frame as possible suspects for the killing of their dog. Cruz’s breeder, Ms Blue, says she contacted the NYPD but the police have no record of receiving a complaint. Strange that. Perhaps this is an insurance scam? – Update: Please see Ruth’s comment below. She thinks the bleeding could be due to botched debarking surgery or a complication of the surgery.
As Ingrid Newark of PETA so correctly proclaims:
If anyone needs to be poisoned it would be the owners, not the poor dog”
He is vilified because he had his dog debarked. This is a totally unacceptable operation that is almost universally criticised and is a criminal act in the UK and prohibited throughout Europe.
The fact that you support it must make you ignorant and unsuited to keep companion animals. There is no other conclusion one can come to.
They were at a show in Georgia the weekend before, according to reports. Regardless, I would expect that all involved wanted the dog to be at his very best for this important show, and that would preclude any sort of surgery within weeks of the evnt. I don’t know when he was debarked, but I do know common sense dictates it wasn’t in any time frame that would make bleeding from it possible when this dog bled. In addition, he was examined by a veterinarian who stated that the signs, including the internal bleeding, were consistent with rodent poisoning–and that the most common rodenticide cannot be identified at necropsy. I have no idea what Cruz died of, but I do know what he didn’t die of—and that is debarking surgery. I am saddened to see the grieving owner villified here, with false ideas thrown about. Yes, I do have dogs that I show; they are beloved family member who enjoy the outing. A dog show is not like a cat show; most dogs love strutting around, playing and being given treats. Most dog show owners have in common they really do deeply love their dogs. If this happnened to my dog, I would be devastated; the only thing I could imagine that would make it worse would be to find a site like this and see the awful things that are being said on it. And by the way, no, I don’t have any debarked dogs; most show dogs are not debarked. But I do understand that in some circumstances it can be the least bad of available choices.