Who Killed The Champion Show Dog?
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.
Photo by Caninest. http://www.flickr.com/photos/caninest/4395508014/sizes/z/
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.
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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”
Thank you for your reply that demonstrates your level of expertise.
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.
You are misinformed. Debarking is a far less invasive and dangerous procedure than is spaying or neutering, which most animal activists demand be preformed on perfectly healthy dogs. In fact, recent evidence points to long term health detriments of spaying and neutering, but not debarking. Debarking is performed by people who love their dogs and have unsuccessfully tried to quell their overzealous barking in other ways.
Training doesn’t work with dedicated barkers; nor do citronella or shock collars. THOSE are cruel, punishing the dog every time it utters a sound. Debarked dogs can still bark, but it is quieter. Many dog owners are faced with the choice of debarking, rehoming (because sure, everyone wants a barking dog!) or euthanizing their beloved dog. I think your blog is despicable in using the death of a beloved pet to get on your bandwagon about something you know nothing about, and blame the grieving owner.
Thanks CC for visiting and commenting. You think I am despicable. I think you are ignorant and despicable for supporting such an unnecessary and cruel operation that is known to be risky and which can cause serious illness through side effects.
Leave dogs and cats alone. Let them be natural for heaven’s sakes. What is wrong with that. Stop modifying dogs just because it suits you.
In Europe you’d be a criminal, you ignorant fool.
The plot thickens. There is another story about another dog:
This is another dog that took part in the same show venue. God knows what is happening. The animal show world looks decidedly dodgy.
Since Westminster doesn’t offer obedience classes, I’m not sure where they got their facts.
I applaud you for stepping out of our normal area of topics to cover something that is of vital importance to the entire show system. When I watched the show, I commented that some dogs looked so tired. They push them so far and for what? A stinking ribbon or cup? I’m am a HUGE fan of any animal show of these types, but he animals need to be raised by loving breeders who are in it for the love of the breed and the animal. I agree with Ruth. I felt there was something off from the second I heard the story. Kudos for her digging deeper. That poor dog. I’m so mad, I really can’t make sense of it all yet. The necropsy DID NOT look for poisons or any other foul play. That is suspicious as well. Dang it all!
My immediate feeling is that something odd and bad is going on. Maybe that is my suspicious and cynical mind. However, there have been quite a few stories of show dog and cat nobbling in the past. Whenever humans compete a few like to find an advantage even if it is illegal. The debarking aspect of this is horrible. Although I am acutely aware I have to acknowledge that news stories can distort the “facts”.
Debarking is ike declawing. I just just spent an hour reading about monsanto – it’s been a horrible week all around, yesterday it was whales – humanity is massively varied. Some people make the world a better place and others should be ejected into space immediately since they are probably too toxic to even bury on this planet. I am with Ruth on this one – all the unhappiness and flying accusation come not because of the loss of a loved one, but because of a sharp drop in business potential.
I would have thought debarking would be a criminal offense or some such thing. Just typical. A dog has it’s bark, that is one of the most integral and main things about a dog – they bark, that’s what they do. How can it therefore be good in a show to have a dog that doesn’t bark. That is a disabled dog. A dogs only defense is its bark really. Thats why I am not at all into dogs actually, but what I find creepy is that in a ‘dog show’ that it is advantageous to have a disabled dog. I suppose it’s the same with cats. The ones who can’t breath or groom themselves are the show winners and most valuable. A cat is not a barbie doll either, you actually have to groom those persians every day unmlike barbie who can go in a drawer. Of course the cats just go in cages I’m sure quite often. Most breeding and showing is basically animal abuse if its not direct then its indirect. There is alot of pain and suffering and tragedy because of there being too many animals so anybody who adds unhealthy breeds to the world should just be put to sleep. Furthermore, anybody who drags their animals around in boxes and cages to satisfy their wallet and ego should be to. I do think that there are very few cats and a lot of dogs out there who probably enjoy going to shows and if those cats and dogs happen to be random bred then I suppose thats totally fine, if not interesting and nice in of itself. I’m proud of my cats and if Lilly loved being in a box for hours then I’d gladly present her but as much as she loves people and attention she doesn’t love being in a cage for hours. I’m not really convinced there are actually any cats who don’t mind that sort of thing to be honest.
It wouldn’t suprise me if another Champion show dog shower/breeder killed the champion show dog in order to win next time by eliminating the competition. I also believe that if you can debark a dog you can certainly kill it – although I doubt the dogs suppposed caretaker did it. I wonder if debarking is just the normal standard for champion show dogs.
Anyhow the whole thing is disgusting – the breeder is disgusting and the dog is literally the victim without a voice. Poor dog I say. It sounds like an awful way to die and in a horrible place too.
As you say, showing cats and dogs is not good for the animals, traveling miles and stuck in cages all day etc.
People lose their moral compass too (if they had one). This poor dog was bred to be shown and was beautiful, mutilated and poisoned to death. It can’t be much more crazy.
How horrible this all is.
My first thought was bleeding from the debarking,but there certainly is something suspicious and strange going on.
An animal rights activist wouldn’t poison a dog, they care about animals and hate the people who hurt them.
It all seems very suspicious to me, I think it’s disgusting that someone cruel enough to have a dog debarked was allowed to show that dog and win shows for their own glory.
Anyone who can pay a vet to do such cruel surgery on their dog needn’t pretend to mourn his death, the only mourning they are doing is for the money they can’t make out of that poor dog any more.
I agree that if a person debarks their dog there cannot be a connection between person and animal. That means the relationship is about money. When that happens anything can happen and it is usually bad.
Just wondering if the coughing up blood was to do with the debarking, no matter how long ago it as done, I should think that surgery leaves weak places in a dog’s throat.
In which case no wonder the owners didn’t want a post mortem on the dog as if that was proved there would be a justifiable outcry against debarking.
That is a very astute comment, Ruth. Gosh, that never occurred to me but it seems quite possible. I’ll do a bit of research on that and update this comment.
Update: Bleeding is one of many complications of debarking surgery.
We’ve no knowledge of when the dog was debarked and I’ve not seen or heard one here of course as our vets wouldn’t do it even before it was banned, but I’d think trying to bark must play havoc on the operation site.
I don’t think the owner would want that proved by a post mortem.
There’s lots of sympathy from people saying whoever did that, on facebook, but no mention about the debarking, the owner wouldn’t get as much sympathy if that was known.
I think the police complaint matter could be significant. The owner says she complained. The police say they have no record of it. I don’t know, and am guessing, but you would have thought the owner would make sure her complaint was recorded and acted upon. Perhaps this will come out.
And we have to accept that news stories are often distorted and only half the information is available. However, the underlying issues are not a good reflection on the behavior of people who show dogs.
Do you really think they had the dog operated on, what, the day before Westminster? Bleeding could be a complication, but not years or months afterward. Bleeding, even resulting in death, is a larger complication of spay surgery, by the way.
The operation need not have been the day before the show. Perhaps the operation was carried out many days before the show but carried out poorly, leaving a weakness which caused bleeding on the day. That seems perfectly feasible to me. Complications due to surgery, especially risky surgery can happen some time after the surgery.
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.