Revealed: The 67 dog breeds that could be banned in Britain… is YOUR pooch on the list?

Campaigners have warned that 67 dog breeds could be banned in Britain if new breeding rules set out by parliament become mandatory.

The all-party parliamentary group for animal welfare (APPG) has launched a new tool to determine whether a dog is healthy.

The cross-party committee developed a 10-point checklist of extreme physical characteristics that could cause the dog to be underweight.

These include mottled coloration, excessive skin folds, bulging everted eyes, drooping eyelids, underbite or overbite, and a mouthpiece that impedes breathing.

The evaluation, which is currently voluntary but is expected to become law within five years, aims to eliminate breeds with such exaggerated qualities.

Research has shown that animals of this breed can sometimes experience pain, discomfort, and frustration from birth onwards.

But critics have warned that the new criteria will automatically label around 67 of the most popular dog breeds in the UK as unhealthy. Times.

This includes much-loved breeds such as dachshunds, shih tzus and Scottish terriers, and even the late Queen’s beloved Welsh corgis.

Even the late Queen’s beloved Welsh corgis would not be considered healthy under the new criteria. Picture: II, who was a princess at the time. Elizabeth holds a corgi in September 1950

The Kennel Club, a national organization for dog health, welfare and training, has compiled a list of breeds it fears are at risk and shared it with its members.

The Corgi, along with several other dwarf dog breeds, is considered unhealthy according to guidelines due to its short legs and close proximity to the ground.

This is despite the fact that these have long been highly valued traits of the breed historically used to herd cattle.

Their small size helped them avoid unwanted kicks when rounding up cows.

Margaret Hoggarth, secretary of the Welsh Corgi League, claimed the animals were “very healthy” but “clumped together” with unhealthy animals simply because of their short legs.

Elizabeth II owned more than 30 Pembroke Welsh corgis and dorgis, a corgi-dachshund mix, during her reign.

They were his constant companions and became a symbol of his time on the throne.

Following his death in 2022, his dogs Muick and Sandy attended his funeral before being adopted by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

The checklist classifies dogs with shorter legs as those with a gap between their chest and the ground of less than one-third of shoulder height.

He claims they can suffer from a range of health problems, including spinal deformities, joint pain, arthritis and limb abnormalities such as bow legs.

Animal campaigners have called the new set of rules a ‘blunt tool’ that provides a subjective visual tool to assess health rather than rigorous medical testing.

Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today magazine and founder of the Good Dog People Alliance, which promotes ethical breeding, described the criteria as ‘shocking’.

‘We need accurate, sophisticated testing that doesn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, or we’ll lose Britain’s best-loved breeds in the blink of an eye,’ he said.

And Ms Cuddy said the public would not be the only ones ‘outraged’ by this: ‘I think the late Queen would have been very upset by this proposal.’

Crufts, the world-famous dog show hosted by The Kennel Club, starts on Thursday.

However, it was claimed that four of the last ten winners of the competition’s highest prize, best in show, would not pass the new assessment.

The recipient of the gong in 2024 was the Viking Australian Shepherd, a breed that will not pass the new test.

Elizabeth II owned more than 30 Pembroke Welsh corgis and dorgis, a corgi-dachshund mix, during her reign. Picture: The late Queen is greeted by local corgi enthusiasts during her tour of Canada in May 2005.

The Animal Welfare Act already bans breeding dogs suffering from suffering, and campaigners say the new criteria broadens how this is defined.

The tool was launched as a voluntary program in the House of Lords; but animal activists warned that the intention was always to make it mandatory.

In fact, some local authorities already use the checklist to evaluate growers.

According to the guidelines, only dogs that score eight out of ten can be bred above the above.

In five years, this threshold will increase to nine, and in ten years to ten.

The tool was developed by Dan O’Neill, associate professor of companion animal epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College.

He explained that his idea was that within ten years no dog with extreme traits should be bred by a licensed breeder in the UK.

To be made mandatory, the rules must be formally introduced into animal welfare legislation in parliament.

This process will make the use of the checklist a requirement for all breeders seeking to become licensed in the UK.

Currently licensed dog breeders are required to comply with health obligations set out in the Licensing of Activities Involving Animals (England) Regulations 2018.

It says: ‘No dog may be kept for breeding purposes if, having regard to its genotype, phenotype or state of health, breeding from it could reasonably be expected to have a detrimental effect on its health or welfare.’

However, this requirement is not often enforced in practice as councils lack a standard measure to assess whether a dog’s health would be harmed by extreme traits.

The broker’s website states: ‘We therefore believe that any commercial breeder who breeds a dog that fails an innate health assessment (IHA) may be in breach of their licence.’

This does not apply to non-commercial dog breeders.

“We hope that dog breeding regulation will eventually be changed to include a requirement that all dogs must be in good innately healthy, regardless of whether they are bred by a hobby breeder or a commercial breeder,” the site continues.

The APPG went so far as to draft a pledge for TV and film producers and advertisers to sign.

Four of the last ten best-in-show winners at Crufts will fail the new assessment, it has been claimed. Image: 2024 winner Viking, Australian Shepherd – a breed that will not be considered healthy under the new rules

We would see that they promised to only depict dogs that completely passed the test.

The tool is approved by many key organisations, including the Royal Veterinary College, RSPCA and Dogs Trust.

A spokesman for The Kennel Club said the checklist was “neither detailed nor robust enough” to help breeders eliminate extreme traits.

They also noted that it does not come with a system to publicly record testing data and more generally track the progress of breeds, neither of which would be helpful to breeders.

The club said it had raised concerns about some specific criteria in the testing which it felt could lead to ‘unintended consequences’ for certain breeds and breeders.