Record Cruelty! Dachshund Dog Walk’s Guinness World Record Prompts Pro-Mutt Appeal From PETA
2 July 2024
Record Cruelty! Dachshund Dog Walk’s Guinness World Record Prompts Pro-Mutt Appeal From PETA
London – After a recent convergence of hundreds of dachshunds in London won a Guinness World Record, PETA sent a letter to the organisation’s director of central record services, Mark McKinley, pointing out that the record endorses the “torture breeding” of the animals, which has led to skeletal anomalies that often cause severe health problems. The group urged him to revoke the record and establish a policy of acknowledging only those set by healthy mixed-breed dogs.
Because they have been intentionally bred to have elongated backs and other deformities, dachshunds have a higher risk of developing lifelong spinal, knee, and other joint problems and up to a quarter of them suffer from extremely painful intervertebral disc disease. These health conditions are so severe that legislators in Germany recently proposed a ban on breeding them. Breeders and puppy mills continue to shamefully and recklessly pump out breeds destined to suffer while an estimated 100,000 dogs – and countless cats – are without homes in the UK.
“Because of human superficiality, dachshunds suffer from painful deformities that can leave them struggling to play, run, and chase a ball – all the things that make a dog’s life worth living,” says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “Guinness World Records has awarded a spectacle of suffering, and PETA is calling on the organisation to do better by dogs by only celebrating the record-breaking accomplishments of marvellous mutts.”
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – notes that there is precedent for such an animal-friendly action: in 2011, Guinness World Records removed all mentions of elephant polo from the Guinness World Records books after learning from the group that elephants are chained, beaten, and deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them for the sport. The organisation also refuses to ratify records for other activities involving the torment of animals, including fox hunting, bullfighting, and camel wrestling.
PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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