Dogs poisoned at Crufts

[Bicoastal]

Haven’t seen it posted…

Article and excerpt:

“Three-year-old Thendara Satisfaction, known as Jagger, died Friday, shortly after returning to Belgium following an appearance at the world-famous Crufts dog show in the central English city of Birmingham last week. A veterinarian performed a post-mortem examination and found pieces of meat laced with poison in his stomach.”
[URL=“http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2985087/Top-pedigree-dogs-don-finest-clothes-Crufts-awards-climax.html”]
Another article and excerpt:

"In what could become the biggest scandal in Crufts’ 124-year history, three-year-old Jagger collapsed and died on Friday, the day after coming second in his class at the world’s most famous dog show.

Tests found that Jagger – pedigree name Thendara Satisfaction – had eaten cubed beef laced with up to three poisons.

However co-owner Dee Milligan-Bott believes the intended victim was four-year-old Noodle, pedigree name Thendara Pot Noodle, who won best of breed on the day Jagger competed.

The two almost identical looking dogs had switched places on the benches where entrants sit before and after going in the show ring at the NEC in Birmingham."

This article says more deaths have been reported.

With Pedigree Dogs Exposed and the resulting veterinary intervention, dog shows seem very controversial in the UK.

[Casey09]

I know a lady that teaches obedience that says she left the conformation show world here in the US after she found a competitor trying to feed her dog something when she was taking some things to her vehicle. She said she believed it was poison and after that I guess the shows lost all of their allure for her, but she still trains and shows obedience and rally sometimes. I don’t think she has ever left one of her dogs alone with a stranger since that day. How sad that people are as crazy as they are. People involved in dog shows should love dogs. That someone could poison one is sick.

[S1969]

[QUOTE=Casey09;8047718]
People involved in dog shows should love dogs. That someone could poison one is sick.[/QUOTE]

I believe they are hoping it was a PETA/AR person and not a fellow exhibitor. I have heard some crazy things but nothing could be worth poisoning a competitor’s dog…even for the craziest and most competitive exhibitors.

How absolutely horrible. I can’t even imagine. I frequently leave my dogs unattended at shows (while shopping for dog supplies, or getting food, or watching another breed in the ring). Most people do - I have never felt worried about not standing guard over them in the past…not sure how I’ll feel now.

I think if anything, this will open people’s eyes at dog shows from now on. Which is sad, actually - because many non-dog people come to watch dog shows and might get screamed at for getting too close to the dogs now.

I hope they find out who it was. :no:

[Equibrit]

How would they know if the dog was poisoned at the show ? He made the trip home to Belgium and showed no ill effect until well after leaving Birmingham.

[S1969]

I think that was the only time the owners were not with the dog - on the bench at Crufts.

[vacation1]

So sad. The show people desperately want it to be a random crazy or an animal rights person, but it seems at least as likely that it is a breeder/exhibitor.

The Guardian with an article about similar nastiness at dog shows as well as budgie and mouse shows.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/mar/09/death-crufts-history-pet-show-mysterious

[Houndhill]

The final toxicology report will be back Thursday. Several other dogs that were at Crufts have also reportedly been poisoned, although it has not been confirmed.

So sad! I don’t get why, though, if it were a jealous competitor, the dog was poisoned after, rather than before the competition?

Someone I know who was there said there were many more unattended dogs on benches compared to Westminster. When I showed there, we never left the dogs alone for a minute, we covered each others’ dogs for bathroom or shopping breaks.

I hope the surveillance cameras might have caught something.

[Field_of_Dreams_Mini]

When I was 14 I worked for a lady who raised Old English Sheepdogs. The week before their Specialty someone threw poisoned meat over the fence into the dog run, where their champion male found it and ate it. He died. No one ever found out who did it.

[StGermain]

[QUOTE=Equibrit;8047745]
How would they know if the dog was poisoned at the show ? He made the trip home to Belgium and showed no ill effect until well after leaving Birmingham.[/QUOTE]

They did a necropsy and found partially undigested meat in his system. I think based on a knowledge of a dog’s digestion, they could figure how long before death it was ingested.

StG

[Houndhill]

Sounds like a second dog, a Shih Tzu, has died, but these deaths are still under investigation:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-31811695

[Houndhill]

A Westie and an Afghan are also reportedly ill, Jagger’s owner does not believe it was a competitor, but someone who “hates Crufts” for some reason:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/09/crufts-dog-jagger-meat-slug-poison

[trubandloki]

It is sad that someone would take out their hate on the innocent dogs.

[Houndhill]

A Westie and an Afghan are also reportedly ill, Jagger’s owner does not believe it was a competitor, but someone who “hates Crufts” for some reason:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/09/crufts-dog-jagger-meat-slug-poison

[Bicoastal]

I’m in the U.S. I think the scene in the UK has more pressure from ARA. Upon first read, I was assuming ARA or an outsider. Now it sounds like an insider is just as plausible.

[QUOTE=S1969;8047740]
I frequently leave my dogs unattended at shows (while shopping for dog supplies, or getting food, or watching another breed in the ring). Most people do -[/QUOTE]

Cars, dogs, technology, purses, etc are largely unsecured at performance events, too. I encourage strangers to feed my dog when I’m away from him. I hang a sign on his crate asking passersby to feed him treats! Never had a problem. You try to crate with people you know, so there tends to be at least one colleague with the crated dogs but we’ve never deliberately scheduled shifts. I’ve always just trusted a dog person won’t harm my dog.

@Houndhill;8048434

Someone I know who was there said there were many more unattended dogs on benches compared to Westminster. When I showed there, we never left the dogs alone for a minute, we covered each others’ dogs for bathroom or shopping breaks.

Crufts vs Westminster. Please educate me :yes:. I believe benched shows still exist in the UK, whereas we only have one. I visualize the dogs are required to be at their assigned bench for the posted hours of the show and there isn’t room to set up camp at your bench. So the owners can stand near their dog but probably move in & out throughout the day. Do I have that right?

In the U.S., loads of show dogs get left on grooming tables unattended. (Many of them in grooming nooses. :eek: Yikes!)

[Houndhill]

[QUOTE=Bicoastal;8048818]
I’m in the U.S. I think the scene in the UK has more pressure from ARA. Upon first read, I was assuming ARA or an outsider. Now it sounds like an insider is just as plausible.

Cars, dogs, technology, purses, etc are largely unsecured at performance events, too. I encourage strangers to feed my dog when I’m away from him. I hang a sign on his crate asking passersby to feed him treats! Never had a problem. You try to crate with people you know, so there tends to be at least one colleague with the crated dogs but we’ve never deliberately scheduled shifts. I’ve always just trusted a dog person won’t harm my dog.

Crufts vs Westminster. Please educate me :yes:. I believe benched shows still exist in the UK, whereas we only have one. I visualize the dogs are required to be at their assigned bench for the posted hours of the show and there isn’t room to set up camp at your bench. So the owners can stand near their dog but probably move in & out throughout the day. Do I have that right?

In the U.S., loads of show dogs get left on grooming tables unattended. (Many of them in grooming nooses. :eek: Yikes!)[/QUOTE]

I’ve never been to Crufts, but have seen pictures of the wolfhound benching at Crufts, and it is incredibly tight! And flimsy looking, some have collapsed in the past. Most of the wolfhound people bring mats or pads for the dogs to lie on the floor on, while the the owners sit in the bench. Different for smaller dogs I’m sure, but space looks very very tight.

Same with Westminster, though I have not been since they bench the dogs at the Pier instead of Madison Square Garden. At the Garden, space was so tight that some owners would enter an extra dog, and not bring it, just to have a little more space on the bench. Or owners would take down partitions between dogs if dogs were compatible. I understand things at the Pier are better for dogs and exhibitors, and the hours the dogs have to be on the bench are better too. Group judging is still held at MSG in the evening.

I know people leave dogs unattended, especially in the grooming areas at all-breed shows, and at obedience and agility trials, but my guys are too big to be crateable in a portable crate, so I don’t. I really don’t agree with the practice of leaving a dog unattended on a grooming table on a noose, accidents and unpredictable things can happen! I do use X-pens at Specialty shows, but almost always have a designated person watching them. I guess I’m a “Helicopter Dog Exhibitor”!

[GotGait]

This is why I never left my dog unattended - although I was worried about theft, not poison. So yay, one more thing to worry about.
He always went everywhere with me unless he was back in the hotel room.

[MsM]

On a lighter note…
I used to work for a professional handler. We would bring a vanfull of dogs to a show. Part of my job was to bring a prepared dog ringside and take previous dog from the handler if the times were tight. Dogs were generally in their crates unless being prepped for the ring, and all were “table trained”.
So I had to run a dog to the ring while Dapper, a Standard Poodle was laying on the table waiting to be prepped. So I run the dog about 20 yards to the ring and then hear a commotion behind me. Dapper had interpreted the “stay on the table” rule in his own way. Seems we didn’t specify which table and he didn’t like being away from the action! So he was happily jumping from table to table (some already occupied by small dogs that he just stepped over) making his way towards us! :lol: The exhibitors whose dogs were not disrupted were amused. The others, not so much…

[wireweiners]

There was also some kerfuffle about the handler of the BiS Scottie picking it up by the neck and tail as is common in small terriers.

[Houndhill]

[QUOTE=wireweiners;8049673]
There was also some kerfuffle about the handler of the BiS Scottie picking it up by the neck and tail as is common in small terriers.[/QUOTE]
Heard that.
Why do they thinks Scotties breed standard call for a strong tail, how did they extract them from fox dens? And who has ever tried handling a Scottie bitchin a way she found offensive?

[S1969]

I know. It’s all over the dog groups on FB. It’s really quite silly. Not to mention…it’s not like they carried the dog around the ring by its tail. It was lifted by tail + jaw for a distance of 2 feet…a total of about .5 seconds. Nothing more than a kerfuffle by people who rub their dogs’ noses in their feces to house train it. :rolleyes: