Controversial German Shepherd With A Sloped Back Wins Best Of Breed Award At Crufts

The owner of the Shepherd with sloped back has hit back at critics who claimed her dog was unhealthy and said she had been through the worst experience of her show career.

Susan Cuthbert’s German Shepherd Dog named Cruaghaire Catoria (Tori for short) was judged to be the best example of her breed at the world-famous Crufts dog show on Saturday night, but the dog was said by some viewers to be ‘deformed’ or cruelly bred, claiming she had an abnormally sloped back and a painful-looking out-of-step gait.

Cuthbert said: “I was blissfully unaware of all the negativity around one of the best show days of my life until earlier today and I am both deeply shocked and terribly upset by all the horrendous comments directed towards my beautiful Tori.”

She went on to say, “Words cannot express the heart wrenching experience that I have suffered. This is so unreal I want to believe it is untrue and to wake up. The comments made on television about my lovely Shepherd were unbelievable especially when one considers the brevity of the images. How can you judge a dog on such a brief observation? There is a clear lack of tolerance and knowledge of our German shepherd breed. It should not be a surprise to anyone why the GSD breed in the UK are being strongly drawn towards the German SV system – Germany being the founders of our breed just over a hundred years ago and they have established the most comprehensive system of any other breed in the world. The German SV system requires for showing and breeding DNA parentage, microchip identification, to meet strict conformational criteria according to the German breed standard, hip and elbow grades and assessment of the spine along with formal character assessment, endurance test of 20 kilometers gaiting, IPO test of courage, tracking and obedience and a very demanding breed survey (korung). Soundness in mind and body is a crucial part of the German Shepherd breed. At Crufts 2016, the vet examined my bitch before she was presented with her Best of Breed certificate and deemed her to have no visible condition which adversely affects her health and welfare. This is the second Kennel Club required vet check she has passed in the last six months. As if it was not upsetting enough that my bitch faltered under the heavy media coverage in the Arena on what should have been the happiest day of my show life to then be tried and convicted on social media and the press this has now become the worst nightmare of my show life.”

Controversy continues to surround the shepherd. A statement from RSPCA stated, “The RSPCA, like the Kennel Club, was shocked and appalled to see a German shepherd dog with such poor conformation that it could not move freely winning Best of Breed.

‘We would question how the dog had been allowed to have qualified for Crufts. In doing so, this dog, like all Crufts competitors, would have been awarded on at least one other occasion, suggesting this is unlikely to be an isolated incident.

‘Fault cannot lie solely with the judge at Crufts but is also the responsibility of those who have previously awarded this dog and enabled it to progress.

‘Many other dogs at Crufts showed visible signs of poor health and/or discomfort as a result of their exaggerated conformation. For example, the winner of the Toy group, a Pekingese, was panting heavily and struggling to breathe. This illustrates why there is an urgent need to review the breeding and judging process.”

See the shepherd in action on page 2 and decide for yourself!

Page 2 Here

Watch the video below to see the full story! Tell us in the comments – do you think this shepherd is unhealthy?

Feature Image Source:DailyMail