Designer Pets, Destructive Traits: A Call for Responsible Breeding

Selectively breeding for aesthetics and exaggerated physical features is widely accepted as the most significant companion animal welfare issue currently. Despite many years of awareness raising activities, this issue has continued to get progressively worse and is affecting more species and individuals than ever before. This session will use case studies to demonstrate the real world impact for individuals across affected species, examine the impact on society but especially the veterinary profession, and discuss how you can take action to combat this issue. The RSPCA is launching our 5 year strategy to address extreme conformation, within which there are many activities that we need your continued help and support with. Help us to help you so that, collectively, we can help all affected animals.

• Identify how extreme conformations compromise health and welfare for a variety of species
• Recognise the impact on society
• Be able to initiate conversations and propose action to address extreme conformations in order to improve companion animal health and welfare