It was a shock to hear of the death of Jagger the Irish Setter after this years Crufts. He died 24 hours after his owners returned home to Belgium and it would appear that he was poisoned, quite possibly whilst at Crufts itself. If so, this creates fear and mistrust because one can never be sure who was responsible, although we can only hope that the NEC CCTV systems come up with something.
The finger of suspicion will point at either a fellow exhibitor or a member of the public and whilst the former seems to be almost unbelievable, it wouldn’t surprise me. These events are incredibly rare but I can recall at least one poisoning in my breed, where one of the top winning dogs was poisoned at the Rottweiler Club Championship show, about twenty years ago. On this occasion, the dog Champion Fernwood Fallon (Rory) survived because he was discovered quickly and rushed to a local vet. From memory, he had been given rat poison with meat and he was extremely fortunate to survive. As far as I know, nobody was ever caught in Rory’s case.
It would seem in Jagger’s case that cubes of meat with some form of poison sewn into them, were fed to him so it would seem that the offender has turned up at Crufts with the deliberate intent to poison an exhibit.
Whilst it is always horrible to contemplate that a fellow exhibitor might do such a thing, it is often the case that the targeted dog is one of the top winners and the fact that the culprit is rarely caught, makes for lingering suspicion and unease. Poisoning at dog shows is extremely rare, but acts of deliberate sabotage to a dogs coat by chopping chunks out with scissors and also sedating to give a dog no chance of winning are more common, although still fairly rare, given the number of dogs involved in showing.
I’m sure the condolences of all dog lovers go to Jagger’s distraught owners and as in the case of Elvis the Rottweiler I mentioned in the Supervet blog, I sincerely hope the culprit is caught.
PETER MOUNSEY ASHCLYST DOG BEHAVIOUR DEVON MARCH 2015