What’s In My Genes? – Objectives

Project Outline

“Humans have made dogs one of the most unhealthy species on earth and we have a moral duty to fix it.”  A shortcast with  Annie Wilson founder of the ‘What’s in my Genes?’ campaign which works to raise awareness of hereditary diseases in dogs and to establish a kitemark for dog breeders, which the campaign says must be licenced and regulated. our objectives: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1770168/9615964-shortcast-55-annie-wilson-what-s-in-my-genes

Objectives:

• Reduce instances of hereditary diseases in future generations of puppies through building awareness, understanding and campaigning for change.
• Build public awareness of how hereditary diseases can affect the health and wellbeing of their puppy.
• Encourage the public to always ask about their potential puppy’s parents health tests
• Enable Puppy buyers to make informed choices regards their potential puppy’s health by making information readily available and easy to understand
• Campaign for clarity and transparency on the meaning of the wording “health tested” on puppy advertising sites.
• Encourage ALL breeders to health test for hereditary diseases applicable to their breed and adhere to the BVA guidance regards the results.
• Get the nation talking about dog health and hereditary diseases and how they can help future generations lead healthy happy lives.

We hope to:

• Ask the government to amend the The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 Part B Schedule 6 condition 6.5 to include a 6.5a condition: “All breeding dogs must have the breed relevant hereditary health tests as a precursor to breeding” whilst also taking into account temperament, conformation, COI and breed genetic diversity.
• Campaign for an independent panel of vets to review hereditary health testing in dogs ( using the already up and running KC Assured Breeder Scheme Health requirements and recommendations as a starting place) by assessing their impact on reducing instances of severity and frequency of each individual disease and if need be implement changes to the way tests are performed/recorded/interpreted. Then determine which hereditary health tests are most impactful on reducing severity and frequency of disease per breed of dog and to include this list in the Animal Welfare Licensing Regulations Part B Schedule 6 condition 6.5 or addition of 6.5a.
• Ensure ALL breeding dogs both licensed and registered are covered under the conditions 6.5 and the new 6.5a of Part B of Schedule 6 of the The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018

• Encourage the public to share our social media posts and tweets to help build awareness
• Provide easy access Information on our Paws Against website with links to research and interesting articles and experts’ views
• Conduct a Nationwide Media campaign