Things may have taken a more sinister turn this year, however, after police were called in over the death of an Irish Setter who competed at the show, after claims it was poisoned.
Three-year-old Thendara Satisfaction, known as Jagger, collapsed at his home in Belgium on Friday, the day after showing at the NEC in Birmingham. According to his owners, a postmortem examination revealed that beef cubes in Jagger’s stomach were the source of the poison.
Dee Milligan-Bott, a dog breeder for 30 years, told the Guardian that she and Jagger’s co-owner, Alexandra Lauwers, were devastated, and the suspicion was that the poison could have been administered while the dog was left alone on the bench at Crufts while their other dogs were being judged.
As the Kennel Club pledged to co-operate with any Belgian police investigation, breeders and owners were horrified as news of the death swept through the halls and arena at the NEC on the final day of the world-famous show.
Although the highly competitive world of dog-showing is no stranger to claims of skullduggery, a whodunnit of such magnitude was off the scale.
Underhand tactics, such as deliberately placing a bitch on heat near a male to distract him, or the subversive snipping at a competitor’s coiffure, are said to be employed as breeders battle for the prestigious Crufts’ rosettes.
Now, some wondered, whether the dog world truly could have plummeted to such depths.
“It does make you think. Jealousy comes into it. The stakes are very high. If you have got a winning dog, people would become jealous,” said Daniel Marsden, co-owner of Ozmilion, a Yorkshire Terrier, who won a reserve CC (challenge certificate) for best dog.
On the bench next to him, lovingly brushing the fringe of her Yorkshire Terrier, Andelalie, who won the yearling class, Angela Wiegand, from Airdrie, agreed. “It’s terrible to think anyone could got to lengths like that. It’s got to a stage where you’re frightened to go away and leave your dog for more than a few seconds.”
A postmortem examination has been done, indicating poisoning, but a full toxicology report is awaited. Jagger was one of several dogs taken to Crufts by the two women and took one CC and was second in limit. Milligan-Bott, from Leicestershire, said: “[The Lauwers] got home on Friday night and the dog was ill … By the time the vet got there he was dead.
“The vet did an immediate autopsy because the death was very suspicious. It was found the dog had beef cubes in his stomach that had been poisoned. The only day the dog had been left alone all week was … on the bench at Crufts while the judging of our other dogs was taking place.”
Earlier Milligan-Bott had told Dog World that the dogs were benched together, but changed places after one became agitated by being near a bitch in season. Noodle, Jagger’s half-brother, won best in breed and there was speculation he might have been the intended target. She told Dog World she felt she would be unable to continue showing. “It is turning into such a nasty sport,” she said.
But, she stressed to the Guardian, she did could only imagine “some awful random person” had done it and did not want to believe it to be the work of another dog owner.
Caroline Kisko, secretary of the Kennel Club, said it would co-operate with any investigation by Belgian police, and CCTV from the NEC would be provided if requested. She had spoken to both owners to express the club’s sympathies. “We are extremely upset to hear that the dog died,” she said.
But, she added: “I will just point out that it was 26 hours after leaving Crufts, from what we understand from talking to the owner.”
The Kennel Club was keen for their vet to talk to the vet in Belgium, but had been told this was not possible until the results of the toxicology report were released. She added that it was “largely speculative until we have got that report”.
A spokesman for the Kennel Club said they could think of no previous allegations of poisoning at Crufts.
Meanwhile, amid the pampering, brushing and blowdrying on the dog benches, paranoid owners were taking no chances.
“If it turns out to be true, then things have gone too far,” said Sue Smith, from Chatsworth, Derbyshire, whose nine-month-old Pomeranian won first in class. Smith, who has entered dogs in Crufts for 30 years, said: “I take no chances. I am just wary. I don’t trust anybody.”
Avril Cawthera-Purdy, from Gloucestershire, last year’s top Pomeranian breeder, said: “I’ve been showing for 40 years and its hugely competitive. But I would not believe that somebody involved in this would be that malicious. We are all considered to be dog lovers and at the end of the day you take home your pets and love them, whether they won or lost.
“I never let my dogs out of my sight.”
Had she ever experienced any problems? “Once, I had one dog that was given a hallucinatory drug 20 years ago. It wasn’t at Crufts, and it took her out of that show.
“We don’t know how. We can’t prove anything, We can’t say. But, that was just one incident, in 40 years,” she said.
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