Every Dog Has Its Day

‘BRITAIN is a multicultural society – or so we are told every day in one of the country’s 17 official languages.

Rover had already mastered German and was now learning French”

And nowhere is that more true than in the kennel, where dogs bark at each other in every idiom under the sun – except one.

That’s right – in this canine Tower Of Babel, the good old British bark is being drowned out by a cacophony of yaps, yelps and whines from Fido Foreigner.

Official figures from the Kennel Club show that dog-lovers are turning their back on the British pooch in favour of its foreign cousins.

And the result, says the Guardian, is that breeds such as the King Charles spaniel and the cardigown corgi could soon be extinct.

Expert Jeremy Hunt says the popularity of certain dogs is driven by fashion – the long coat of the afghan hound was perfect for the hippy 60s, while the menacing Rottweiler summed up the 1980s.

”The continued demand for self-protection has fired interest in breeds offering the ‘wow’ factor in terms of looks, combined with sheer size, strength and attitude,” he says.

”The list of these canine heavyweights is a long one and it has started a trend that now seems almost unstoppable.”

In other words, it’s only a matter of time before the timeless virtues incorporated by the great British Bulldog are replaced with the more slippery charms of the Neapolitan Mastiff.

Unless of course we call them all Philip and give them a safe Tory seat…’

Posted: 18th, December 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink