I've just seen an advert for the return of ITV's "Super Tiny Aniamls" - I blogged about this programme last year when it was originally on TV and ITV have decided to bring it back for a second season/episode. Here's my thought's on last year's show below...
Super Tiny Animals: Super Cute or Super Irresponsible? Originally Posted on
Turns out, it was more of the latter.
As a chihuahua mummy and pet boutique owner myself
I would be a hypocrite if I said I wasn’t guilty of finding small
animals cute, and quite honestly, completely spoiling my own with
unnecessary (often handmade) and very expensive accessories.
- Bambi the Chihuahua – My little baby girl!
Bear the Chihuahua - My little baby boy!
I even set up a small business pandering
to the needs to animals lovers like myself, but even to me, ITV’s
portrayal of the animals in this show was more than a little
bit irresponsible and unnecessary.
Search Twitter (#SuperTinyAnimals) and
you’ll see a range of comments ranging from “OMG I want a micropig!” to
“This is so cruel. What the hell have they done to that poor dog!?”
ITV showed £3000 dog bowls and £10,000
dogs, but these weren’t any old, overpriced dogs. Oh no! The star of the
show was a little black dog called Wally weighing in at just 1lb.
1lb! That’s like a block of butter! ITV
claimed that the petshop based in America (surprise, surprise!) were a
reputable and responsible company because they did not buy their animals
from puppy farms. Erm, round of applause for you NOT buying your dogs
from illegal breeders. They also claimed that there was nothing
medically wrong with this dog being the size that it was because “it
only has a little bit of water on the brain. Not enough to be a serious case.”
WHAT!? That’s like saying, oh you’ve only
got a little bit of cancer from smoking, but you’re still alive so you
probably shouldn’t worry about it. Oh and don’t give up the fags because
it probably wasn’t their fault that you got that little bit of cancer
in the first place.
Being a chihuahua owner and lover of the
breed for as long as I can remember, I am well aware of the medical
issues that come with over breeding and “downsizing” of the breed. Dogs
who are bred to be that small can develop water on the brain, collapsed trachea, spinal and joint abnormalities and often have a very short
lifespan.
I have 2 fairly small chihuahuas myself,
Bambi, the smallest being 3-4lb (we did not get her due to her size, she
was the last of her litter left and we simply fell in love with her when
we saw her!) and I would never dream about breeding her, especially as
the males used for breeding tend to be smaller than the females. Even if
I wanted to I would have absolutely no idea where to find a 2lb dog!
Maybe I should ask ITV?
“Chihuahua breeders often use terms like Teacup, Pocket Size, Tiny Toy, Miniature or Standard to describe puppies. These terms are not recognized by the breed standards and are considered marketing gimmicks to inflate the value of puppies.”
The programme was even boasting about how
small of a horse they had found. That poor horse had dwarfism and lots
of other medical issues which even the owners admitted, would probably
result in having to put him to sleep quite early on in his life.
This is not something that should be
encouraged. Animals are lives, they have souls and personalities and
they understand emotions just like we do (and sometimes better than we
do!) I’m just worried that with this programme there’s going to be an
increase (again) in the rates of breeding tiny animals that will eaither
die of illness or end up in shelters when they outgrow their teacups.
There is already an increase in the
numbers of chihuahuas being brought into animal shelters. Presumably
because owners get bored of them and trade them in for the latest “it
dog” (that’s a pug by the way!)
So if you are looking to get a small dog,
please make sure they you check out your local animal shelters first,
and if you do want a pedigree make sure you buy from a credited and
repuitable breeder.
More info on Chihuahuas in particular can be found
at http://www.the-british-chihuahua-club.org.uk
Hayley xo
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