Dogs Boost To Trade

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31660, 22 April 1968, Page 2

Dogs Boost To Trade

Dog-breeding is big business in Britain today. The country’s total dog population is steadily declining, but the pedigree dog population is three times what it was before the Second World War.

Each year the number of dog shows increases and all shows report greatly increased entries. These shows, known as the breeders* “shop windows,” culminate in the vast two-day show, Cruft’s, held early every year in the Olympia exhibition hall in London.

Cruft’s can also be described as the overseas shop window, for it is then that visitors from abroad 10,000 this year—as well as the Innumerable British fanciers come to inspect, admire, and buy pedigree dogs. As likely as not the winning dogs will not stay in Britain. One in every 16 pedigree puppies born in Britain in 1967 went overseas. Prices ranged from £5O for a pet to £2OOO for the canine equivalent of a national beauty quee-’. The average price paid was about £l5O and with 8327 dogs sold overseas in 1967 the pedigree breeds are important to Britain’s export drive. Many of the dogs sold at Cruft’s will travel with their owner, but most will travel alone. Many will be shipped by Mrs Margot Roy. who since she started her Dog Escort Service 12 years ago. has organised and supervised the dispatch of about 6000 dogs to all parts of the world. Mrs Roy, the expert in shipping pedigree animals—she does on occasion handle cats—started very modestly as she herself admits: “My son was at boarding school. 1 had a car and time on my hands and I wanted a job which required no capital and where I remained my own boss.” So she placed a small advertisement in a leading dog paper, offering her services as escort for dogs which had to travel from one London terminal to another. BEGAN AS JOKE

This started as a joke but soon became an all-engrnss-ing, full-time occupation. Satisfied dog owners passed her name on to friends and before long she and her car were a familiar sight at the arrival or departure platforms of railway stations. A friend asked her to ship a valuable poodle to Canada. “1 trie * to get out of it” said Mrs Roy, “pleading total ignorance.” Her friend insisted however, saying that sooner or later she would be asked to send dogs overseas and she might as well begin at once Mrs Roy appealed to 8.0.A.C. and asked its advice and assistance.

Mrs Roy soon knew all that there was to know about air kennels, bills of lading, veterinary certificates, dog “passports” demanded by some countries, complete with photographs, and export licences. She soon discovered, too, that the new development was far more interesting than the tame ferrying of dogs from one London terminal to another. As her Escort Dog Service became more widely known, both in Britain and overseas, she found that she had to give up station work, turned her small house in Wembley Park, near London, into an office and reception centre for her “clients,” and evolved a remarkably smooth - running “one-woman export drive.” She has seen the export of dogs develop from a mere handful immediately after the war to a record of more than 8300 in 1967, with every likelihood of 10,000 being passed this year as devaluation makes British dogs still more attractive. Fifty per cent of the dogs go to the United States where the interest in pedigree dogs is keen, and it is estimated that £500,000 was paid by American fanciers for the 3236 dogs bought in Britain during 1967. The next best customer in 1967 was Japan, moving up from fourth place in 1966 and thus beating Canada and France, countries which also buy consistently from Britain.