19 MAY 1933, Page 14

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STUPID Dens The latest dog show has re-aroused a question that is more and more seriously disturbing dog-lovers. The

Fancy," that strange and esoteric group who decree the points

of a variety, as a Paris Sartor or two decrees the fashion of human dress, have utterly destroyed some fine breeds. The bulldog (which can no longer bite) and the wire-haired fox-terrier (which can no longer burrow nor wants to) are the worst examples of the folly of the shape demanded for exhibition ; but there are worse crimes than the tampering with form. A dog has a nose and a brain, neither of which is regarded, so far as their inner quality is concerned, by the judge in the show-ring. An American Master of Fox-

hounds once complained to me that the new hounds he got

from England had quite lost the acuteness of scent of their ancestors and were becoming so " cat-footed " that their

powers of endurance suffered. He regarded " Peterboro' " as the worst enemy of the foxhunter. * * * *