For Immediate Release:
January 27, 2009

Contact:
Danielle Katz 757-622-7382

Tempe, Ariz. -- Today, PETA sent a letter to Todd Davis, Chair and CEO of Tempe-based identity theft protection company LifeLock, urging him to pull the plug on advertising his company on the Web site for the American Kennel Club's (AKC) Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. In its letter, PETA points out that the AKC promotes dangerous and unhealthy breeding standards that result in one out of four dogs being born with physical problems ranging from allergies to epilepsy.

Debilitating health problems plague purebreds. Depending on the breed, these include hypothyroidism, demodectic mange, cataracts, ear infections, allergies, and many more. Because of breeding, Labrador retrievers--America's most popular dog--are prone to bone disease, hemophilia, and retinal degeneration, and nearly 60 percent of golden retrievers suffer from hip dysplasia. Also, procedures such as ear-cropping and tail-docking--which are outlawed in other countries--are common in the U.S. because of breed standards. Despite these problems, the AKC encourages people to buy purebred animals, even though almost half of the nearly 8 million dogs and cats--many of them purebreds--who are taken in by U.S. animal shelters every year must be killed because of a shortage of homes.

PETA has asked USA Network to stop broadcasting the Westminster show in light of the BBC's recent announcement that it will no longer televise the Crufts dog show--Westminster's counterpart in the U.K.--because of harmful breed-standard policies. PETA has also asked Pedigree to pull its sponsorship of the Westminster show after Pedigree U.K. broke its ties with the Crufts show last year.

"Because of the AKC's breeding policies, millions of wonderful dogs are born with physical problems and millions more are condemned to die in animal shelters," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "LifeLock holds the key to helping to stop this suffering by ending its sponsorship of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show."

PETA's letter to LifeLock is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.