http://www.today.com/pets/was-prized-westminster-show-dog-poisoned-1C8638600

Video @ around 2:30/2:33 - is that what you - or anyone you know - looks like when you are talking about a recently passed pet? I would say crocodile tears, but there was no moisture.

Linking to this blog, which is not a serious one, but because it is less one-sided than many reports. Like in that Today Show video, the reporter mentions the debarking like hey, who doesn't do that!
http://gawker.com/5987542/who-killed-cruz-the-suspicious-death-of-a-prizewinning-smiley-dog

Yeah, this is making me feel a little irritated. RIP, poor Cruz, you deserved better than this.

'Bark Reduction'. Poor pretty dog. RIP.
Debarking is now outlawed in MA, it was a battle. The AKC was all for debarking.

How dare this woman make accusations without a piece of evidence? It's the old "PETA poisons show dogs' fable. What 'grieving' indeed.

Poor dog could have gotten into medications, gotten an ulcer from not being able to bark and being a dog, ...

I remember a late 19th century cartoon in the 'Punch' about competing exhibitors poisoning each others' dogs at a dog show.

Thank you for posting.

Re rat poison:
Chip was treated for anticoagulant poisoning some years ago. He vomited and it had blue-green stuff in it (scary!!! Impossible not to see it), and he had been off leash in an area with construction and trash containers that day. He was miserable right away. At the ER he got s'thg for immediate help and then Vitamin K for 30 days ($$$) and was good. Vets said it's highly treatable. http://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/clinpath/modules/coags/vitkant.htm
Oh, and I didn't blame the AKC for it.

I wasn't able to watch the video. Just the horribly written story.
Poor Cruz, why would such a beautiful, happy dog have to go through such silent torture. Rest in peace Cruz.

I watched this on the Today Show yesterday too and had the same thoughts.

Bark Reduction? They make it sound like they can still bark. It's a sad, raspy squeak.

Poor Cruz. Run free and bark wildly at the Bridge.

I read about this, my first thought was why no necropsy!!

BTW, just because a dog has had that surgery, doesn't mean it can't bark. They don't know they aren't barking loudly, it does just sound raspy. It wouldn't be a stressor or cause a dog that much worry.
Not sure if people know that...

This was my first thought too!

Even if the dog were not to give any indication of being aware of his mutilated voice, other dogs are. It can put other dogs off, and that is what the mutilated dog will notice, likely without knowing why. Voice is part of communication.
Plus the risk of scarring in an area where there is no place for scar tissue.

When I evaluate dogs, I always note both the frequency of barking AND the sound of the bark. That way the prospective foster or adopter will know whether the dog has a hound's bay or shrieking, loud bark that you can hear from a block away (or coming from underground in a badger/fox den, what the dachshund type bark was selected for). These barks work in some living situations, not in others. Living in an apartment/condo building, it'd be something to take into account before getting a dog that then 'has' to be 'debarked'.

I read that some professional show handlers will only take voice mutilated dogs. If these people cannot be in an environment where hundreds of dogs bark, and trigger each other to bark, they should maybe change profession instead of mutilating the dogs in their care.

The sound of voice mutilated dogs makes me very sad, it's such a pathetic and yes, mutilated, sound.

Wonder if they had the dog insured.

Wow. Is there something like life insurance for dogs? That would make sense only if the dog provided financially to dependents, so unlikely. Or property and casualty insurance since dogs are legally still 'property'? If so, I would worry for the insured dogs' lives indeed!

When I worked in the equine industry, sometimes certain elite competitive barns had staff who looked the other way, quietly whispering about insurance claims when a healthy horse died. Very high-level competition horses, racing horses, prized stallions from famous bloodlines, etc. were insured. I have no idea if show dogs can also be insured.