Top dogs are biggest losers genetically

Like every year, greed, cruelty and ego are the only winners at Crufts, with 2026’s “Best in Show” winner again the biggest loser, genetically speaking (“Overcoming Putin and cancer, Odesa owner is now top dog”, News, 8 March).

The creation of dogs with crippling deformities, and glorifying breeders’ obsession with “perfectly designed” dogs, should be condemned. This manipulation of dogs’ bodies for form over function – squashing a face here, elongating a body there, sloping a back when it suits – condemns dogs to everything from suffocation to heart issues, which are often fatal. A Clumber spaniel was this year’s winner, even though the breed is known to face hip dysplasia, spinal issues and eyelid abnormalities.

The spectacle also encourages viewers to buy the latest “as seen on TV” breed, while rescue centres are full of lovable dogs. Anyone who truly wants every dog to have their day must adopt, never shop.

Mimi Bekhechi, Peta UK, London N1

I was very interested in your article on genomics (“Hoping for a perfect baby? Genetic testing startups lure parents to US”, News, 8 March).

Perhaps all parents involved should have a compulsory screening of Andrew Niccol’s 1997 dystopian film Gattaca before making their expensive journey into this field. The article’s conclusion that “the reality is that, even when you think you’ve got absolutely everything under control, parenting often goes wrong. Even the most carefully raised kids have a nasty habit of surprising us,” might have been used to review the film.

David McAllister, Tain, Ross-shire

It may ruin the gritty narrative of your Steven Knight piece (“There’s always one family in a place like this that you’re afraid of”, News, 8 March), but that Cuban bar is only on a “broken-down” street if you disregard the posh wedding and conference venues, a gym, bus garage, housing, and so on.

There used to be a couple of good alternative art galleries nearby, in old industrial buildings, but they were forced out by gentrification about 10 years ago

Meanwhile there’s always the flamingo golf to go to instead, unless it’s closed for a stag party.

Rob Bishop, Solihull

I agree with Samar Turajlić that visas should be easier and cheaper to get for foreign scientists, and shorter routes should be offered to permanent residency (“Offer scientists stability or the UK will lose out in economic growth and health,” Forum, 8 March) and that science is international.

However, I would like to point out that there are plenty of experienced life scientists like myself looking for work. I am over 60 and would like one more job before I retire. This seems impossible due to age bias against older people – despite this being illegal.

Dr Neil Hollow, Edinburgh

Thank you for the wonderful obituary of Baroness Audrey Emerton (Forum, last week). It encapsulated so much of her wonderful life.

I was lucky enough to see her close Darenth Park hospital, a former asylum, including driving a bulldozer and symbolically knocking down a wall. One of her leaving gifts from the South East Thames regional health authority was a personalised car number plate – enough to alert other visitors that “Matron” had arrived. Thank you for the memories.

Patricia Ann Cooke, Crowborough, East Sussex

The Trident nuclear weapons are not lent to the UK; that would be a violation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty that the UK still adheres to (“Britain’s nuclear deterrent isn’t independent. It’s rented from America”, 11 March). It is the missile that is lent to the UK from the stock at Kings Bay in Georgia. But even there lent isn’t really the word, as the UK pays for them. The American bomb is built at Los Alamos in New Mexico, while the British is built at Aldermaston – but the British design is based on the American design.

Norman Dombey, Brighton

On International Women's Day you featured two men who gained a son with the help of two unnamed women (“The clever choice?”, News, 8 March) and a magazine devoted to men’s fashion. Thank goodness for Laura Cumming (“Guess the picture”, New Review) for celebrating an 1801 painting by Marie-Denise Villers that was attributed to Jacques-Louis David until the 1950s.

P Allin, Newport

Trump says Starmer is no Churchill (“Trump says Starmer is no Churchill. He has no idea what that means”, Forum, 8 March). The PM might have borrowed a vice-presidential 1988 debate retort from Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle: “You’re no Jack Kennedy.” Kennedy of course well understood the value of allies and didn’t insult them.

John Owens, emeritus professor of US government and politics, London W1T

Photograph by Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images