Poisoning probe at Crufts after Irish setter dies mysteriously

Irish setter Jagger came second in his class at Crufts.

The genteel world of Crufts has been rocked by a murder mystery which has seen one dog apparently killed and two others taken ill in suspected poisonings, prompting a police investigation.

In one of the biggest scandals to hit the dog show in its century-long history, it is believed jealous rival breeders poisoned an award-winning Irish setter, which collapsed and died within 24 hours of competing.

Three-year-old Thendara Satisfaction, known as Jagger, came second in its class for best dog on Friday, but by midnight the next night it had collapsed.

Police in Belgium are investigating the attack at the world's biggest dog show, which is run by The Kennel Club and took place at the NEC in Birmingham.

Willem Lauwers, 36, said he and his wife Aleksandra, 34, both professional dog breeders in Belgium, were "devastated" at the loss of their dog.

Mr Lauwers said he believed Jagger has been purposefully targeted, saying: "There is no other option, it had to have happened [at Crufts]. How can you mistakenly poison a dog?

"Jagger was such a promising dog. He was just 3 years old but he was well known around the world. Of course, if you are successful, success doesn't make you a whole lot of friends."

Mrs Lauwers said "strange things" had been happening in the months leading up to the show. Of the suspected poisoning, she said: "I am convinced it happened at the dog show. There wasn't any other opportunity. It looked like an act of jealousy."

After celebrating with their dog's co-owners, Dee and Jeremy Milligan-Bott, the Lauwers made their way back to Belgium on Friday afternoon, arriving home in Tongeren around midnight.

"I prepared food for the dogs and I called Jagger to come over. He just collapsed and started shaking, it looked like a fit," Mrs Lauwers said.

"We called our vet immediately. He started having diarrhoea and urinating on himself. It looked like a heart attack. He went into a coma a minute later and died. I called the vet and she said it looked like poison."

The couple took their dog straight to the clinic for an autopsy. Jagger's stomach was found to contain pieces of meat. "Inside there were small colours - white, dark green and black. The vet is convinced it is poison, possibly a few different types to make it work more slowly but efficiently," Mrs Lauwers said.

Mrs Milligan-Bott, from Leicester, urged her fellow competitors at Crufts to "unite in finding the perpetrator who did this", and warned that no one should leave their dogs unattended at the show. Fears about dog safety at Crufts deepened on Sunday night as one judge said that two ladies had told her they believed their dogs had been poisoned.

Gillian Barker-Bell, the judge for Irish setter dogs who placed Jagger second in class on Thursday, said: "I can't believe anyone could be so evil or vindictive. Dogs have been tampered with at other championship shows so this is not a first. But I have never heard of a dog actually dying. What a sick mind to do something like that."