Crufts winner hits out at the ‘silly’ protesters for scaring champ dog

● Stage stormed as Tease the whippet is named best in show

The winner of this year’s Crufts competition has hit back at the “silly” protesters who tried to ruin her moment in the spotlight.

Tease the Scottish whippet scooped the best in show award at the world’s biggest dog show at the NEC Arena in Birmingham on Sunday.

But the finale quickly descended into chaos as placard-waving animal rights protesters stormed the stage.

Two French demonstrators from a vegan activist group backed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) burst through barriers and into the stage with banners saying “Crufts: Canine Eugenics”.

Yvette Short, 52, from Bonnyrigg, was captured live on TV clutching her two-and-ahalf-year-old dog for safety as the activists rushed in to spoil her moment.

Mrs Short said: “That spoilt it, they scared my dog. They are meant to be animal lovers. That wasn’t being lovely, was it? They are silly people.”

But Mrs Short, who owns W&J Short garage in Dalkeith with her husband David, was still ecstatic with the win, and the support she has received from friends and family.

She added: “The win was amazing, it’s tremendous.

“The family has shown great support and other people along the way. I saw the judge

0 Yvette Short with Tease the Crufts-winning whippet and her husband David pointing but I looked down because you just never know whether they are pointing at you or not. We are not sure what we are going to do with the dog yet as she’s only two and a half, so we’ll see when we get home.”

Tease was up against a pointer, which took Reserve Best in Show, plus a Newfoundland, a Border collie, a papillon, an akita and a Scottish terrier.

A Crufts spokeswoman said: “Protesters from Peta gained unauthorised access to the ring in the main arena at Crufts, and in doing so scared the dogs and put the safety of both dogs and people at risk. The NEC Group have extensive security procedures in place at Crufts and we, along with the NEC Group, will be reviewing what happened as a matter of urgency.”

Peta director Elisa Allen said: “Crufts glorifies pedigree fetishists’ twisted pursuit of the ‘perfect’ dog. There’s nothing natural about breeding dogs with extreme and debilitating physical traits, and Peta urges everyone to stay away from this cruel beauty pageant.”