Crufts 2013: Record number for overseas entries
- Published
A Lhasa Apso named Elizabeth won the Best in Show on 2012
A record number of overseas entries will be shown at the Crufts dog show at Birmingham's NEC, organisers have said.
More than 2,000 dogs from 42 countries outside the UK will take part in the four-day event, which begins later.
Canines from Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia and Malaysia will compete for the first time, the Kennel Club said.
The biggest increase in overseas exhibitors was in 2002, two years after Britain's pet passport scheme began.
Back then the Kennel Club only recorded exhibitors, as opposed to individual dogs, with the number jumping from 93 the previous year to 343.
A total of 20,566 dogs have been entered for competition this year, with 2,131 coming from foreign soil compared to 1,977 in 2011.
Some 251 are native to the Netherlands with 231 arriving from both the Republic of Ireland and France.
- Published22 February 2013
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