A DOG lover is ruing her time in the spotlight after she appeared in a TV documentary about the health hazards pedigree dogs can suffer.

Joan Siemieniowski appeared with her boxer Zack on Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

The hard-hitting BBC show examined the level of inherited disease as well as welfare issues concerned with pedigrees. It was broadcast last week.

Zack suffers from epileptic fits and since the programme was shown Joan says she has been inundated with comments from people saying she should have had her three-year-old dog put down.

Joan, of Miller Street, Ashton — who bought Zack as a pup from a breeder in Yorkshire — said: "I walk Zack on St George’s playing fields every day and people have been coming up to me and saying that if these fits are so bad I should have Zack put down. People have been ringing up and even my brother rang me and said people have been told him Zack should be put to sleep.  But Zack only has a fit about one day a month — not all the time — and he is on a course of Keppra tablets which cost £200 a month.  I could never put him down. I didn’t have an inkling he had this problem when I bought him three years ago.  He had his first fit seven months after I bought him. A lot of people buy pedigree dogs to breed from them for money but I could never do that."

Joan, 55, has looked after dogs since she was a child and currently owns another boxer called Tasha, whom she bought last year and is healthy.