I Don't Care How Cute That Bulldog Is. We Have To Stop Making Them.

[eridani]

Wasn't aware that the effects of inbreeding have gotten so bad.
http://www.upworthy.com/i-dont-care-how-cute-that-bulldog-is-we-have-to-stop-making-them?c=upw1

All of this inbreeding means that the average purebred dog is sicker than, well, a dog. 60% of golden retrievers die of cancer. A third of King Charles spaniels have skulls that are too small for their brains. Great Danes are so huge that their hearts can't support their bodies. And, well, as for little tiny dogs, have you ever seen a little tiny dog that looked happy? They know there's something wrong with them, and they know that we did it to them.

Oh my God.

And now we come to the bulldog.

Oh, he is so cute!

Yeah, he is. If you find total genetic failure cute. 100 years ago, the bulldog was a proud breed, but a century of inbreeding has ruined them. Their noses are so squashed they can barely breathe. Their heads are so big they can only give birth by Cesarean section. Their tails can become ingrown. They basically all have hip dysplasia and their average life expectancy is six years. Let's face it. These dogs shouldn't even be alive.

But Oliver, here, won Best in Show.

Yeah, more like "Best in the Freakshow." The sad part is, Kennel Clubs could cure all of the bulldogs' problems if they just allowed them to crossbreed. But they won't because then they might not look like the cute little bulldogs everyone loves. But our insistence that these dogs live up to our arbitrary standards is causing them to get sick and die. As much as you love the bulldog, the fact that it exists at all is borderline animal abuse.

[mopinko]

1. i have 2 victorian bulldogges. there are several breeds coming up that address there issues.

they are not perfect. both have bad hips. one had to have his eyelids adjusted. one has food allergies.
BUT, they have straight spines, they breathe fine, the breed standard requires that they breed freely, and birth naturally. mine were.

there are olde english, victorian, mollets, banter bullies, and a few more.

breeding to a piece of paper, designed to monetize a rich man's hobby, is a pox. people used to and still do breed dogs for jobs, including companions. iirc, the ikc has performance requirements that you must pass to get your dog registered at all. their championships are more based on working than looks. this is where you will find dogs like my rat terriers, and many other working breeds that akc does not recognize.

i still prefer the predictability of a pure bred dog. i would have preferred to get a boxer, but they seem to be the breed headed fastest for idiocy and ruin.
my victorians have all the heart and all the brains that a good bully should have. one is just plain my petmate.
and my ratties do a great job, doing what they were bred to do, which includes co-existing peacefully with my flock of chickens.

imho, the evolution of dog breeds is one of mankind's great achievements. we put our brains and our hearts into a wild animal, and shaped it into a myriad of forms. i would hate to see that flushed down the toilet by a few bad apples.

fine with me if you blow up akc's giant headquarters. like i said, they are a pox. fortunately, not all their members are stupid, and you can still find a strong, healthy purebred dog if you take the trouble to look.

[hollysmom]

2. YOu have no idea of how the bordeer collie owners fought against getting border collies as

a recognized dog breed by the AKC. Now they can be bred for looks instead of intelligence. There is a reason that border collies were so smart, They could only compete in trials prior to their acceptance, no they will be bred and end up with all sorts of flaws they do not have right now.

You have collies who are bred to have skulls so narrow they tend to go blind, and dogs with pushed in snouts that can't breath and Rotties with limited skulls so some get vicious as they get older from constant pressure on their brain and and and
the sins of over breeding goes on forever. Get yourself a nice mutt from the shelter,. Best dogs in the world.
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edited to fix typo <--- many many typos

[Curmudgeoness]

3. What they have done with purebreds makes me crazy.

Why can't we marry our siblings, or cousins? Why have the royal families in the past had so many genetic problems.

It is called "hybrid vigor". There is less chance of unfavorable traits, especially those passed on by recessive genes. Mutts rule!

[TorchTheWitch]

6. purebreds are not family members

Unless the breeder is a complete idiot. Purebreds are likely to be more healthy when bred by breeders that know what they're doing because they only breed those dogs that have undergone extensive health tests and DON'T breed dogs that are related. This is how we got rid of epidemic hip dysplasia and other common genetic health problems, and why good breeders can and do guarantee that none of their pups will get hip dysplasia. Pedigrees provide genetic information on each dog going back at least four generations with each one being registered so you can look up their specific health tests... eyes, hips, bones, etc.

This careful breeding of purebreds also provides much needed information for scientists to formulate what genetic health issues might be able to be tested for in the future, odds on which animals may only be carriers of certain genetic health issues that they can pass on though don't develop that certain health issues themselves, the odds on how many of their progeny will likely be healthy or only carriers or those dogs that have a genetic health issue that they will have symptoms of.

Basic common sense says that breeding dogs with questionable genetic health issues as well as questionable family history runs the MUCH higher risk of passing on genetic health issues to their progeny.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. Breeders who know what they are doing....

that is the crux of the problem. Too few "breeders" know what they are doing. I do understand that there are breeders who are serious about the breed, and are only breeding for show quality dogs. Those breeders will also only sell dogs that are true to the breed, and the pups who are not up to par must be spayed or neutered so that the line is not in jeopardy. But finding these breeders is not easy, and the prices are high. I doubt that many people looking for a pet and wanting a certain breed of dog are willing to work that hard to find those breeders or are willing to pay the prices.

So I stick to my guns on this (figuratively)....mutts are the best option.

[TorchTheWitch]

8. nobody buys a purebred without a pedigree

Unless they're stupid. How else would they know they're buying a purebred? Even if purchased through a mediocre breeder you'd still have the pedigree to go by to at least insure that there's no inbreeding going on. Purebreds by even casual breeders always include champion lines - dogs that are not only show quality but have proven out to be of exceptional health and temperament by winning in the ring and with extensive health test records that can be checked out.

It's backyard breeders and puppy farms that that CLAIM to sell purebreds, but without a pedigree of registered dogs at least four generations out that ad in the newspaper saying "Pit Bull puppies for sale" is likely selling dogs without pedigrees to prove they ARE a purebred coming from at least several champion dogs and with all the dogs on the pedigree registered which means you're likely getting a mutt that looks enough like the purebred of choice to fool anyone foolish enough to purchase a "purebred" that way. And when they're puppies it's very difficult for an armature to tell just by looking at them.

With a mutt you have absolutely no idea on earth what you're getting when in comes to health and temperament. Since their genetic history and bloodlines are unknown you DO run a far greater risk in both those areas. You also have no idea of their important first weeks of life since the breeder is likely clueless on all the knowledge and experience needed in those first weeks or what conditions they lived in. I've seen WAY too many YouTube videos of backyard breeders that think their cute puppies they bred (or whose bitch just turned up pregnant - and I'm using the technical dog world term of that word here) are just the bee's knees that don't even have a whelping box, or a shoddy makeshift one that's never kept clean, where the pups are made to stay in the box for the entire 8 to 12 weeks or they're sold off as young as five weeks, etc. Not to mention those backyard breeders that don't even know to take the pups to the vet for examination and appropriate shots and they're far too much handled by too many people.

The larger problem of purebreds and health issues is that too damn many breeds have actual qualities notable to a breed that in and of itself are health concerns... like the bulldogs this thread is about though that particular breed is probably the most grotesque example. There should BE no breeds where physical qualities that note the breed are deformities that all by themselves are a health issue... dogs with stubby legs, pop eyes, squashed snouts, huge dogs whose skelature is too thin and week to adequately support their size, dogs with such broad chests that their front legs can't grow straight, and on and on.

And then there's the mutilated breeds where ears are chopped to force them to stand up or tails docked. I particularly despise surgical mutilation in order for a dog to conform to a specific breed. A dog's tail is necessary for balance as it acts like a rudder on a boat. Without their tail they're incapable of proper balance in tight turns on the run and either have to slow, circle wide or fall which can very likely cause injury. Cutting a dog's ears to stand up straight when they don't have the thick protective hair inside to keep out airborne crap is an invitation to airborne crap getting deep inside the ear causing infection or much worse.

The only surgery I actually approve of for any dog is cutting off those ridiculous useless dew claws (I've always called them dingle claws) since they don't do anything but get in the way and are prone to being torn off which is painful and bloody. That happened to my first Akita, and the vet cut off the dangling one that was torn and whacked off the other one for practically nothing so the same thing wouldn't happen again to that one. My next Akitas both Boo and Yoshi had theirs removed by the breeder when they were pups which is much easier and only took one stitch to close since at that age they were so tiny. I love not having to worry about his tearing one of his dingle claws like Kato did especially when they did/do a lot of digging, climbing and racing through uncertain brush.

That's not to say that mutts can't be perfectly healthy dogs all their lives. But it's a crap shoot. And after all of Kato's perpetual health problems that's not a risk I'm willing to make ever again. I wouldn't have traded him for the world, and he had a great temperament. But all his life he had one health problem or another all of which were genetic. I was stupid and didn't do my homework. But a mutt could have been the same or worse. At least he never got hip dysplasia which has been stamped out almost entirely in purebred dogs now. Not so for mutts. That's what happens with casual breeding of dogs with questionable health history and when their bloodlines can't be tracked and researched.

Ideally I wish that the only breeding was done by the best of breeders so that these genetic problems can be wiped out and where pups will be properly birthed and raised in sanitary conditions for those first vital weeks of their lives. If these good breeders for whatever reason want to crossbreed fine by me as long as breeds with deformities that compromise their health are eliminated. After all, cross breeding is how new breeds come about. Dogs NEED to be bred for health and temperament, and "mutts" are just as risky as backyard or puppy mill breeding of purebreds. Amateurs shouldn't be breeding dogs. The only dogs that should even be ABLE to be bred should be only those dogs bred by good responsible knowledgeable and experienced breeders with pedigrees and health tests and registered so that every dog on the pedigree can be researched and this information discovered.

The AKC needs to step up to the plate and start weeding out these purebreds with purposeful deformities as well as disallow cropping ears and docking tails. They're the point of the spear to move toward responsible dog breeding, and they miserably fall down on the job. The whole point to showing dogs is to display a dog's health, temperament, obedience and vitality, yet they shoot themselves in the foot by allowing breeds that have purposely bred deformities that all by themselves ARE significant health hazards. I wanted to bloody kick them for allowing that horrible and horribly ugly hairless creature that it makes me sick to dignify with the term "dog". Damn, a dog without any hair is a serious health hazard deformity - not something that should be PRIZED, for heaven's sake. And there's no excuse for shaving up a dog's fur like topiary... I can't stand the look of a tarted up poofy poodle that if it were green would look like shrubbery in Disneyland. The AKC desperately needs to change their entire approach to what dogs are shown FOR and quit this asinine turning a blind eye to breeds that have deformities and surgical procedures to produce a look that compromises their health or makes them look like landscaped foliage.

[TorchTheWitch]

4. I've never even understood why anyone thinks they're cute

I can't look at one and not see gross deformity that is anything but cute.

[phylny]

5. Cavalier King Charles Spaniel owners fought against the AKC as well, in the 90s.

We have had two. Kelly lived until she was 11.75 years, and died of complications of mitral valve prolapse. Abby died in February at 7.5 years old. She had MVP, seizures, and needed a special diet of hypoallergenic food due to inflammatory bowel disease. My neighbor has a 3-year-old Cavalier who takes drugs all day due to syringomyelia and she has luxating patellas.

I wish I could get another one, but I never will. I adore this breed, but the heartache is too much, and unfair to the dogs. We have two rescue mutts and love them. There's no guarantee that they won't have problems, but they have a better chance than our Cavs did. The AKC ruined this breed, along with disreputable breeders.