Do you think brachycephalic dogs are fine?
Let’s all just take a long look at the following two images. The top one is how a healthy dog should look.
Brachycephalic breeds such as in the second image include dogs such as the French Bulldog, American Bulldog, Pug, Pekingese, Shihtzu, Boxers, and more. You may have heard smack about them previously or not at all, or you may be fully on the brachycephalic bandwagon still. I just want to refresh everyone’s memories a bit on why these are such horrible breeds and why they should not be continue to be bred. I have seen, every day for almost 3 weeks straight, dozens of deformed brachycephalic dogs being AI’d, being monitored during pregnancy, and having puppies delivered by C-section. I am sick of seeing this, and so this post is born.
Brachycephalic dogs commonly (and by commonly I mean almost every single brachycephalic dog) suffer from a syndrome called Brachycephalic Airway Syndrome. This syndrome involves the following, to varying degrees:
1. Narrow nostrils and overgrown bones within the nasal cavities (or, in other words, normal sized bones in a horribly shortened face) which obstructs airflow.
2. A trachea (i.e. windpipe) that is too small.
3. Everted laryngeal saccules (stage 1 of laryngeal collapse*) which can obstruct airflow.
4. A soft palate that is too long and obstructs airflow within the larynx.
These deformities translate into the cute, snorting, snoring, wheezing, overheating dogs that we all dote on. However, as if that’s not enough, these dogs can also have a multitude of other problems such as enlarged tonsils, vomiting and acid reflux, *full collapse of the larynx, jaw malformations resulting in dental malformations, skin disease, eye disease, heat intolerance, and inter-vertebral disc disease. They often require corrective surgery at a young age, and even then are not going to be completely healthy.
In other words, they’ve got it real bad. And people are still breeding them even when they are showing clear signs of anatomical and heritable abnormalities.
These dogs suffer unnecessarily just by being alive. Please don’t support their breeding, and don’t talk about them like they’re normal and healthy. They are not.
I think you mean English bulldog. Shoutout to the Scott type American bulldog, one of the two main versions in the breed:
Don’t eliminate the breed.
IMPROVE them.
Breed OUT the brachycephalic issues. Yes, it’s bad. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not good. But it’s a bit arrogant of you to assume ALL these breeds have the problems you listed. Each individual animal is different.
I have a boxer.
His name is Vinny. He’s got a bit of a longer muzzle than some boxers I have seen. And he has NONE of the issues OP listed. None.
I’m seeing more and more boxers with even longer muzzles. Encourage breeding THOSE boxers. And problem solved.
Boxer:
Pug:
English bulldog: (Yes, a purebred English bulldog, from Finland)
Not fish related but THIS. Yes. Change breed standards to improve the animal’s health. Thought I’d share this here as well since the same logic applies to bettas.
punkitt-is-here
