“But why do you care so much about flat faced dogs when there are lots of other problems in domestic animals?”
Listen. Ten years ago when I started practicing as a vet it was uncommon to see a pug. It was quite rare to see a boston terrier or a french bulldog.
There has been years of veterinarians campaigning against the breeding of extreme brachycephalic or ‘flat faced’ dogs and where has that gotten us?
About a third the new puppies coming through the clinic are brachycephalic. This is especially obvious with the influx of covid puppies, but this style of dog and the inherent suffering of brachycephalic airway syndrome has just become more popular.
We harp on about it because it is still a growing problem.
And it’s obscene. These dogs sell for multiple thousands of dollars, up to $12,000 for a ‘rare’ color, and people are willing to pay that. Some even take out loans to buy these dogs that breeders say ‘are healthy’.
It’s ludicrous. These dogs have shortened lifespans, struggle to breathe (sometimes surgery improves it but not always), skin problems, dental problems, heart problems, airway problems, digestive problems, knee problems and often hip problems. There is barely an inch of these dogs that are normal. That is so much preventable suffering.
For some reason people get addicted to these dogs, once they’ve had one, they usually get two or three, usually before they get old enough to really be obvious with their problems.
And breeders do not care, it’s too profitable to care. A lot of these pups are coming from places that have 4 or more breeding females, or are being transported in from obscure country locations. They are insanely profitable and small enough to breed in suburbia.
There’s too much money, too much public demand, and too much suffering. Honestly I’m reaching the point where I would say that breeding these dogs without a minimum length of nose should be illegal.
Because information campaigns havent worked, but we keep harping on about it.
I care because no *puppy* should ever have a trachea that looks like this:
That’s about 1/3 the size it should be. This puppy was slowly suffocating to death every single moment of his existence. NOTHING should ever be like just because we decided the outside of the dog is ‘cute’. This is animal abuse, to breed dogs that are prone to this on purpose.
If you think brachy breeds aren’t a problem, I actively dare you to spend an entire day breathing through a typical sized drinking straw and see how you feel.
