Why breeding bulldogs is borderline inhumane
Yet another breed front and centre with the Kennel Club....
Quote:
Birth defects, such as flat chests, have led to high puppy mortality. A skeletal disorder common to the breed causes high rates of hip dysplasia. Bulldogs’ wrinkly faces beget acne and eye problems. Their underbites often mean dental troubles. But the biggest issue is their smushed, “brachycephalic” faces, large palate and narrow nostrils — visages their wolf ancestors might not even recognize as canine. They can cause a bulldog to pant like mad while exercising, slobber like a fountain while resting, choke and gag while eating, suffer from heat stroke, and, to top it off, have unusually wicked flatulence.
The litany of health problems common to the English bulldog, as the breed is formally known, has been at the center of a controversy over breeding in Britain since 2008. That year, a damning BBC documentary on purebred dogs’ poor health and welfare, “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” prompted several independent reports and caused the Kennel Club — the British counterpart to the American Kennel Club — to modestly revise its standards for several breeds, including the bulldog.
Pedersen, who has long researched canine genetics, figured the debate needed some science. So he and colleagues carried out a study on the DNA of 102 English bulldogs, most from the United States. What they found was sobering: A breed so lacking in genetic diversity that it would be nearly impossible to make it healthy without crossing it with other breeds.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...line-inhumane/
