I have the same reaction anytime I have to wear a tie.
I’m always a little sad whenever I see bulldogs. We forced them into deformed mutanthood, and totally unnecessarily. Now they suffer because some fuckwits back in the 1800s decided asthmatic bug-eyed animals who can’t even reproduce on their own are much cuter than healthy animals who don’t live lives of suffering.
Not mad at the owner or anything. She didn’t breed the dogs. I’m just… sad at the lack of thought that’s basically made an abomination of the breed. And sad for the animals who didn’t choose to have screwed up bodies.
In particular, bulldogs and pugs have respiratory problems. Boxers get cancer.
Indeed, it’s worse than simply for cuteness - their short snout and fold of skin were bred in to allow it to gore bulls in fighting pits more easily - with the snout allowing more goreing and the skin channelling blood away from the eyes. FWIW, Wikipedia suggests the Kennel Club and others are trying to breed these features out to an extent to improve the health of the breed.
There was a story on the news some years back of a prize bulldog attending a show. The owners arrived late and had to park on the far side of the car park. The poor creature had a heart attack walking quarter of a mile to the show.
Pugs are hilarious… though a prefer drawings of pugs to the poor little critters themselves.
It says something sad about our forebearers that so many breeds were so intensively selected for survival in entertainment fighting pits.
And it does not speak well for us now that one can still find, without much effort, arranged animal fights and straight-on human abuse of animals.
That doesn’t even look like a doggie life vest. They put a human vest on the poor thing, it probably is uncomfortable.
Dog vests are shaped, well, more like dogs.
Found this on vimeo.
Apparently it’s from the BBC.
(although after viewing a part of it, I understand why the film is regarded with scorn by more than just pedigree dog clubs)
Our cocker loved going on the boat but would never wear a life vest. He used to sleep on the counter and I was convinced he would fall in one day, but he never did. However, he had the sense never to go after ducks or moorhens. An idiot colleague allowed his springers to chase ducks, and one day they decided to chase them right into the river - they killed two ducks and after that it was never safe to let them near water off the lead again.
However…back on topic, it isn’t just boxers but the depressing number of overweight dogs we see nowadays. Obesity kills dogs faster than it kills people. How do you stop a lardarse turning a dog into a barrel on legs?
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