Fuck Yeah, Animal Welfare!

February 15th, 2012 at 2:30PM

abusynothing:

sundrythings:

English Bulldog
Temperament wise, I love these dogs. They are always very happy and almost never have a mean bone in their body. Many veterinarians joke that these dogs keep them in business because they have so many problems though.
Skeletally these dogs are majorly messed up. Their bones are all twisted and turned, their skulls are a mess. They have brachygnathia and an assortment of problems associated with that. One issue is there stenotic nares (small nostrils), they have trouble getting enough air. They also have tiny tracheae and elongated soft palates. All of these issues go together to make a dog that can’t breathe well on a good day and makes a terrible snorting sound all of the time, and on a hot day can actually have heat stroke.
They can also generally not breed on their own and so must be artificially inseminated and due to the conformation of their pelvis and the size of the puppies, have to have c-sections usually. People can spend a few thousand dollars on a bulldog puppy and then need to spend a few thousand more just to make it “right”. They have surgeries to make their nostrils wider, remove the extra soft palate, and etc. Bulldogs are the one breed that after surgery they will not try to get the trachea tube out because it is the first time they can breathe easily on their own.
See that cute fold of skin over the nose? That is getting to be a very popular thing lately, and people want dogs with more prominent nasal folds. The issue with these is that just like the Shar Pei, bacteria can build up in these folds and they can get skin fold dermatitis. Many bulldogs have to have their wrinkles cleaned out every day by the owner to prevent dermatitis.
Many of the breed problems with bulldogs can be corrected surgically, but why do that? Breeders could solve these problems by being more responsible in their breeding (and there are a few out there trying to fix this) but it is the public’s responsibility to stop purchasing these dogs.

True. And scary.

sundrythings:

English Bulldog

Temperament wise, I love these dogs. They are always very happy and almost never have a mean bone in their body. Many veterinarians joke that these dogs keep them in business because they have so many problems though.

Skeletally these dogs are majorly messed up. Their bones are all twisted and turned, their skulls are a mess. They have brachygnathia and an assortment of problems associated with that. One issue is there stenotic nares (small nostrils), they have trouble getting enough air. They also have tiny tracheae and elongated soft palates. All of these issues go together to make a dog that can’t breathe well on a good day and makes a terrible snorting sound all of the time, and on a hot day can actually have heat stroke.

They can also generally not breed on their own and so must be artificially inseminated and due to the conformation of their pelvis and the size of the puppies, have to have c-sections usually. People can spend a few thousand dollars on a bulldog puppy and then need to spend a few thousand more just to make it “right”. They have surgeries to make their nostrils wider, remove the extra soft palate, and etc. Bulldogs are the one breed that after surgery they will not try to get the trachea tube out because it is the first time they can breathe easily on their own.

See that cute fold of skin over the nose? That is getting to be a very popular thing lately, and people want dogs with more prominent nasal folds. The issue with these is that just like the Shar Pei, bacteria can build up in these folds and they can get skin fold dermatitis. Many bulldogs have to have their wrinkles cleaned out every day by the owner to prevent dermatitis.

Many of the breed problems with bulldogs can be corrected surgically, but why do that? Breeders could solve these problems by being more responsible in their breeding (and there are a few out there trying to fix this) but it is the public’s responsibility to stop purchasing these dogs.

True. And scary.