We Want Our Mutant Dogs, Never Mind Their Pain

Heather, over at Raised by Wolves, asks if breeding Chinese Crested dogs with canine ectodermal dysplasia and the problems associated with that genetic defect (teeth loss, skin problems, eye problems) for a "World's Ugliest Dog" contest is any worse than raising a brachycephalic and achondroplastic bulldog that cannot breath or run in order to win a blue ribbon at an AKC show.

Answer?

No, of course not! Same thing, and a good point.

No matter what the breed, breeding dogs for misery-inducing deformity is all about the same.

Which brings me to the latest news out of the U.K. which is that, according to DogWorld, the Bulldog Breed Council has unanimously rejected the Kennel Club's proposed breed standard changes.

"We don’t like the whole thing," said council chairman, Robin Searle who is a former Crufts judge. "We see it as the Standard being changed and the dog will look different compared to how it is today.”

Right.

That's the idea.

But of course Mr. Searle is a bit thick-head on that point, isn't he?

No surprise then to learn that this man has spent the last 50 years chasing blue ribbons in the Kennel Club.

If you were looking for Exhibit One for the kind of inbred thinking that has resulted in so many Kennel Club dogs being genetic basket cases with shortened and miserable lives, Mr. Searle might take the prize.

As Emma Milne, from BBC One's Vets In Practice has noted, the modern Bulldog is a "mutated freak."

"Modern bulldogs can't run, they can't breathe, they can't give birth.

They have enormous problems with too much soft tissue in their mouth and it adds up to a dog that is struggling for air all its life."

Struggling for air it's entire life? Robin Searle and the bulldog breeders who make up the Kennel Club's breed council do not give a damn about that!

For them, the dog is all about blue ribbons, and shiny trophies. Never mind the tarnish on the dog. The dog is not even in the picture!

And so, we come down to the question of how to get through to these people who are so breed-blind.

Perhaps when we meet Mr. Searle, we can all wish that his grandchildren be born with the human equivalent of what he prizes in a bulldog -- a severe brachycephalic head and achondroplasia (dwarfism).

Perhaps with hairless Chinese Crested breeders we can wish their children be born with ectodermal dysplasia and the dental, skin and eye problems that come with that genetic condition?

Perhaps with show-ring German Shepherd breeders we can wish upon them children with twisted and dysplatic hips?

And, of course, for the Dalmatian breeders who continue to reject the back-cross dogs that are free of uric acid stones, we can wish them (or their husbands) a urethrostemy, in which their scrotum is removed, and their urinary tract is permanently relocated to the base of their penis so they can urinate like a female.

Hey, if it'd good enough for the dog, it should be good enough for their owners and their families!

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