I realise that pugs seem to hold a special place in many people’s hearts. They’re loyal, they always look happy to see you, and they’re…cute? Yeah, some others may agree with me if I say that I don’t really get the ‘cute’ thing when I look at a pug. Honestly if I had to choose a dog to look at everyday I may go with something that looks like a dog. Pugs have been pushed to the very boundaries of dog-breeding experimentation, and I actually feel sorry for them. It must feel pretty claustrophobic to breathe through a nose that looks like it’s been smashed in by a concrete wall. And it is difficult. Ever heard a pug breathe? That wheezing sound? That is the plight that a breathing pug must suffer. They don’t even have to be particularly out of breath or exited to run around snorting like the inside of their head is filled entirely with mucus and nothing but.
Maybe it’s something in the way you look at their faces, tongue oozing out and bulging eyes looking two different ways, and you realise maybe you’re not as ugly as you were feeling before. Speaking of they’re bulging eyes, do you know that pugs’ eyes have a tendency to just POP OUT occasionally? And if you talk with any owner who has a pug with this problem, they’ll tell you in a matter-of-fact way that you’ve just got to pop them back in when it happens. Like no big deal right? Wrong.
Pugs are a particularly potent example of dog breeding gone wrong. They are wrinkled balls of bad nutrition with barely four legs to stand on. Or rather to hold them up. There are many other dogs that suffer from being born from a shallow gene pool, keeping purebred lines a little too pure, or from breeding deformities into dogs because we think it’s cute. Often bigger dogs struggle with things like hip dysplasia and gastric dilation, and those really wrinkly dogs can have so many wrinkles that they cover their own eyes. Neurological problems, back problems, dislocating knees, infections of the skin, eyes, and under tails; these are all problems associated with selective breeding that is so common today.
As
an example, here is a painting of a pug by Henry Bernard Chalon from 1802:
And
here is a picture of a pug today:
The worst part is that there are so many mixed breed dogs living as strays or in shelters that would probably be much healthier, and definitely cheaper, than buying a purebred dog from a selective breeder. Those dogs without a home can be happy, healthy, and have a little bit of every dog inside them, making them a much more interesting companion, and isn’t that why we domesticated wolves in the first place? As mankind’s best friend, not mankind’s best show-and-tell toy.
-Lucy Ergot
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