Short Wave - Should Bulldogs Exist?

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

Cute, wrinkly faces aside, bulldogs have myriad health problems. Science points to purebred breeding practices as the reason. NPR Science correspondent Lauren Sommer talks to host Aaron Scott about how a bulldog breeding ban in Norway has fueled an ongoing debate on the practice of breeding dogs with low genetic diversity and, as a result, high instances of health problems. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Bulldogs have a look. You know, those wrinkles, those jowls, that underbite. I just think, smoozy face. Is smoozy even a word, NPR science correspondent, Lauren Summer? I think so. All right, then. A smushy face that some people love.

But in January, something happened that got the attention of Bulldog. owners everywhere. The breeding of British bulldogs has been banned, apparently, by the Oslo District Court in Norway. Yeah, bulldogs. A judge in Norway banned the breeding of bulldogs there. Banned it. Why? Well, because that smushy face can come with some issues.

Like, this is what just a few minutes of running does to some bulldogs. Rout row, that does not sound very comfortable. No. Bulldogs have very short airways, and they don't have a snout like other dogs. Their whole body has been made extremely compact. So many have serious breathing problems, not to mention other health issues that come with the breed. And that's what the judge was ruling on. So the judge was saying that the dogs are so unhealthy, it's actually not humane to breed them?

Essentially, yeah. I mean, humans decide what bulldogs look like through selective breeding. They're not naturally like that, of course. And the question is whether that's okay if it comes with so many health problems that the dog. have to live with. And some of those problems also have to do with the fact that the breed is pretty inbred and it doesn't have a lot of genetic diversity. So today on the show, the debate over bulldogs and their smushy faces and how it's part of a larger discussion about the ethics of purebred dog breeding and the genetic health of our

canine friends. I'm Aaron Scott and you're listening to Shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from MPR. summer, I have to admit I'm a bit of a late in life dog convert. It was a corgi named Dakota that captured my heart. She was the runt of the litter and super compact, so she didn't have a lot of the leg and back problems that some corgis can deal with. But she did get me thinking a lot about how the things that people love about certain breeds are often the very things that can make those breeds And I mean, corgi lovers are, well, let's just say very committed to corgis. And I'm guessing that bulldog lovers are the same.

Yeah, very much so. A lot of bulldog owners are very dedicated, and I met one. This is Rudy. You say hi. Rudy? Colleen Tiljan lives in Oakland with three bulldogs. There's Rudy and then Abby and Mojo. And her home is all about those dogs.

There are dog portraits on the walls, bulldog statues. I do. I absolutely love the breed. I can't imagine not having one or three. Okay. Clearly a fan. For sure. And she's had six bulldogs over her lifetime.

And she says they take a really involved owner because of some of their health issues. Like bulldogs have those deep wrinkles on their faces and they have these floppy ears. And Tillgen says she has to clean them almost every day because if you don't, they get infected. And then they have a really hard time cooling themselves off because they can't breathe very efficiently. They cannot sustain heavy heat. We would never walk them if it was over 80 degrees or anything. You know, you just have to be really careful because they do have that airway. Right, not a dog you take to the park on a hot summer day.

Right, because they're at risk of heat stroke. And some dogs have such serious breathing problems that they need surgery. One of children's dogs had to have its nasal openings widened, and others have to have their soft palate cut back to open up the airway. Wow. It sounds like some bulldogs don't have airways that function quite the way other dogs do, and that can be an expensive endeavor. Yeah, and I talk to a vet about that.

Dr. Eric Olstad is an assistant professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, and the way he describes it, many bulldogs have what he calls redundant tissue. How I describe this to patients is it's like moving from a four-bedroom house with all the furniture, into a one-bedroom apartment, but you have all the same furniture. Yeah, that's an image. Yeah, he also says their compact bodies and large heads make it hard for bulldogs to have puppies. They really can't give natural birth anymore.

I have to do C-sections on these dogs, but the monetary incentive for these breeders is so high that they can justify these added costs. These puppies can sell for anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 per puppy. All right, Lauren. And this is definitely showing me how drastically humans have changed the shape of the bulldog if they depend on us just to reproduce. I mean, these puppies are completely divorced from evolution. Right. And if you add up all these things, studies show that flat-faced dogs, which are also known as brachycephalic dogs, are unhealthy in general.

And that includes dogs like pugs and French bulldogs. And that's what prompted the animal welfare group in Norway to bring that core case, which focused on. two breeds, bulldogs and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and those Spaniels have chronic heart and skull problems. Ossel Roldesat is the CEO for the group that brought the case, the Norwegian Society for the Protection of Animals. We say that the dogs are our best friend, but we're not the bulldogs' best friend at all. You know, if this was your best friend, you wouldn't want it to have all these conditions. You would want it to have a better life. She says they don't want bulldogs to disappear. They want to start a conversation about making the breed healthy.

Is breeding bulldogs completely banned in Norway then? Well, the case is being appealed currently, and the ruling also didn't completely ban breeding them. It says breeding can take place to improve the health of the breed or bring in new genetic material. Huh. Okay. So what could be done to make the breed healthier? And what are some of the changes they're suggesting? Yeah, there's a few things that people are talking about. In December, the Australian Veterinary Association, recommended that bulldogs with short muscles, you know, spinal problems or breathing, problems not be bred at all. And then there's a breeder in Switzerland who was concerned about the health issues, and she created a new breed called Continental Bulldogs. It's kind of less compact with a snout that's a bit longer. So it's kind of about accepting a bulldog that looks a little bit

less like the Bulldogs we think of today. I'm trying to imagine that at the Westminster Dog Show and how the judges are going to respond. Are other breeders open to change? changing the way the bulldogs look? Well, not exactly. The way bulldogs look is controlled by the breed standard. It's kind of like the recipe for a bulldog. It defines the bulldog's look and temperament. And in the U.S., it's set by the Bulldog Club of America.

And I spoke to the club's president, Jeff Reimann, and he said they've had essentially the same standard for bulldogs for a century. Changing the standard after 100 years is not necessary. We want to follow the standard. And we want to encourage and educate those that don't to follow the standard, to health test their dogs. Then we get healthier dogs. He says his group provides a list of recommended health tests for breeders to use. And his take is that bulldog health problems are largely due to irresponsible breeders, not the actual look of the dog.

So his argument is that it's the breeder's fault because they're not being careful enough and breeding dogs with health problems. Yeah, that's it. But there's evidence that suggests that's not the case. Bulldogs, like a lot of purebred dogs, are pretty inbred. They descended from a small group of dogs originally. And under purebred dog rules, bulldogs have what's called a closed stud book. It's a totally closed off group. So if you want a purebred bulldog, it can only come from other purebred bulldogs. So no other breeds can be mixed in. Yet no other dogs being mixed in means no new genetic material comes in either. So how inbred are they? So on average, purebred dogs are as closely related as two sibling dogs that have an offspring together. Their genomes are that similar. Wow. And bulldogs are even more inbred than that.

A study from the University of California Davis found there's probably not enough genetic diversity within bulldogs right now to breed out the health problems, you know, even if all breeders are trying. And that would imply it's not just bad breeders. Yeah. And that's what Danica Banish, a veterinary geneticist at UC Davis told me. Yeah, I don't think it's the breeders themselves. They're not necessarily trying to breed unhealthy. It's the breed themselves that are unhealthy and there isn't much that they can do about it within the context of the purebred breed. What would it take to get some new genetic material into the breed?

Yeah. In a few cases, purebred dog breeders have done something called outcrossing. So Dalmatians are an example. They're really prone to bladder stones. And many years ago, a breeder bred a Dalmatian with a pointer to get some new genetics in there. And then they kept breeding the puppies with Dalmatians after that. So they still looked like Dalmatians. But it was pretty controversial. It took decades for them to be accepted as purebred Dalmatians. And that was for something that was just kind of one genetic problem. not a whole suite of health problems they were trying to fix. Lauren, it's a troubling idea that our aesthetic opinions of what these dogs should look like, and really in many ways our commitment to our dog being a part of this exclusive purebred club, all that means that these dogs have to suffer from all sorts of potentially painful health issues. So is there more pushback around this as the science advances? Yeah, that's what I think is really interesting here. It's because there's so much genetic information available right now that could help the dogs be healthier.

And it seems like the question is, how should dog breeders use that? And does the purebred dog system allow enough flexibility? Yeah, I think that's what people are asking right now. Because a lot of people pick dogs because of how they look, right? You know, not everyone thinks about their health problems. Or if you're getting a purebred dog, whether that breeder is using genetic test, or other tests to make sure these animals are healthy. It's the huge advances in genetic sequencing and technology over the last few decades that are

really ushering in this conversation. And it's really raising questions about whether things should be done the way they've always been done. Thank you, Lauren. It's been great to talk dogs with you. Thanks for having me. This episode was produced by Burley McCoy, edited by Stephanie O'Neill, and fact-checked by Catherine Seifer.

The audio engineer was Patrick Murray. Giselle Grayson is our senior supervising editor. Neil Carruth is our senior director of On-demand news programming, and Anya Grunman is our senior vice president of programming. I'm Aaron Scott. Thank you for listening to Shortwave, the Daily Science Podcast from NPR.