Should Bulldogs Exist?

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

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.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Bulldogs have a look.
0:08.6	You know, those wrinkles, those jowls that under bite.
0:13.8	I just think, smushy face.
0:16.9	Is smushy even a word, M.P.R.S.S. correspondent, Lorenz Hummer?
0:21.8	I think so.
0:22.8	All right then, a smushy face that some people love.
0:26.8	But in January, something happened that got the attention of bulldog owners everywhere.
0:32.0	The breeding of British bulldogs has been banned apparently by the Oslo district court in Norway.
0:37.2	A judge in Norway banned the breeding of bulldogs there.
0:41.6	Bandit.
0:42.6	Why?
0:43.6	Well, because that smushy face can come with some issues.
0:46.6	Like, this is what just a few minutes of running does to some bulldogs.
0:50.8	Well, that does not sound very comfortable.
0:56.9	No.
0:57.9	Bulldogs have very short airways and they don't have a snout like other dogs.
1:02.0	Their whole body has been made extremely compact.
1:05.0	So many have serious breathing problems, not to mention other health issues that come with
1:09.8	the breed and that's what the judge was ruling on.
1:12.6	So the judge was saying that the dogs are so unhealthy, it's actually not humane to
1:17.6	breed them.
	...

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