Brachycephalic breeds, those with wide and short skulls, such as pugs, French bulldogs, and Scottish cats, are bred to have flat faces for cosmetic purposes. More than half of these animals have severe respiratory problems and other problems related to the crushed face. Again, it is only the threat of monetary loss that prevents dogs from having the most unethical form of hybrid vigor: the breeding of two separate lines of pugs, each created through five or six generations of sibling crossing. The only benefit of inbred animals and predisposing them to such health complications is increased profits for breeders and an unnatural ideal specimen of what Americans believe a pug should look like.
Pugs are one of the brachycephalic breeds, that is, short-nosed, which also include cavalier King Charles spaniel and French bulldogs. So if you really want to show some love to puppies this Valentine's Day, then it would be best to avoid pugs altogether. They are REALLY prone to gaining a lot of weight and many pug owners simply feed their pug whatever they want and they can't seem to understand that their pug needs a particular diet to stay fit and healthy. The traits that are idealized in the American standard for big and dark eyes of pugs and skin with deep and large wrinkles are, in fact, health complications for the living animal.
The characteristics of pugs that are so valued should be seen as potentially harmful to the pug's welfare and consequently abandoned as unethical to perpetuate, and the welfare of the animal should not be ignored or exploited for the sole purpose of making a profit or owning a pure animal. That is, unless the symptoms occur early enough in their lives for breeders to eliminate them because of the defects that the breeders caused them. If a pug is a carrier of a disease, it can produce puppies with the disease no matter which animal it is bred with, there is only a lower chance. Pugs, Shih Tzus and Pekingese dogs are very old, for example, but the extreme nature of their current flat faces is more recent.
But it is these same characteristics deliberately raised in pugs to meet an ideal that causes a catalog of problems, including difficulty breathing and walking, that can cause them to suffer a life of misery. This attachment you talk about is not unique to pugs; all dogs tend to behave that way when they love you. Veterinarian Robin Hargreaves, who has his own surgery in Colne, Lancs, has seen a huge increase in pugs with respiratory problems. Inbreeding consists of mating pugs that are closely related, anywhere, from parents to young and from siblings to siblings.
