An obsession with cute snoots is raising hackles in the UK.
An investigation published in the journal Vet Record describes how more breeders in the UK are resorting to risky and sometimes banned procedures to satisfy the rising demand for brachycephalic breeds — dogs like English and French bulldogs, Shih Tzus, pugs and boxers, whose short, squashed-in noses can lead to breathing problems.
Because those breeds have small hips and large heads, they’re often born via cesarean section. Investigators say many canine-fertility clinics are often using surgical artificial insemination, a potentially dangerous process that’s been banned in the UK since last year.
“There has been a sharp rise in the number of specialist canine fertility clinics in the UK over the past five years,” begins the analysis by co-authors Josh Loeb and Eleanor Evans. They count 37 clinics now operating nationwide — a huge contrast from 2015, when a BBC article pointed out just one such clinic it called “noteworthy.”
A significant number of these clinics, the report says, were found to advertise questionable services, had “rudimentary websites and offer only an anonymous mobile number as the point of contact.”
“Many are not run by vets and do not have a vet on site but appear to offer veterinary services such as blood sampling and cesareans,” the report continues. “The trend has been linked to the rise in the popularity of brachycephalic breeds.”
The study’s authors cited figures from the UK’s official Kennel Club that indicated a significant increase in dogs born using artificial insemination, with more canine AI births in the last three years than during the 17 years between 1998 and 2015. Meanwhile, the number of French and English bulldog and pug puppies registered with the Kennel Club has risen steadily since 2009. English bulldogs had a 3,000 percent increase in that time, and English bulldogs, a 153 percent increase.
Canine clinics, Loeb writes in an editorial, require better regulation.
“Looking internationally, Switzerland has already convicted some breeders of flat-faced pedigree cats for ‘torture breeding’ after a law was created in that country in recognition of the fact that such breeds suffer from distorted body shapes that lead to a higher incidence of certain illnesses,” he writes, “Perhaps it’s time the UK created its own laws to better regulate the canine fertility industry?”