Wednesday, November 25, 2009

English Bulldog / UGA Debate

Some of you may know last week, the University of Georgia mascot, UGA VII, passed away at the young age of 4 due to "heart-related causes." His father, UGA VI, died of the same thing.

A friend of mine that used to breed English Bulldogs up in Illinois said that the UGA lines are some of the most unhealthy Bulldogs out there, and that it is common knowledge among EB breeders that the line also produces a high percentage of sterile males as well.

I guess PETA sent a letter to UGA telling them to just stop using the mascot altogether (of course, they suggested an animatronic dog or a costumed mascot in its place.)

British veterinarian Emma Milne of BBC One's "Vets in Practice" program also wanted to ban the breeding of Bulldogs as we know they today calling them mutants or something of that nature with major health issues.

I'd be curious to find out how other "UGAs" died as well, and could all of this have been prevented with better breeding practices instead of satisfying the UGA fans? (As in...not breeding dogs with heart problems, known health issues, etc.?)

Thoughts?

1 comment:

A. Hab. said...

Yeah, I've heard for a while that the Uga line is pretty bad off...and I wasn't that surprised at the death of Uga VII. (Not happy, of course, just not shocked.) I think it's fairly sickening that UGA is continuing these practices to the detriment of these animals' health and well-being just for the sake of pleasing some people.

And...PETA must not follow SEC football very closely because, of course, UGA already has a costumed mascot, lol. What on earth do they think Hairy Dawg is? Fans won't be pleased with an animatronic replacement; I think we can all guess that one. But I wonder if there's not a better way to breed this particular type of Bulldog to be healthier. They may not be as big and wrinkly and squat...but maybe they could, like, live longer. Just a thought.

(And, as a sidebar, all of our live mascots [the eagles] are rescued. They live for a fairly goodly amount of time, and they are not bred for our special purposes. At the first sign of arthritis or other trouble, they are grounded until they heal or are otherwise retired. There are safer, better, more humane practices out there for maintaining a live mascot...and I think UGA fans would be reasonable and willing to change for the sake of a dog's life.)