They used to be very cute and were functional dogs. Altdeutscher mops and retro pugs are good examples. Here’s an 1800s painting of one.

People are drawn to vulnerable creatures; they inspire nurturing and protective instincts.

Pug breeders attempt to distill vulnerability to include overly large eyes and an inability to breathe well.

That’s just called eugenics

The Spanish Habsburgs.

Don’t sperm banks offer selective sperm choices based on intelligence and physical fitness?

People on 4chan were talking about that sort of thing at least 15 years ago. I think it was on /tg/, if I remember. They were also much more concerned with the trolling/ethical thought of breeding for the brain. What if you bred someone who only had the thought of serving a master?

I think that’s enough evidence for me that selective breeding is horribly fucked in its outcome no matter the original aims, and the closest we should come is eliminating the ‘will kill you’ diseases.

The amount of times I’ve been blocked on Reddit for pointing out the hypocrisy of humans… Our species really need to be neutered by default, exceptions only for license holders.

I predict hairy sphynx cats

Dudes bitching about reddit on a 2 month old account saying how lemmy should be. Fuck off with this.

Uh what? You do realize that correcting this genetic defect will 100% make these dogs healthier and live longer, right? So you’re upset because…?

Strangely hostile comment.

German wolf hounds (large dogs, full snouts, etc.) live maybe 8 years total.

You’re singling out a single obscure breed of dog for some reason (where I assume you mean “German wirehaired pointing wolfhound”?) and then also making a claim about their life expectancy without presenting any evidence. Not only can I not find something saying eight years, I can’t find any credible information saying anything at all about this specific breed’s lifespan.

My pug dog lived 15 years, died of cancer, and never had trouble breathing during those 15 years.

I’m sorry for your loss, but I’m glad they lived a long time.

• French bulldogs are being discussed here, not pugs. They both suffer from brachycephalic airway syndrome, but French bulldogs are substantially worse (see below).
• Even if your dog were a French bulldog, a single anecdote is not statistically significant data.
• French bulldogs demonstrably have a much shorter life expectancy than most other dog breeds. You can see in the data that pugs aren’t too far behind.

If you google “name of dog breed you think doesn’t have problems” + health issues, you’ll get a list of the problems that breed is prone to.

…Okay? The point is that we know this is a health problem for French bulldogs and pugs; there’s every reason to believe changing their facial anatomy would make things better and seemingly no reason to believe it’d make them worse. This feels like whataboutism.

I’m not against breed changes to improve health at all but the hurr durr I-just-learned-the-word-brachycephalic-and-now-I’m-gonna-act-like-I-invented-it shit needs to die in a fire.

I agree that the modern Internet is too capable of rallying people behind causes they don’t invest the time to understand, but I don’t see anyone underinformed here. We inbred this feature into dogs in the 1900s because it was considered aesthetically desirable. We now recognize this often causes severe medical problems. Changing the facial anatomy should help millions of sentient beings live their lives without said severe medical problems. Becoming aware of a problem and then advocating for a reasonable solution isn’t “acting like [they] invented it”.

Let’s make all dogs live longer and healthier lives without shitting on any of them.

They’re not. The reason French bulldogs were singled out here is because of their exceptionally low lifespans, and I think you’re thinking people who care about this are getting some smug, fart-smelling satisfaction out of this when really they’re just happy to see a glimmer of light in a world that’s falling into darkness.

Sorry to hear about your pug. Fuck cancer. I lost my 16-yo pit bull terrier to cancer a few years back.

That said, no need to get up in arms about this post. This is still a good thing. If you don’t like it, downvote and move on.

Nobody’s shitting on them though, who are you addressing?

glad it got put out of its misery, just a shame it took that long. poor thing