Flat-faced dog breeds like French Bulldogs, Pugs, and English Bulldogs suffer from severe respiratory, eye, dental, and birthing problems caused by extreme selective breeding. This is a welfare emergency of rapidly growing scale.
Brachycephalic breeds represent a welfare crisis that is, in an important sense, entirely self-inflicted. These dogs suffer because we have bred them to look a particular way — a way that makes them unable to breathe, exercise, cool themselves, or often give birth naturally. The dogs born into these physiologies did not choose them. Every French Bulldog that cannot run without gasping, every Pug with eyes that protrude so far they are constantly at risk of injury — these are the consequences of consumer preference overriding animal welfare. The solution requires changes in breeding standards, veterinary guidance, and consumer choices.