Brachycephalic dogs — flat-faced breeds including Bulldogs, Pugs, and French Bulldogs — face a chronic welfare crisis from breed standard-driven anatomical abnormalities that cause lifelong breathing difficulty.
Brachycephalic dog welfare represents a human-created welfare crisis driven by aesthetic preferences for features that are fundamentally incompatible with normal physiological function. Dogs that struggle to breathe during sleep, during mild exercise, and during warm weather are dogs in chronic physiological distress. Consumer demand for these breeds, despite widely publicized welfare concerns, is the primary driver. No breeding programme can make a brachycephalic skull compatible with normal respiratory function.