This vid landed in my inbox today. It is an upsetting video of a morbidly obese Pug called Boo sleeping. He has - wait for it - over 20,000 followers on Instagram (see here). There is the occasional comment about Boo being too fat, but most of those who comment think he's cute. They love his chubby wrinkles.
Boo's nose roll almost obscures his nostrils. What with this and the blubber, it is hard to comprehend how he is still alive.But he won't be for much longer. His owner is killing him. Being a Pug is hard enough without this.
This is as cruel as beating a dog with a stick.
There will be some who defend her, saying perhaps she doesn't know this is wrong. But it's impossible that Boo's veterinarian has not told her that this is a problem for the dog.
No doubt she will insist she loves him to bits. But this is not love. The dogs we own and the shape they're in are a pretty good reflection of our own psychological health. There is something terribly, terribly wrong here.
A living creature who's basic needs for air has been denied, first by it's breeder by breeding for the extreme flattened face and then it's owner who not only has capitalized on this poor dog by featuring it's warped humanized face, but has added to it by making the dog grossly obese, all wrapped up in a photo package. It's obvious that this owner and all the admiring followers of this dog are indulging in an impulse that has essentially made a living animal into a living stuffed animal. The life of the animal is literally lost for the need to make it into this object of admiration. And the owner must love the attention as well, blinding them further to the sad reality of this pug's constant struggle of existence.
ReplyDeleteI've commented on the video and on their Instagram. That poor, poor little dog... he's at a disadvantage to begin with simply being a Pug, and that extra weight and flab... but what hurts my soul the most is the legions of adoring but blissfully unknowing fans who think this is cute in any way *gags*
ReplyDeleteOh gee, seems I can't see Boo's Instagtam pics anymore... and my comment wasn't even that harsh, jeez...
DeleteShes blocked me too for stating the obvious: the poor dogs nose role is too big
DeleteYou are wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis is orders of magnitude crueler than beating a dog with a stick.
I effing hate people.
I think there is a world of difference between abusing a dog with a stick and this. A dog who is beaten is going to have a heck of a lot more issues than one who is loved, but is overweight. The former could well develop fear aggression or shut down. Could develop a lifelong fear/distrust of people who look like their abuser. They could also come to fear anything that resembles a stick. All those things could well take a lot longer to overcome (if at all) than a dog takes to lose weight. One day several years ago, my (then only) dog had a couple of bad experiences with snowballs being thrown at him by kids. For weeks after that he would tremble with fear whenever he saw groups of kids approaching him. He would also stop dead and turn in the opposite direction. There were some days when he didn't even want to leave the house. Despite trying to get him over that he still gets distressed when he sees kids throwing snowballs or groups of kids making lots of noise (the first time he had snowballs thrown at him it was when the kids were being loud). He is also a rescue who had been abused and every now and then the psychological scars of his past are obvious. While I think that allowing a dog to get into a state like this Pug is terrible, at least the abuse was unintentional and with guidance or intervention the dog can be put on a diet and will not suffer psychologically.
DeleteThe big difference here is that your dog could physically move and breathe and 'experience' a walk, even if it did turn a little sour, this can eventually be overcome. This poor dog can never overcome what has been done to him.
DeleteWell it has been several years since that happened to him and something like that can stay with a dog for life! If the person who has this dog comes to their senses then this dog could lose weight and have a quality of life. And the walk didn't just go a 'little sour'. It left my dog a quivering wreck for weeks and that fear is still in him.
DeleteI don;t think you can compare these two scenarios fairly. I firmly believe that by allowing an already compromised breed of dog to become morbidly obese is just as cruel as if you beat it with a stick. The dog has to live forever with the fallout. Anybody who has ever had a problem breathing....one of the most basic functions to keep us alive...will tell you that. This poor dog is in agony and yet the owner is using him/her to get "likes". Beggars belief.
Deletejesus...whats happening to the world...my pug is so ill, and not because hes overfed, its a tumour on his spine, this is just such cruelty.....teddythepugblog.wordpress.com
DeleteIt's shocking how, as time goes on, people breed such pathology into more and more dogs and other animals. It's sick and wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis is just obscene - why would anyone think this is 'cute'?
ReplyDelete"Almost obscures his nostrils"? His nostrils are completely covered up. Invisible. This dog doesn't have a nose.
ReplyDeletehorrendous. do we need dog licences again? how has that dog not been seized by the authorities?
ReplyDeleteCorrection: this is more cruel than beating a dog with a stick. When you beat a dog, the beating *ends*. When you beat a dog, it has the opportunity to consider what it was doing at the time the beating commenced and not do it again.
ReplyDeleteWhen you feed a dog to death, you give it no escape, no prospect of respite, just suffering one painful dragged breath at a time until merciful death intervenes. And when it's a pug...
'When you beat a dog, it has the opportunity to consider what it was doing at the time the beating commenced and not do it again'
DeleteWrong, all the dog will remember is the beating, not what you were beating it for. And hitting a dog in reprimand is not right either anyway
No. When you beat a dog there are psychological issues. The dog comes to fear people, does NOT know when they will be beaten again and could even lead to the dog becoming aggressive or cause them to shut down. Psychological issues can take a lot longer to overcome (if at all) than some physical conditions. A dog who is loved and who has never had any reason to fear people, but is overweight is going to be easier to treat than a dog who has learned to fear people (through being beaten) and has developed issues because of that. I am not condoning people who allow their dogs to get as overweight, but comparing that to a dog who isn't loved and who is beaten is not on in my opinion.
DeleteThey are BOTH cruel things to do. The difference is that the fatness is not PERCEIVED as cruelty. If she posted videos of herself beating Boo she would be vilified and prosecuted. But 20,000 people seem think that what she is doing is OK.
DeletePeople have actually been prosecuted for having obese pets. There have also been cases of dogs and cats being seized. There are also millions of people who think that what Cesar Millan does is okay yet he routinely abuses dogs and gets away with it.
DeleteWait... 20,000 followers??? My Papillon "Dash" has no wrinkles, great, open nostrils and is learning to walk backwards on a tightrope. He has 23 titles in 4 sports... has performed for up to 1,500 people, and has just been scouted for America's Got Talent. And *HE* has had a grand total of 21 FB followers. I totally do NOT get how this works...
ReplyDeleteSKY, my guess is that the reason this poor victim of eugenics has 1,000x more followers than your fit papillon, is that people might think that a dog like yours is unattainable, while it's much easier to just buy a sluggish little flat-faced dog, overfeed it until it can't move, and then carry it around like a Teddy bear. In other words, a healthy, sharp, well-trained dog takes some effort (which is fun), but to keep a do-nothing, snorting mutant, all you have to do is pretend it's a baby forever (which is dysfunctional).
DeleteThe owner should be prosecuted. Poor, poor little dog.
ReplyDeleteIts awful people do not even recognise the suffering in front of their own eyes. Unfortunately I’ve seen loads and loads of accounts like this with extreme brachycephalic dogs (maybe not many this bad...). This is one I saw a while back which makes me cringe too: https://www.instagram.com/p/-JRAyeofN9/?taken-by=alexander.the.frenchie
ReplyDeleteThere appears to be lots of hashtags in common for pictures like these: #tongueouttuesday #squishyfacecrew #squishyface #flatnosedogsociety #flatfacesociety #wrinklepuddle and lots more…. (In addition to things like #[breed] or #ilove[breed] #[breed]sofinstagram etc etc).
Just an idea, but I don't know if someone was able to post educational pictures about brachycephaly and associated health problems to Instagram using these same hashtags, then maybe they’ll get seen by these people who don’t at the minute appear to understand the issue?
The hashtag idea is great. And wow that's probably THE worst French bulldog I've ever seen. Super stenotic nostrils, huge head, mass of wrinkles even on the muzzle itself :( Not cool! I'm so sick of seeing breeders who apparently think it's fine and dandy to go more and more extreme. When dogs are physically unable to breathe normally, it has definitely gone too far.
DeleteOMG that dog has no nose! It's gone beyond just a short muzzle, to a kind of caved-in anti-nose.
ReplyDeleteAdd the obesity and it reminds me of the movie 'Misery', where an obsessed and deranged fan is so desperate to be with the man she loves, that she traps and then physically cripples him, so he can't escape.
I believe this, too, is this is the intentional creation of helplessness through disability. The owner probably wants to feel essential, and un-leavable. That thing certainly can't run away! It wouldn't survive without the 'love' of its disturbed owner.
Okay firstly, that is horrific that anyone in their right mind would do this to a dog that is already extremely compromised. In regards to the "This is as cruel as beating a dog with a stick" thing, it certainly is in a way. If someone beats their dog with a stick, that dog is most likely to be quite traumatised from it and (depending on the level of severity and frequency) even extremely so. However, that is one dog, one owner. You could say that the person is clearly mentally ill and an innately cruel person. However, there are thousands of pugs like this in the world. It is common to see a brachycephalic breed that is morbidly obese and clearly suffering. One of the most tragic things about it is that there are people out there, who love their dogs and do this. There are people who are reasonably normal and mentally sound who are commenting saying it is cute. No normal person would say that beating a dog is ok. But time and time again you will see people comment how cute a morbidly obese, barely-breathing pug is and they genuinely don't see a problem. That to me is worse in a way than an uneducated, psychopathic bully beating up his dog.
ReplyDeleteOkay firstly, that is horrific that anyone in their right mind would do this to a dog that is already extremely compromised. In regards to the "This is as cruel as beating a dog with a stick" thing, it certainly is in a way. If someone beats their dog with a stick, that dog is most likely to be quite traumatised from it and (depending on the level of severity and frequency) even extremely so. However, that is one dog, one owner. You could say that the person is clearly mentally ill and an innately cruel person. However, there are thousands of pugs like this in the world. It is common to see a brachycephalic breed that is morbidly obese and clearly suffering. One of the most tragic things about it is that there are people out there, who love their dogs and do this. There are people who are reasonably normal and mentally sound who are commenting saying it is cute. No normal person would say that beating a dog is ok. But time and time again you will see people comment how cute a morbidly obese, barely-breathing pug is and they genuinely don't see a problem. That to me is worse in a way than an uneducated, psychopathic bully beating up his dog.
ReplyDeleteMunchausen's by Proxy. Deliberately breeding disabled dogs and desiring to own sick animals so you can take care of them signals that these people are in some sort of mental distress.
ReplyDeleteJemima - isn't it time for PDE3, specifically focusing on Brachy dogs and the people who continue to perpetuate the suffering? I'll let you complete your current documentary first! :)
I was thinking the same thing with Munchausen's by proxy analogy. In these types of situations, it doesn't seem to me like the owners recognize the state their dogs are in as a bad thing. They don't think their dogs are diseased at all, they think their severely obese dogs are cute. They like the fact that their dogs no longer even look like dogs, and they love the attention through social media it brings to them. Surely the owner here has to have heard from the vet that the dog needs to lose weight. So does she think it's no big deal, does she recognize it as a major health issue, and/or is she deliberately keeping her dog fat to perpetuate the awful hashtags (ballofboo), followers, adoring comments?
Deletei looked at the video today 24th feb 2016 only 376 views. no comments other than one saying Oh Boo, I love you! And your snorts 😂. i made the comment poor dog deformed and strugging to breath.
ReplyDeleteIs this thing dead yet?
ReplyDelete