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Dear Lewis
You're a seven-times world champion - some say the most successful Formula One driver in history. It’s a passion that’s endured across three decades and every continent. But, arguably, the real love of your life has been your Bulldog, Roscoe.
When Roscoe died in your arms last Sunday night, millions of fans across the world mourned with you, Roscoe has been at your side through glory and heartbreak for the past 12 years - one of the very few dogs ever allowed trackside at Formula 1.
Your love for Roscoe shone in every picture, every post, every trackside cuddle. He was your shadow, your friend, your family.
But, Lewis, if you truly love dogs – please don’t get another Bulldog.
Because being a Bulldog is the pits.
During WW2 the Bulldog became a national symbol of pluck, perseverance and triumph over adversity. But the Bulldog’s battleground has never been foreign fields. Its enemy is its own body.
In December 2015 on the Jonathan Ross show you revealed that Roscoe, then just two or three years old, was at the vets for "bad breathing". "He always had health issues and would struggle with things like his breathing and his walking,” you told People.com in October 2024.
He has been hospitalised several times and it is only your deep pockets that have kept him alive for so long. It is not unusual for Bulldogs to be dead by six - the age at which you lost your beloved Bulldog girl, Coco, to a suspected heart attack in June 2020.
I highlighted the issues in my BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed in 2008 and I have continued to lobby for Bulldog reform ever since, via this blog and my social media campaign, CRUFFA .
Bulldogs competing at Crufts now have to pass a breathing test to compete. But many Bulldogs continue to live short, blighted lives - even "well-bred" Bulldogs, because the basic template is a recipe for problems.
It isn’t just their compromised respiratory system which no amount of money or ‘supervet’ surgery can properly fix. Bulldogs are vulnerable to heatstroke that can kill. A dip in the sea or a river to cool them off is just as lethal because many can’t swim.
Breeders will tell you that, in times of old, their protruding bottom jaw helped them hang on to a bull’s nose; that the wrinkles on their face helped channel the bull’s blood from the dog’s eyes. But this is pure… bullocks.
The bull-baiting dogs of the 18th century looked more like today’s pitbulls - tall, sturdy, supremely athletic, with big, powerful, aligned jaws. Today’s Bulldog’s mouths are so deformed that one enterprising pet food company makes a kibble for them that has been specially adapted to make it easier for them to pick it up.
Many can't mate or give birth naturally. “Too posh to push!” laugh breeders. They can’t reach round to clean their own bums or alleviate an itch. Breeding for a short, screw tail leads to back problems The distinct “rolling gait” required by the Kennel Club breed standard, has been achieved by breeding for disproportionately broad shoulders and malformed hip joints. The strain of living this way is why they have the dubious honour of being one of the shortest-living breeds in the world.
Roscoe died from the complications of a breed-typical problem, a condition called aspiration pneumonia caused because their deformed structure risks food going into their lungs where it causes life-threatening havoc.
Breeding Bulldogs has now been banned in Norway on welfare grounds and restricted in an increasing number of countries.
You and Roscoe have been so inseparable that, in 2014, Roscoe was registered as a service dog with the United States Service Dog Registry (USSDR) in order to be able to join you in the cabin on a commercial flight. Dogs over a certain weight usually have to travel in the hold but service dogs get a free pass.
Pctures of you at Heathrow airport at the time show Roscoe sporting a service dog harness with the USSDR logo.
The USSDR is widely used by people who want their dogs with them on flights, in shops and other places where dogs are not usually allowed - because it allows people to self-certify their dog as a service dog.
I was able to register my own dog in a few clicks and with no checks. Actually, I also managed to register a stuffed toy called Spunky. Spunky is still singing (if quietly) his service dog credentials on the USSDR website today.
What should be your next dog?
Thankfully, Bulldogs are not as popular as they are - Kennel Club registrations have dived with the greater awareness of their health issues. But the small ads are full of a horrible new trend in very extreme, “extra-plushy” Bulldogs with excessive wrinkling and very short legs. I dearly hope you won’t be tempted.
The current fad is also for miniature smooth-haired Dachshunds - a dog small enough to fit in your cockpit. But beware - 25-30% of them suffer from agonising IVDD (intervertebral disc disease) and some end up paralysed. Very recent UK research shows their average of death at seven - very young for a small dog (small dogs tend to live longer than bigger dogs).
There's a wonderful new initiative led by Professor Dan O'Neill at the Royal Veterinary College, in collaboration with the All Party Group on Animal Welfare, called the Innate Health Assessment.
The Innate Health Assessment (IHA) tool for dogs is a visual checklist of 10 key conformational criteria to help breeders, dog owners and prospective dog owners make good decisions. It's free and when it launches later this month you will be able to find it on the new Innate Health Assessment website.
In the meantime, you can read all about it here.
Lewis, I am so sorry you have lost your friend. Money, fame, devotion: you gave him everything. But ultimately you couldn’t save him from being a Bulldog.
With your voice, you could help stop that suffering for others.
