Going Against Nature.

So here I am again. I got into a nice argument with the admin of a vegan page on FaceBook that I used to really like when they posted and endorsed vegan dog and cat food. This is one of the things that makes most people hate vegans, and in this case, I can't say I blame them.

I've always been against forcing meat-eating pets into vegans. There's nothing right at all about it. I am veg myself but I would never ever try and make my meat-eating pets into vegans. There are several reasons why I see that as both wrong and cruel to the animal.

First of all, time, nature, and breeding evolved our meat-eating pets to be that way. Dogs were bred down from carnivorous wolves. Cats were bred down from carnivorous panthers. Ferrets were bred down from carnivorous weasels. All of the them are structurally and anatomically designed to ingest and digest meat. They need it to be healthy.

People who say "Well dogs are omnivores!" make me sick. Yes they are omnivorous, but they elect to eat meat, not lettuce.  My favorite thing to tell me people when they give me this stupid argument is this: "Take a puppy, raise it on your vegan food or vegan kibble for it's whole life, now at say twelve years old turn the dog loose as if making it a stray, I guarantee that dog is going to scavenge every single time for meat and not salad." No dog, cat, or ferret is ever going to willingly be vegan be choice.

That leads me to reason number two why trying to 'veganize' animals pisses me off. Vegans are all about animals having their rights and choices. When you force a meat-eating animal to be a vegan you're taking away it's rights and it's choice to eat what nature intended it to eat. It's force. Forcing your human diet onto an animal that, if given it's own way, would never ever choose to eat. It's no different than forcing a tiger to balance on a ball with a whip or a dolphin to jump through flaming hoops. Either way it's still force. They force tricks, vegans are forcing their diet. Same exact thing. That's exactly the NON-vegan non-compassionate thing to do.

You wouldn't force feed lettuce to an owl, or a lion, or a falcon... so why dogs, cats, and ferrets? It's because for a lot of vegans their thought process is the only right thought process. The whole 'I am cruelty free so my animals must be exactly as I am'.  It's a control thing. Here's a newsflash for those people: Your animals don't give a shit about cruelty free, vegan, or what you think. They go by instinct and what nature and evolution created them to be, which is creatures that, in a human-less world would would catch and kill, to eat meat. They want to eat meat because that's how evolution made them, regardless of your vegan mindset.

It's basically the same as saying naturally vegetarian animals such as cows, goats, horses, and gerbils should be fed meat... It's stupid and it's inhumane.

If you are a vegan and you must have a vegan animal than do not get a dog, cat, or ferret. Don't try and change nature's creation to follow your lifestyle choices. Get a parrot, or a gerbil, or a goat, or a rabbit or guinea pig. Get a pet that is already vegan and lives that way by choice and stop trying to change the way nature intended things to be.

2014 Race Horse Death Toll (Thus far)

They are all the same. They all have 2 things in common:

A. They are all racing horses.
B. They are all dead.

Every single one of them dead as a direct result of racing. Some are flat track racers, some are jumps racers, some are sprinters, some are harness racers. All the same. All dead  well under their prime. Many under age ten, most under age 5.

What's worse is these are just the ones that are confirmed dead, this does not take into account or list those that had pulmonary bleeding, were injured and vanned off, or those that had some kind of distress or fell and were vanned off while still alive. Many of them were most likely later killed as a result of their injuries but their status is unknown. This also doesn't account for all of the ones that 'weren't fast enough' or were 'excess of the industry' and ended up in the slaughterhouse.

The names of those killed so far just in the 2014 year as of today, May 24th, 2014:

Carrybridge, Kieltys Folly, Kellys Eye, Maakirr, Tharaya, Equitania, Hanovarien Baron, Whos Emma, Shadow Cruise, Coverholder, Investment Expert, Adeupas D Ycy, Lukey Luke, Turnbuckle, Drinkuptrig, Storey Hill, West End Classic, Silver Wren, Cootehill, Low Gales, Voltchesko, Ancient Times, Our Conor, Sud Pacifique, Stack the Deck, Akdam, Raya Star, The Cockney Mackem, Cloverhill Lad, Bocamix, Uppertown Cave, Ask the Boss, Red Art, Sammyman, Devils Paintbrush, True To Form, Webberys Dream, Tigris, Midnight Choice, Muckey Molly, Waddingstown, Highfields Dancer, Rasheed, Dickie Henderhoop, Teeton Blackvelvet, Waving, Little Louie, Connonmill, Mr Lennygreengrass, Robbers Roost, Well Related, Red Rocco, Majorca King, Norse of Course, Hudson Gunner, Homer Run, Cunning Act, The Potting Shed, Present Potential, Forest Walker, Head Rush, Eastbury, Frankie Fourfeet,  Kenny Powers, Jasper Massini, Cap Elorn, Artful Lady, Bert the Alert, Nedzers Return, Elain Albrean, Ma Chara, Dancing Freddy, The Grey Mouse, Captain Cutter, Lastoftheleaders, Silver Friend, Whymott, Scholastica, Sea Smeke,  Immediate Response, Logical Approach, Mini Budget, Galileo Rock, Thunderball, Grange, Caia Electronia, Six Drivers, Share the Dosh, Goodfella, Azamour, Chelokee, Chriselliam, Dehere, Little Bridge, Moni Maker, Mr Tiz, My Flag, Show Dancer, Safely Kept, Saint Nicholas Abbey, Sunshine Forever, Wando, Rhythm of the Moon, Oriental Silk, Caillech Quest, Aztec Secret, Gameboy Luke, Caverna, Rock Elle Ten, Handstand, Polar Pal, Granny Calling, Canadian Winner, Marcelino Springs, Cuban Devil, Here Comes DrZ, Sicards Sensation, Caseys On Call, Ivebeensaved, Crystallo Mountaineer, Finesse, Garden Tavern, Sweetly Put, Vagabond Shoes, With A Miracle, Tawdry, Fardan, Broadway Peyton, Aggressive Prize, The Program, Miss Da Sunrise, Giant Indian, Hes Not Too Shabby, Miss Palatine, Chica de la Noche, Code of Conduct, Minotaur, Final Vindication, Home at Six, Manito, Sugar Mama, Fast Stack, Kentucky Hannah, Dinas Touch, Mystery Taste, The Mikester, Blonde For Ever, Casey Lynn, Battle Silk, Uncle Smoke Side Street, Very Very Grateful, Lucky For You, KZ Too, Summa Cum Boom, See The Music, Definite Elegance, Shooting Times, Mr Lemontree, Cap Elorn, Kenny Powers, Nightfall, Never Tell Lynda, Delegation, Boston Chief, Onebaddancer, Alondra Sky, La Jolla Cove, Aussi Austin, Hotradomus, American Iron, Recovered, I am Snippity, Mars, Midnight Choice, Shays River, Concept, Cellophane, Ruby Jo, Onlyforyou, Very Elusive, Zip It Jennie, Byerly Barb, Pay Tribute, Scottie C, Captain Sonadar, Recall Dynafor, Budding Affair, Charlie Company, Tizardo, Soul Searcher, Mad Loot, Good Fella, Elms...

192 race horses, confirmed dead, since the start of 2014.

Horse racing is NOT safe, it's NOT sane. It's cruel and it kills horses. These animals are literally raced to death, all for the almighty dollar. They are treated like objects, not as living, breathing creatures. They are merely commodities. The atrocities need to stop! Racing needs to stop! There is NO way to do it safely, humanely, or in any way where the HORSES benefit. The facts are there. Look them up. Horse racing kills horses and line their owners' pockets. Don't support the cruelty.

Racing to Death

Let me lay this down for you... 24 horses a week die on American/Canadian soil at the race track, that's roughly 3 per day/3 per 1,000 starts. Killed on track or on track grounds. Many of them killed right there in front of a watching crowd, after the tarps go up. This does not account for the ones that are hauled away injured and later euthanized due to injuries while running. That is far higher nowadays than the 1.6 per 1,000 starts back in 1992. More racehorses are dying these days that ever before.

In Britain the death-rate is higher due to jumps racing, while it's still higher in Japan simply because of the number of animals running and track conditions.

A 2005 study by the United States Department of Agriculture found that performance injuries are the second leading cause of death in horses, second only to old age, and beating out colic by a landslide.

The reasons for so many catastrophic breakdowns are broken down into 3 groups: Age, Conformation, and Other.

Age: Racing colts at just 2 years old means they are often trained as yearlings. Some are even raced as long yearlings because of the global Thoroughbred birthdate in the Jockey Club being January 1st (Northern Hemisphere)/August 1st (Southern Hemisphere) for all horses registered. 87-93% of all racehorses (TB, STB, QH) will exhibit pulmonary bleeding at least once. The bones in the knees do not finish maturing until age 5, the spinal bones of the lumbo-sacral joint at age 7. Maturity overall isn't until well after 2 years of age. They are racing babies, literally, into the grave.

Conformation: Very thin streamlined legs, huge ribcages with large lungs, long pasterns, fine boned animals. The number one injuries for a race horse are injury to the sesmoid, or ankle bones, and knee injuries. When a horse’s leg hits the ground at racing speed on a straightaway, it bears a load that is three times its weight (with the exception of harness racing). When negotiating a turn, centrifugal force increases the load to between 5 and 10 times body weight. 70% of thoroughbreds develop a condition called bucked shins, which is a cannon bone injury caused by the young colt's inability to adapt to the grueling training regimen. Tendon injuries will also affect 66-70% of all racehorses. Ruptured tendons, as in a complete sever of the tendon, will happen to 3% of all racehorses.

Other: Trips, missteps, underlying issues such as heart/brain issues are also factors.

Fatal breakdowns as a result of injury are separated by percentage:

Musculoskeletal: 97%
Respiratory: 1%
Integumentary: 1%
Cardiovascular: 1%

Quarter horses are 29% more likely to suffer injuries or breakdowns than Thoroughbreds, and 64% more likely than standardbreds. This is due to the fact that Quarter horse sprinters run faster and harder for a shorter period of time.

Drugging is also rampant to get injured horses to run as if they were't. Since 2009, records show, trainers at United States tracks have been caught illegally drugging horses more than 3,800 times. In the same time period more than 7,000 horses have broken down or shown signs of injury. Since 2009 the injury rate has not only not gone down, even with all of the new 'safety' measures implemented, it has risen.

The greatest number of incidents on a single day — 23 — occurred in 2011 on the most celebrated day of racing in America, the running of the Kentucky Derby. One Derby horse fractured a leg (Archarcharch), as did a horse in the previous race at Churchill Downs. All told, seven jockeys at other tracks were thrown to the ground after their horses broke down.

New Mexico has the worst injury/death rate for both horses and riders of any state in the US while Ireland churns out more horses that die from catastrophic breakdowns and injuries than any other country.

In one 13-day stretch of racing in 2010 at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in New Mexico (Worst track record in the US), nine horses died racing, five were hauled away in ambulances and two jockeys were hospitalized, one in critical condition.

California researchers have noted that as much as 90% of horses that break down have previously existing injuries often masked by drugs.

35+ horses have died just at the Belmont Park track since last year's Belmont Stakes race alone.

As one Daily New York News reporter put it:
“The thoroughbred race horse is a genetic mistake. It runs too fast, its frame is too large, and its legs are far too small. As long as mankind demands that it be trained too young and run at high speeds under stressful conditions, horses will die at racetracks.”

Where will they end up?

So it's been talked over through and through especially lately with the horsemeat scandal in Europe, whether or not to ban American horses from being sent and sold for human consumption abroad.

Animal rights groups already got what they wanted when the last slaughterhouse that actively killed horses for meat in Illinois was closed down seven years ago. Currently American horses that are going for meat are trucked to either Canada or Mexico for slaughtering in foreign plants before being shipped around the world and sold for humans to eat at up to $40 a pound. These include horses from all walks of life. Racehorses, school horses, lesson horses, draft horses, ponies. All of them are seen making their way on the final days long journey in the back of a double decker cattle truck after being sold at auction. The final stop is a foreign slaughter plan and someone's dinner plate. In the U.S. horses are no longer killed in slaughterhouses for meat, but that doesn't mean they don't wind up there.

As it stands with a few states trying to get legislation passed to open a new slaughterhouse that will process horses there are many groups who are trying to get American horse meat banned once and for all. This means from export as well as making it highly illegal to cross the U.S. border with a truck full of horses bound for meat. It would also make it illegal for foreign slaughterhouses to accept horses of American origin. If this ban passes the activist groups will be head over heels with joy.

I do not like seeing our horses wind up on the butcher block, but there are two points that I see in this very flawed thought process. Let's explore them, shall we?

A. Surplus. What to do with all the horses that would be taken out of the populous by means of auction and slaughter. Think about all of the breeders that pump out tens of thousands of foals annually across the U.S. So what becomes of all the surplus horses? The rescues are already overflowing and underbudgeted. The price of feed has skyrocketed to the point it's difficult to afford. There are still no restrictions on the mass-breeding that goes on, especially with crazy show breeders or race-horse stud farms who sometimes produce over two hundred foals a year in the quest for two or three good ones. Low-cost gelding clinics are few and far between so many 'oops' foals happen as well. Euthanasia is expensive and the carcass removal even higher priced.

B. Horses, as much as everyone in the U.S. denies it, are livestock. They eat grass, they walk on hooves, the live in a field and graze pasture. There is little difference, in reality, from a cow and a horse. Both are mammals, both have helped humans in settling, being fed, and providing work animals. In many places people eat horses just like they do cows. What makes it so much worse to eat a horse over a cow? Both live, feel, think, see, breathe. Both live in family groups and raise their babies. I don't get why it is such a damn taboo to thinking about eating horses but it's perfectly acceptable and normal to go home at night and eat a cow. Hypocrisy all around.

So what do we do? Most people find the thought of eating horses appalling (but then they eat cows, damn hypocrites) and the thought of sending them to slaughter sickening, but what do we do? Do we ban all forms of horsemeat in this country? If so, then what do we do when the instances of neglect, home-killing, starvation, abandonment, etc rise by 200-300%? Where will we send tens of thousands of unwanted horses if there is no place for them and no place to dispose of them? Will a black market for horseflesh like the one in Florida rise up again and give rise even more to backyard horse butchers?

The simplest answer is, as of now, that a ban on horsemeat and horse exportation for slaughter will not work. If anything, it will only make the number of unwanted horses rise exponentially and then therein still lies the problem. This proposed 'solution' isn't going to solve anything. If anything it will make the problem facing the overpopulation, neglect, abandonment, starvation, etc much, much worse. I hate seeing any animal be killed for food, but if you think about it, that's far better than being neglected in a tiny waste-encrusted pen with severely overgrown hooves covered in skin lesions while slowly and agonizingly starving to death over months.

The problem needs to be addressed at the source: The breeders.

Breeders producing hundreds of foals a year at a single farm in the quest for a couple of the fastest for the race track or a couple of well-built ones for the halter show ring. Breeders breeding anything with spots to anything that has four hooves. Breeders breeding anything that will produce 'color'. Or the fad breeders who jump on whatever breed fad is going around and breed them like crazy, like current the obsession with Gypsy Vanners. If breeding was regulated and this kind of over-breeding was slapped with a fine, it wouldn't happen and we wouldn't have an exploding horse population with no homes for them. If horses were required to show their worth before being allowed to breed, this kind of thing wouldn't be happening. If stupid owners would geld their worthless conformational trainwrecks of stallion instead of letting them sire foals with half their herd, this kind of thing wouldn't happen. Etcetera. If the problem, which lies with the breeders, was addressed there wouldn't be a staggering horse overpopulation problem.

Right now there is no middle ground. The activists want all horse meat and export banned, and the people who regularly send unwanted horses through the meat system want American slaughter plants opened.

Neither is any closer to finding a true solution because they are missing the problem entirely... Start with the breeders and the overbreeding and then you'll have a basis for a working long-term solution.

Cruelty by Kindness.

People talk about it all the time, the obesity epidemic. That's gnawing a bone that's been gnawed for years. I'm here to talk bitch about how people's greed/gluttony are passed on to their animal companions resulting in the animal obesity epidemic we're seeing so much these days.

I see it day in and day while doing my job (professional animal groomer). Animals coming in that weigh much more than they should, sometimes double or triple what they should. What I don't understand is where it got lost in translation and got turned around that this is okay. Apparently 90% of people are completely blind to the fact that their animals are extremely overweight, while some are in complete denial about the whole thing, and still others just don't care. It takes all sorts, too. You see really tall thin people that have extremely overweight cats and heavy people that have slender dogs, etc. It's not just caused by heavy people who feed their animals much like they do themselves and ignore the need for exercise. These overweight animals are owned by people from all walks of life.

It's not uncommon for someone to bring in their dog (or cat) for grooming and want to leave some kind of disgusting food or treats for it and expect me to feed it to them. I usually agree to it because I don't want to be rude and cause a dispute but as soon as they walk out the door whatever it is usually ends up in the trash first thing. I've seen some utterly disgusting things over the years. I had a two heavy-set ladies bring in a small severely overweight shih tzu mix and they were feeding it chewed-up fast-food chicken from a cardboard tray. I was appalled. It was absolutely disgusting. I've had others bring in canned vienna sausages, spam, wet dog/cat food, baby food, and other manner of horrifying vile-scented things.

Be it denial, stupidity, or just plain lack of caring people really need to step back, look at their severely overweight animals, and realize that they are not actually being kind to them, but in reality, killing them. It’s all cruelty by kindness. People think they are doing nice things for their beloved pets by feeding them all sorts of things, such as table scraps, but it’s really the opposite. A lifetime of being fed all wrong leads to a staggering amount of health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure, and other things. Most of the same illnesses humans get by being overweight affect animals too when they are too heavy to be properly healthy. Just five pounds of extra weight on a dog or cat can shorten their life by more than a year and that shortened mortality rate increases with the more excess weight your pet is carrying.

Pets must be fed/treated properly to be healthy. This means saying no to overfeeding, excessive table scraps, feeding the right kinds of food, not overtreating, and proper exercise. It’s not doing your pets a kindness when you feed them everything under the sun. Pet food is made for a reason. Next time you want to feed your dog or cat something fatty or just plain disgusting, think of someone you know with a muffin top jelly roll belly hanging over their pants or someone that has severe diabetes or heart disease and rethink your decision. It might, in the end, save your pet from a lifetime of health problems and actually extend their healthy happy years.

Breeding Babies

Foaling and breeding season is beginning for horses and a lot of people are very anxiously awaiting their new foals as well as being able to breed. Today's blog is about something that has always royally pissed me off: Breeding 2 year old fillies.

Fillies (young female horses) are not considered mares (adult female horses) until they reach the age of five. This is when their knees, hocks, ankles, and spinal joints are closed/fused and they are completely done growing and maturing. This is when they are considered fully mature in body as well as in mind. This is the optimum age to breed and start serious training at. Yet few breeders want to wait five years while their filly (or colt) is 'out to pasture' growing up. A lot of breeders think there is nothing wrong with breeding a two year old, filly or colt. I commonly hear people saying "Well, lots of breeders do it so it must be okay."

Tell me what the fuck makes it okay or healthy for a two year old filly to be bred? She's just a fucking baby herself!

I don't give a shit what idiot breeders think. I don't want to hear the "Oh she's structurally sound!", "She's good-sized for her age!", "She's a large breed!" and other excuses. They are just that. Excuses. She's still a fucking baby regardless of size or breed. Horses all mature at the same rate, regardless of breed. She's not mature mentally, structurally, or internally, and won't be for another three years. She is still a child by horse standards. Fillies and colts will nurse off of their mothers naturally until they are yearlings. So she's now two and learning to be independent. Just because she is not nursing off of her mother still does not mean it is okay for her to have a foal herself.

Structurally, at two years old, her bones are not sound for breeding. Her knee joints are not yet closed, her bones are not fully hardened, her bone fusions are not complete. Mentally she is still just a baby. All she needs to be learning is the things her mother would have taught her. Where to feed, when to sleep, how to behave, how to be a horse. Internally her pelvis isn't fused and her uterus isn't conditioned fully yet.

Big name horse breeders will often breed their two year old fillies. The first thing that comes to mind for me is 'puppy-mill', or in this case 'foal-mill'. Breeders don't want to wait for their filly to grow up and mature before breeding her. That costs "too much time and money". 'Who cares if she is a baby, if we're not gonna break her at two at least we can get a baby out of her, or two or three, before she is five years old then at least we can make some kind of income off of her.' That is the mentality that fuels the breeding of two year olds. It's not uncommon two see a mare that just turned five years old and already has two or three foals.

If you can't afford to let your baby horse grow up out in the pasture learning to be a horse you have no fucking business being a breeder or horse owner! Breeding a two year old filly is equivalent to a thirteen year old human girl getting pregnant. Parents and society would scream abuse, disgust, and horror over this. But hey, a thirteen year old girl has started her menstrual cycle and thus that means she is capable of getting pregnant and carrying a baby. Does that make it okay for her to get pregnant? Fuck no! It's the exact same thing with two year old fillies. They are just babies. Just because they are capable of getting pregnant and carrying a foal does not mean they should. Two year olds should absolutely not be purposefully bred. Ever.

On top of her not being physically ready to carry a foal think about her background. Has she even done anything at two years old to even merit being bred? There are already tons of fugly foals being produced from worthless conformational train-wrecks. Wait a while, get her some show experience, wait until she is broke to ride or drive at four years of age. Make breeding her worth-while. Foals from sires/dams with no record of doing anything other than breeding are pretty much worthless, especially in this economy.

Thoroughbred breeders often breed their fillies as 'long yearlings', not yet two, because all registered TBs birthdays are considered January 1st. So these are yearlings getting pregnant and having foals at late two. They don't even have time to be babies. They are born damn near right into motherhood. All of which is sick and very unethical.

The fact is this: horses, regardless of breed, take time to mature. Five years to be completely structurally sound for breeding/serious training (I'm not against gently starting/backing a horse at three years old, even though I prefer four years old) (As well I am not against breeding mares at late three, early four if you cannot wait til five). If you cannot wait at the very least three years to breed your filly then you have no right to own her. If you are one of the shitty breeders that just cannot wait and think it's okay to breed your two year old fillies shame on you. Go talk to a thirteen or fourteen year old teenage girl that got pregnant. Maybe it will make your money-hungry selfish ass think twice about breeding your two year old next time.

HYPPocrites

The HYPP debate has always been something that rattles my cage. Today's blog is about the idiocy/stupidity of horse breeders and uneducated horse buyers that are both connected to and responsible for HYPP.

Before we get into it here are some facts on HYPP:

HYPP or HYperkalemic Periodic Paralysis is an inherited equine muscular genetic disorder all stemming from a single American Quarter Horse stallion named Impressive. Impressive, a chestnut Appendix Quarter Horse (QH x TB), was born on April 15th, 1968. No one knew that he would set out to become one of the most notorious and famous Quarter Horses in history, not because of his amazing breeding or because he won this and that, but because of the genetic disorder that he spread over much of the American Quarter Horse breed. At just 6 years old he already had 48 halter points and became the first World Champion Open Aged Halter stallion. Due to his show-ring wins and his thickly muscled physique he was all the rage in a sire that everyone wanted. He produced nearly 30 world halter champions and overall sired around 2,250 live foals. His foals and their descendants make up of over 100,000 AQHA registered horses. He died in 1995 at the ripe old age of 27 (a very old horse by today's sickening short-lived halter horses). It seemed that he and his progeny would go down into history as the best of the best in the equine halter showing world... that is, until it was brought to light that he was the horse solely responsible for the genetic disorder we call HYPP.

Under detail HYPP is a genetic disorder that causes muscle tremors, 'tying up', stiffness, weakness, collapse, paralysis, and death. It is a dominant disorder which means it only needs one copy of the defective gene to be physically present and to pass on. Yet another symptom of HYPP positive horses is the one thing that keeps breeders producing HYPP positive foals for the show ring: overactive constantly spasming muscles lead to very thick sometimes overmuscled horses that do phenomenally in the halter show ring. Due to the fact that the muscles in affected horses are nearly always contracting even if not seen by the naked eye the horse puts on double the muscle that a normal horse his age would and thus makes it look to have a 'bodybuilder' physique, which the judges in the halter ring reward with many ribbons and trophies.

So why keep breeding horses that have such a potentially deadly disorder? Because in the showring it's what is winning.

Yes... Breeders, small and large, are breeding horses with a serious deadly genetic disorder simply because it wins in the show ring. They're not only showing but breeding, training, and selling these genetically defective horses. What's worse, is the uneducated people that are buying these horses for themselves or for their children. There are quite a few documented cases of HYPP horses being bought for young riders that have an episode while under saddle. Catastrophic. There's nothing more terrifying than the horse underneath you seizing up and going down while at a canter or a full gallop. It's happened more than once, and it can happen at any time on an effected horse with absolutely no warning. Still these horses are being bred, shown, and sold. As of 2005 39% of the registered AQHA horses are either N/H or H/H... That means almost 40% of the registered population of Quarter Horses carries and reproduces this fatal disorder. More than one-third of all registered Quarter Horses. Even worse, it's being bred into other previously unaffected stock breeds such as paints and appaloosas.

What makes it fucking ridiculous is that HYPP could be wiped clean out in a single generation if people would just stop breeding horses that are N/H and H/H and only breed clean horses (N/N) without the defective gene. Yet so long as these overmuscled freakish horses are winning in the show ring asshat breeders who only care about money and ribbons and not about the horses will keep churning out foals with the potentially fatal disorder. It's all about the money and not about the horses. What does it matter if they are churning out thousands of genetically defective foals year after year if they are winning and taking the show ring by storm? This is the mindset of people who breed and show HYPP positive horses. Breeders, STOP BREEDING THEM. It's unethical to breed or sell HYPP horses, especially when you are selling them and the danger they pose to unsuspecting buyers. And buyers, DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE you buy a Quarter Horse! Judges, STOP PLACING THEM well in the show ring! Registries, STOP REGISTERING THEM! Business. It's all about the business of what's wining and selling and not about the horses, it never has been, it's all about the money. HYPP could so easily be eradicated if stupid people would pull their heads out of their pompous asses and make it about the horse and not about the money/show wins.

Yes, you can get horses genetically linked to Impressive, even line, double, or triple linebred back to him that are not HYPP positive and cannot pass it on to their foals. Those are the only offspring, great offspring, great great offspring, etc that should be bred with his bloodlines. Those that are HYPP N/H (Positive, 50% of foals will also have HYPP) or H/H (Positive, 100% of foals will have HYPP) should never ever be bred. Avoiding Impressive bloodlines altogether is foolish though. He was a great long-lived horse, but I would make sure that any and all horses linked to him that someone might want to buy, sell, or breed are tested right off the get-go. HYPP can easily be avoided and eradicated. Do not breed HYPP positive horses and do not buy a stock horse without seeing current proof of a HYPP negative test. Encourage the AQHA to halt the registration of all HYPP positive horses and their offspring. This would stop them from winning in the show ring and their prices would drop considerably. If horse people can't make money off of HYPP positive horses they would quit breeding them. That along with educating people about HYPP would eventually curb the problem and eliminate the majority of the disorder. I say majority because looking at the facts there will always be people too ignorant/cheap to test their horses, and for those that don't care, they will continue to breed/sell them. Still, the show-rings would be clean of the disorder and that would make a world of difference to the American Quarter Horse and all stock breeds.

Parade of Freaks: Labrador Retrievers

I have to ask the show ring-crazed breeders...

Labrador or Flabrador?

Known as simply 'labs' to most people the Labrador Retriever is the most popular breed of dog in the world. Number one on all of the breed registries/stud dockets. The popularity of the breed is most likely due to their wonderful goofy family-friendly personalities and ease of acquiring them for very little. Being that they are the most popular breed worldwide also means they are the most overbred (and probably inbred) breed as well. That's not what I am here to rant about today, though. Today's blog, continuing on with my 'Parade of Freaks' series is about how the show ring has ruined the Labrador as a working breed and turned them into something entirely disgusting.

These are pictures of two very well-bred 'field' Labradors. They are in good weight, fit, trim, have good eyes/noses/joints, have sleek glossy low-maintenance coats, and are capable of working in the field as hunting dogs (their intended purpose) all day long. To show an unbiased un-sexist account there is a picture of both a male and a female. Both of these dogs are working hunting dogs. They can and do work birds in the field, do not have joint issues, and are both beautiful. Field bred labs, considered 'mongrel mutts' or 'lab whippets' by show lab breeders tend to live well into fourteen or sixteen years.

...and this is what the show ring has reduced Labradors to. I call them Flabradors. Field lab breeders called them 'rottadors' or 'mastadors' due to their bulk. Both of these dogs are massive, totally obese, and completely useless as hunting dogs. What's more, both are multi-counry national conformation show ring champions. The insanity of show ring breeders has reduced 'bench' or 'show' type Labradors to brain-fogged lumbering 'pigs on posts' as I call them. Severely overweight, large-headed, shorter muzzled, short tailed, insanely high-shedding porkers that are good for nothing but laying around, even before the hip dysplasia and cancer sets in. The weight alone, on top of the overly large bone structure is enough to make me gag. Why in the hell any judge would title a dog like these 'champion' is beyond me. Obesity/massiveness aside cancer/hip dysplasia is so rampant in show-bred labs that few live past eight to ten years of age.

It's just further proof that all working use has been removed from breeds bred for the show ring. These dogs are no-longer 'sporting' dogs as their show group implies. They couldn't hunt a bird if it flew up and smacked them in the face. Fat, lazy, useless, and riddled with join problems and cancer, 'bench' or 'show' Labradors (or Flabradors) are now highly inbred couch-puffs. The judges keep awarding these dogs and I can only see it getting worse over the years. I never thought that obesity would be rewarded by breed/kennel clubs that claim to 'promote health and well-being of purebred dogs'. There is nothing healthy or well-bred about these 'champion' show dogs.

...and don't even get me started on 'silver' Labradors. That's a blog for a different day.

It's All in the Advertising Pt. II

Getting back to my advertising rant, there is another thing that really bothers me about people who are selling animals, and that is lack of grammar and piss poor spelling. It's like... most people trying to sell something didn't even make it though basic elementary school. Few of them use any kind of capitalization, punctuation, and the spelling is something that would be compared to a four year old. What people don't realize is that people like me, when we're searching through the classified ads, will specifically avoid ads that are cluttered, ill-written, and have spelling that is enough to make your eyes scream for brain bleach. The last thing I want to have to do when looking to buy something is try and decipher elementary hieroglyphics. Here are some of the common spelling issues I see when looking through animal ads...

Horse Ads:

'Theral Bred' - Thoroughbred. Your horse is bred from a sire named Theral? ...or it's from Philadelphia.

'Through Bred' - Thoroughbred. Um, bred though what? Male horse to female horse? I would hope so.

'Peer Bred' - Purebred. It was bred by those you look up to?

'Pure Bread' - Purebred. Umm... White, wheat, rye?

'Tricolour' -  I don't think so. Bay/buckskin paint.

'Palameano' - Palomino. You have a white mane/tailed golden horses that's mean?

'Philly' - Filly. Unless your baby female horse is from Philadelphia.

'Guilding' - Gelding. Your castrated male horse has well-built golden genitalia?

Dog Ads:

'Pure Breeded" - Purebred. Or bred purely for elementary teaching?

'Boarder Collie' - Border collie. Half dog, half log. I wonder what the board half is... mahogany, ebony... teak?

'Tearry' - Terrier. Apparently one with very runny eyes.

'Pappy Yawn' - Papillon. Or your tired grandpa.

'Malt Ease' - Maltese. Or a chocolate shake laced with Ex-Lax.

'Shit Zoo' - Shih tzu. Or a run down facility full of neglected animals.

'Snoozer' - Schnauzer. Or someone who is sleeping.

'Peeking Ease' - Pekinese. Or a small hole that is easy to look through.

'Nuttered' - Neutered. Or someone who lost their mind.

'Spaded' - Spayed. Or ground that has been turned over with a shovel.

'Doxie' - Dachshund. Or a small mythical little fairy... thing.

'Datsun' - Dachshund. Or a specific make and model of vehicle.

Chiwawa - Chihuahua.

'Blue Healer' - Blue Heeler. Or a smurf that's a doctor.

'Miniature Puddle' - Miniature Poodle. Or a small patch of water.

...and it goes on an on and on. I mean really... if you can't even spell the name of the breed you're trying to sell, you need to stop breeding/selling animals, get online, and learn how to operate Google.

My Take on 9/11

"Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act." - Albert Einstein

The whole 9/11 'Terrorist Attacks' never ever sat right with me. They never will. I've never been 'at ease' with the stories that the government and the mainstream media concocted and spoon-fed everyone. I've been researching, watching, listening, and doing my own type of investigation since they happened. I've come to my own conclusions after all this time, after what I've seen, read, heard. I'm finally going to explain why I think this way. Oh I'm sure it will piss a lot of people off, and I'll get a lot of flack for it. Doesn't matter. My blog. My writing. My rules. Such is life. People don't like what they don't understand because it scares them. Put on your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

The story... '19 foreign terrorists hijacked 4 planes with boxcutters and flew them into the World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 (destroying them and WTC building 7) and the Pentagon, the last crashed in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania field.' ...and it all happened within 2 hours (except building 7)...

I'm not buying it... I call it like I see it. I'm calling bullshit. Call it as you will: A conspiracy theory, absurdity, etc. I'm calling it as it is. Lies. Deceit. A cover up.

The facts/research speaks for itself in my opinion:

---

North Tower (NT) World Trade Center

--Made of 100,000 tons of steel, 75,000 cubic yards of concrete, 21,800 windows, 60,000 tons of cooling equipment. The girders used in the internal structure were 36 x 16 inches thick.
--On Feb. 14th, 1975 a 6 floor fire raged in the North tower. It burned for 2+ hours. The building had no sprinklers. It made it through that without collapsing.
--Supposedly American Airlines flight 11 flew across the whole of Manhattan in just 90 seconds at just 900 feet going 550 miles per hour. (Fact: A 757 can not fly that fast at sea-level.)
--Seconds before the 'plane' hit the NT people survivors described hearing "boom boom boom" "like explosions" all over, like bombs under their feet in the middle and the bottom of the tower.
--9 seconds after the 'plane' hits, there are multiple sound recordings of a second explosion.
--Hit at 8:45 EST.
--'Plane' described as solid gray with a blue frontal logo and no windows. Not an American Airlines plane.
--Firefighters, the first in the building after it was hit, describe multiple explosions/booming sounds from in and around the ground floors.
--Collapsed second.
--Burned for 103 minutes after impact until 'pancake' collapse falling at nearly freefall speed.

South Tower (ST) World Trade Center

--Made of 100,000 tons of steel, 75,000 cubic yards of concrete, 21,800 windows, 60,000 tons of cooling equipment. The gerders used in the internal structure were 36 x 16 inches thick.
--Hit at 9:03 EST by by supposed plane United Airlines flight 175.
--The hole, analyzed appears to be about 65 feet in diameter where the 'plane' hit... A Boeing 757 wingspan is 144 feet. (The hole in the Pentagon where a supposed 757 also hit, after roof collapse was also about 65 feet, coincidence? I think not.)
--'Plane' described as solid gray with a blue frontal logo and no windows. Not an American Airlines plane.
--What the hell was affixed to the bottom/belly of the 'plane' that was long, dark gray, cylindrical and NOT standard on normal passenger jets?
--What cause the fiery flash before the 'plane' hit, and why does it look like the wing has disintegrated/vaporized before impact?
--Collapsed first.
--Burned for 53 minutes after impact until 'pancake' collapse.
--Took 10.8 seconds to fall. Nearly freefall speed.


--The WTC buildings' steel would only have become molten/soft enough to collapse at 3,000 degrees. The hottest temperature at ground floor was 1500 degrees.
--Molten metal at 3200 degrees was found for up at 5 weeks after 9/11 in the 6th and 7th basements of both towers and in building seven that compared almost uncannily with a controlled demolition.
--There is NO WAY in hell that fires at the TOP of the towers brought that much heat to the basement enough to cause the collapse on not one but both WTC towers and building seven. There is also no way the the fire 'traveled down the elevator shafts'. They were air-tight.
--If you watch any of the captured videos of the collapses you can see explosions that took out windows 20-30 feet below each point all down the buildings as they collapsed as like controlled demolitions.
--Clearly noted by building experts and demolition experts that WTC South/North towers and Building 7 were all very carefully planned/executed controlled demolitions.

WTC Building 7

--It was being used to store 3,000-5,000 files of Wall-Street investigations.
--The decision was made by Larry Silverstein (Building 7's lease-holder) over an hour before it collapsed, even before the Trade Center towers fell, to "pull it"... "Pull it" is a term used by demolition experts meaning bring a building down.
--Fell straight down in a 'pancake' collapse in just 6 seconds, into a neat little pile.
--Excuse... 'Falling debris from the twin towers created an internal fire' that brought it down... Bullshit.
--In 1959 a B-52 Bomber jet lost in fog crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. It's still standing to this day.

Pentagon:

--No wreckage. No tail section. No fuselage. No luggage, seats, plane nose... nothing.
--No bodies.
--A 16 foot hole (65 feet after roof collapse)... No way could a Boeing 757 leave that small of a hole in the pentagon if it slammed right into it.
--A Boeing 757 is 155 feet long, 44 feet high, and has 124 foot wingspan, and weighs 98 tons (196,000 lbs)...
--Each turbine engine weighs 6 tons and is 9 feet wide and 12 feet long.
--A Boeing 757 travels at 535 miles per hour.
--No way in hell could a plane that size with a 144 foot wingspan leave a mere 16 foot hole, no wreckage, and no evidence of a plane...
--Everything around the 16 foot hole (before roof collapse) was completely intact and unsinged/unburnt.
--The hole goes all the way through 3 rings, through 9 feet of steel reinforced concrete, to the other side, an is visible at the C-ring. 16 feet wide. Everything around it completely intact, and again, no plane wreckage.
--The only thing capable of doing exactly that kind of damage is an Air Force cruise 'Bunker Buster' missile.
--Witnesses say they saw a black helicopter as well as a black military jet circle the building minutes before the 'plane' hit.
--Witnesses also describe a 'shockwave' both in an around the Pentagon (as far as 1.6 miles away in a hotel) as if explosives had been detonated.
--A number of people said they smelled cordite, an ingredient used in explosives. Cordite produces little smoke, no flash, but produces a very strong 'detonation wave'.
--The surveillance tapes from 3 separate places were confiscated by the FBI within minutes of the explosion.
--Hit in the only place that had recently been renovated to 'withstand' that kind of attack.

Plane flight trajectory:
--At 9:38 am in Arlington, Virginia, apparently Flight 77 (the Boeing 757 that hit the Pentagon) executed a 333 degree 'hairpin' turn while going 535 miles per hour descending 7,000 feet in 2.5 minutes to line up the aircraft to crash into the Pentagon. That is physically impossible for a jetliner to do. It would have caused a high-speed stall for the plane and it would have fallen out of the sky in a spiral.
--As it supposedly crossed over the highway ever lower toward the Pentagon it clipped many of the light poles. Although when another Boeing plane a few years earlier hit just one light pole with the edge of the wing it crashed immediately and the pole was in two. The ones on the lawn of the Pentagon appear to have been ripped right out of the ground and scattered about. Not bent or broken. If a plane hit them they would have been in pieces and the plane would have crashed much earlier than supposedly hitting the Pentagon as the wings would have been in tatters from hitting so many.

Shanksville, Pennsylvania Flight 93

--No wreckage. No bodies. No plane parts. No luggage. No seats. No blood. No human parts or pieces. Nothing.
--Flight 93 didn't even crash. Reports from a Cleveland, Ohio airport received two Boeing jets after a 'bomb threat'. One was identified by United Airlines as US Flight 93.
--All 200 passengers were evacuated in 31 minutes and taken to a NASA Research Facility. They have not been seen or heard from since and were declared dead from the 'crash'.
--What about all the 'cell phone' calls? None of them happened. The probability of any cell phone connecting at 4,000 feet 0.4%, 12,000 feet 0.04%, 20,000 feet 0.016%, 26,000 feet 0.010%, 32,000 (cruising altitude) feet 0.008%. Cell phone towers/receivers were not installed into jets until 2003-2004...

---

Think about it this way... You're gonna tell me that 19 people hijacked 4 planes with boxcutters (Bypassing a 40 billion dollar security system) and all of the people on those planes couldn't have easily taken them down? BOXCUTTERS are not guns, they are 3 inch razorblades. I guarantee that the people aboard those 'planes' would have easily overtaken them with minimal injury... It just did NOT happen the way they said it did. It's all complete bullshit.

The idea that planes, comprised of very thin aluminum alloy bodies crashed, whole, through multiple 16 x 36 inch solid steel columns and vanished into the buildings is as absurd as it is scientifically impossible... IF a plane had hit it would have been as if hitting a wall, it would have smashed backward, broken into pieces, and exploded long before it vanished inside the tower, due to the steel columns that it would have contacted.

Only 1 out of 4 'indestructible' black boxes were found, and the one they found had 'nothing of use' on it? Bullshit.

---

So as it stands. Yes I believe it was a cover up by our corrupt, money hungry government as an excuse to start some shit with Afghanistan/Iraq in order to get at their oil and start a war (which creates profit for them). Nothing anyone says or does will ever convince me otherwise.

I had a ton of pictures I had collected over the years and studied but I think this blog is quite long enough. If you want them, feel free to email me.

...let the hatemail commence. I look forward to it.

It's All in the Advertising Pt. I

So it's always irked the hell out of me how people market and sell things with their cheap tricks, gimmicks, and their selective or even made up wording.

People who are selling animals specifically piss me off. They use words that make their animals sound special, unique, or rare. Rare color, rare breed, rare this or that. Things that in reality are just lies. Whatever it takes to get the animal sold I suppose. It happens with people selling all kinds of animals. People even make up words, titles, and things that make their animal sound so much better than the next of the same species or breed. Let's explore this shall we?

Horse people use words like:

"Chrome" - Probably my biggest peeve about horse ads. Used to describe flashy white markings, usually a blaze and four white socks or stockings... Chrome is term coined for the silver detailing on cars. Since when did horses sprout silver metal from their face and legs? ...better call a detail shop, the horse needs grooming.

"Own son/Own daughter of" - Um, who the hell else's son or daughter would it be other than the sire/dam? Oh we lied, your foal is adopted. This is just so damn stupid.

"Tri-color Paint" - Just because your bay/buckskin is a paint does not make it a tricolor paint. It's not rare or unusual. It's just a bay/buckskin with added paint genes. It's not a tan-point dog, and the only thing that's gonna make it a 'tri-color paint' is if Bob Ross comes back from the dead and works his magic all over it with 'happy little trees' and 'friendly little waterfalls'.

"Elegant" - Underweight or scrawny, with the likeness of a deer. Feed your damn horse.

"Spirited" - Untrained or very little training. Get off your ass and train your horse.

"Flashy" - Usually a paint. It's no more flashy than any other horses just because it has white, unless it has blinky lights growing on its ass.

"Stud Prospect" - Uh yeah, it has testicles, that makes it capable of getting a mare pregnant... Does that mean it should be allowed to? 99% of the time hell no. Most of the time its a conformationally flawed youngster with nothing to show for itself and no record of doing anything.

"Broodmare Prospect" - It has a uterus and is capable of carrying a foal. Does that mean it should be allowed to? 99% of the time hell no. Most of the time its a conformationally flawed youngster with nothing to show for itself and no record of doing anything.

"Richly colored" - Any color other than gray... err, gravy?

"Champion bloodlines" - Usually the champions are 5, 6, 7 or more generations back and really account for nothing. All registered horses with 'championship bloodlines' have champions somewhere in their history.

"Rare breed" - Usually not that rare at all. The new 'trendy' breed, such as Gypsy cobs. A breed used for steaks?

"Started" - Probably had one or two rides only. Or dinner will be ready in a while?

"Green" - Probably had three or four rides only... or the color of grass.

"Grade" - Mixed breed... or a mark you receive on a test.

... and on and on.

Dog people use words like:

"Designer breed" - ...A mutt. Usually concocted of breeds that were stupidly purposely bred together with a name that is a mixture of the parent breeds and sounds equally as stupid.

"Hypoallergenic" - Usually a poodle mix. There is no such thing as a hypoallergenic animal. If you actually found/created a true hypoallergenic animal, you'd be a billionaire.

"Tea-Cup" - Bred to be way too damn small. Usually pictured as a 2 week old puppy, eyes barely open, in a small coffee cup or next to a soda can. Will not stay that small. Very fine-boned and prone to health problems.

"Non-shedding" - Usually a poodle/bichon mix. Curly hair that grows continuously and requires grooming every 6-8 weeks. Meaning you better have the money to pay a groomer.

"High-Content" - More blood of one breed than any other breed but still a mix. High-content? Is that anything like high-octane fuel? Or... they are highly content with life?

"Wolf Hybrid" - Wolves and dogs are both canines. A hybrid is a cross between species, like a lion/tiger to get a liger or a donkey/horse to get a mule. Usually a silver/black sable husky/malamute mixed with something else, or a Czech/Saarloos wolfdog (which are domesticated breeds not part wolf).

"Rare breed" - Usually a new purpose bred 'designer' mix, or the current 'trendy' breed. Or a dog bred for steak?

"Champion bloodlines" - Usually the champions are 5, 6, 7 or more generations back and really account for nothing. All registered horses with 'championship bloodlines' have champions somewhere in their history.

"Not fixed. Breeding prospect." - Meaning it can be used to churn out more puppies the world doesn't need. Usually of shitty conformation/type, most often a small dog used to create more 'tea-cup' mutts in a puppymill.

"Partially trained" - Knows 'sit' and not much else.

"Good yard protection dog" - Spent it's entire life on a chain with little or no human companionship.

"Exotic color" - A non-typical/non-accepted color for the breed produced by breeding in another breed that carries the color and attempting to breed that breed out again leaving just the color.

...and so on.

It's absurd the lengths that people will go to just to sell something. The amount of blatant lies and sugar-coating is easy to see when you look in any classified section. They will tell people anything they want to hear get a few dollars. What's worse, people believe it! I suppose, then, if ignorance is bliss, then why aren't a hell of a lot more people happy (especially with they purchase)?

'Certified Master' Groomers

As many of my readers (especially those who follow me on Facebook) know, I am a full time professional pet groomer. I have been grooming professionally since 2005 and groomed quite a few show dogs, when I was showing, in the years before that.

There are ins and outs to grooming. Some groomers will try to make themselves look/feel better by calling themselves something other than a groomer, like 'pet stylist', 'animal hygienist', 'companion animal cleaner', 'canine coat technician' etc. It doesn't make a difference with all of the wishy-washy phony titles out there, the people who take care of animals' skin, coat, nails, etc are groomers. End of story. Call them what you will. A groomer by any other name is still a groomer.

What I dislike is groomers that have some kind of certification that makes them think they are the Creator's gift to man/animal kind. Let me tell you why it irritates me so much...

There are many certifications that can be gotten by groomers, a few are:

Nationally Certified Master Groomer (NCMG)
Certified Master Groomer (CMG)
Certified Master Feline Groomer (CMFG)
International Certified Pet Groomer (ICPG)
Professional Pet Groomers' Certification (PPGC)
International Professional Groomer (IPG)
Companion Animal Hygienist (CAH)
...etc.

Here's why I don't think this title really means as much as it makes people think it does. First of all, I am absolutely not bashing groomers, and yes I do commend the people who do get certified as 'master groomers', it shows that you have talent and that you're eager to share that. What pisses me off about most nationally certified 'master groomers' is they think they are better than all other groomers, the elite Gods of the grooming world. The reason I don't think it makes a person the Creator's gift to the world is because it's not as in depth as it sounds. Master groomers, to get certified as such, are only required to do the grooming on four dogs of of their choosing of separate acceptable breeds and take a written questionnaire.

There are well over 460 recognized/registerable breeds of dogs. AKC alone has registries for 158 breeds. The UKC has registries for 374 breeds. The CKC has registries for 192 breeds. The FCI has registries for 337 breeds.

...you're going to tell me that by doing a perfect, or nearly perfect breed standard groom on just four different common breeds and answering a four hundred count questionnaire that you are now certified to groom all 460+ breeds? I don't think so.

The breeds for each section of the physical exam, the ones you have the choice to groom to breed standard, are (Choosing 1 from each section):

Non-Sporting:
Toy Poodle
Miniature Poodle
Bichon Frise

Sporting:
American Cocker Spaniel
English Cocker Spaniel
English Springer Spaniel

Long-Legged Terrier:
Miniature Schnauzer
Wire Fox Terrier
Kerry Blue Terrier
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

Short-Legged Terrier:
West Highland White Terrier
Scottish Terrier
Sealyham Terrier
Cairn Terrier

Each dog is required to have at least 8 weeks of hair growth, so it can be shaped, molded, and scissored into the clips/grooms deemed acceptable. The dogs are also required to be well trained, quiet, and free of mats, tangles, dirt, and any kind of skin conditions before the test ever begins. Most of the dogs are owned by long-time groomers and have very nice full show quality coats the comply with their breed standards. The part that gets under my skin is simply this: Purebred dogs with silent, docile, perfect temperaments. Trained, calm, and obedient for grooming. Perfect skin, no skin issues. Perfect or at least very good hair. Correct conformation by size, coat, and weight, or very close to it.

...in the real world, in a real every-day grooming salon this is -not-, let me repeat, -not- what you see.
More than half of the time in any regular grooming salon on any given day you get mixed breed dogs that are matted/tangled, extremely filthy, ill-bred with severe conformational flaws, with one or more skin condition or parasites, and a nasty, often aggressive or difficult to handle temperament.

I do not think it is entirely fair to give the title 'master groomer' to someone who only has to groom four clean, parasite/skin condition free, conformationally correct dogs that are quiet, well-trained, and used to being groomed once a month, because that's definitely not the reality of what you see on a day to day basis in any shop.

To start off, most of the pet dogs taken to a groomer are mixed breeds! You get dogs that are hard to handle from lack of training/discipline/grooming. Many come in with a load of tangles or are matted. Over half of them are terribly bred with massive conformational and structural flaws. They don't want to be messed with, they don't want to stand, many of them are constant barkers/whiners, they fight for blow-drying and bathing, some urinate/defecate on themselves. The list goes in. While we do get a lot of lovely dogs that are a pleasure to do, the fact is, on and every day basis, you're usually dealing with animals that have issues in coat, temperament, structure, hair, skin, etc or a multitude of issues. ...and tell me this, how many average pet dog owners want a very expensive 6+ inch long showring groom on their backyard mixed breed? Exactly.

Just because you can do show grooms doesn't mean everyone will want them, in fact, most pet owners won't. They want something simple, cost-effective, and practical. A very long hand scissored groom on a pet that gets groomed every 12 weeks  (or longer) and receives very little grooming/maintenance is not practical at all and it is expensive.

Now if aspiring master groomers were made to take 5 or 6 dogs from the shelter they knew nothing about that didn't have perfect hair, temperaments, or conformation I would be a lot more respecting. To me, a master groomer is someone who can take a dog with structural flaws and make it look structurally correct, or grooming a dog with time and patience that is a fighter or difficult to do without getting upset/stressed. A master groomer, in my opinion, can make a mixed breed look exceptional when it either looks nothing like the breeds its supposed to be made up of or can make it look more outstanding than any purebred registered showring dog. That's what makes a master for me. Someone who can make something amazing out of nothing. Basically turning a mutt, a lump of coal, into a diamond with their exceptional grooming.

Four perfect (or nearly perfect) dogs and a questionnaire, for me, does not make you a master groomer.

Furthermore, the reason more veteran and apprentice groomers do not go for their master grooming certification is two reasons: It's a downright pain in the ass, and it's very expensive!

The test alone to become a nationally certified master groomer is nearly $700 by itself. That doesn't account for registry, food, lodging, fuel, and other expenses. Then you have to find four quiet well-trained purebred structurally correct dogs that conform to their breed standard and have at least eight weeks of non-matted non-tangled hair growth to work on (they do not provide the dogs for you to test on). Then you have to have crates/food for all of them. Then there's finding a hotel that will cater to your stay with four dogs during your duration of testing. Then you have to haul all of the dogs, the crates, and all of your grooming equipment to the testing center at the asscrack of dawn and spend the entire day there. On top of that, to use the nationally certified master groomer logo/info in your advertising or at your grooming salon you have to pay yearly fees to the NDGAA of $40 just to stay registered as a certified master groomer, and if you ever need a replacement copy of any of your certificates, those run between $15 and $25 apiece.

This is why I feel it is unnecessary. I know I am a good groomer. I know I am a damn good groomer. My clients are sure to not only show but to tell me. I don't feel that I should be required to spend a great deal of money, search across hell and high water to find quality dogs, and take a test on just four animals to be called a master. I know I am damn good at what I do, certified as a 'master groomer' or not. It's just a piece of paper. The proof is in my performance and in how good the animals I groom look/feel when they leave my care.

The Shelter Perspective

This blog is dedicated to every life lost in cold concrete rooms with their steel tables and eerie chills.

Lots of statistics for you. This is directed toward dogs but is applicable also to cats, rabbits, birds, and any animal unfortunate enough to wind up in a shelter.

Chances are the litter of puppies you bred, that you made sure you found 'good forever homes' for, really didn't. The chances of a puppy, purebred or not, finding a permanent lifelong home from the time it is sold as a pup until death are slim to none. Probably only about 20%. 80% of animals will wind up with a second or third person, many will bounce from home to home, some will be dumped or turned loose, others will run away/escape, some will be stolen, and yet others will find themselves in a different place due to whatever circumstances. That's it. 20%. A drop in the bucket. The rest will end up here, there, and everywhere. A great number will wind up in shelters, pounds, and rescues. 70% of people that acquire an animal will end up selling it, giving it away, turning it loose, or taking it to a shelter. 6-8 million dogs/8-10 million cats wind up in shelters in American alone, every single year. 60% of dogs 70% of cats will be killed.

The amount of reasons/excuses for an animal to be surrendered to a shelter/pound/rescue are innumerable. A few of the common ones are:

"The puppy got much too big." Oh gee, you didn't think about size when you bought a lab/shepherd mix!?

"We have to move. The new place doesn't allow animals." You should have kept looking for a place that allows animals!

"The dog sheds too much!" It's called a brush, fucking idiot. Maybe you should have thought that before you got a long-haired/double coated dog!

"The dog is too rambunctious/hyper!" Why'd you get a breed that has a high exercise requirement!?

"The dog has no manners!" It's called taking time to actually fucking train the dog!

"The dog barks too much and tears up the yard!" If you spent your life outside on a chain you'd be pissed off and lonely too!

"The kids don't want to take care of the dog anymore!" Uh yeah, shouldn't have gotten a dog 'for the kids' to begin with, parenting fail.

"We just don't have time for her/him!" A lot of people work 10 hours a day and have 3-4 dogs + kids that get plenty of attention/exercise/companionship!

"She's pregnant and we don't want to deal with puppies." Wouldn't have happened had you ponied up the fucking money to fix her!

"We're allergic." Which means, usually, more than one of the above reasons and you irresponsible cowardly ass doesn't want to admit it!

That's not the end of it. Think about it from the inside. The inside of the shelter. About 80% of the animals, purebred or mixed breed, will never again, once they enter through those doors, see the outside again. Over 50% of the animals that wind up in shelters are owner surrenders, which mean a human willingly brought them in and left them there. The rest are strays, abandonment, seizures from humane association cases, etc. 35-50% of the animals that wind up in shelters, be them strays or owner surrenders, are purebred. That's right, half of the animals that wind up in the pound were purpose bred purebreds.

The people that bring them in say things like "She is still very young, someone will adopt her." or "He is very well trained, good with kids, and good in the house, even though he is an older dog, I am sure someone will adopt him." and even "I don't have the time to find a good him for her. She is a good dog. I am sure someone will want her."

But what they don't realize is that few people actually get time to see the dog in any kind of home environment, acting as they would with a family. They don't get to spend an extended period of time with the animal to see how it's personality is. They don't get to see what training the dog has learned, or what it needs work on. The animals in the shelter are stressed, confined, more often than no they are crowded, and they are barking and throwing a fit trying to get any kind of human interaction and attention. All of the things that drive people away. Older animals have it worse. Few people want that twelve or thirteen year old dog. They don't know it's history. It's too big. It's no longer cute like a puppy. A lot of animals linger in shelters for an extended period of time. 20% of the animals surrendered at the shelter are adopted animals being returned.

After an animal is surrendered it has 72 hours, three days to find a new home or it looks grim. 90% of shelters are only required to keep animals for 3 days before they can legally kill and dispose of them. If an animal is surrendered and it has any kind of health issues, the chances of it finding a new home in those three days diminish greatly. If the animal has any symptoms a contagious illness, hope is lost. It's a dead creature walking in all accounts. Few shelters will risk the spread of disease/viruses and will almost immediately kill the animal in question, even for just a sniffle.

Once surrendered, chances are the dog will end up in a 6x8 chain link dog kennel with concrete or cold tile floors. Most of the time with other animals in the same space. Much of the time the room is full to capacity with other stressed, frustrated, lonely, and confused animals. The sound is usually deafening, as all of the dogs are usually barking, yelping, and howling in a futile attempt to get any kind of human attention. The dogs are forced to urinate/defecate in the same space there are also required to eat, drink, and sleep. Some shelters have volunteers/staff that will walk the dogs daily. This is rare. In reality, most animals lack human attention unless it is to feed/water, clean out the kennels with a power sprayer, or take an animal out to be euthanized.

If the dog is solid black, is on the larger size, is older, or is any one of the commonly mislabeled 'dangerous' breeds ('bully' breed, rottweiler, mastiff, doberman, German shepherd, etc.) it is a dead dog walking as soon as the kennel door closes. Solid black animals rarely get adopted for two reasons, they are so incredibly overly common ("If you've seen one black dog, you've seen them all. They are just a 'generic' dog.", and the superstition that having a solid black animal is 'bad luck'. If it is a larger sized dog chances are it won't get adopted either. People frown upon a big (sometimes hairy) dogs they know nothing about that will be 'too big' for their home. If it's an older dog most shelters won't even try to adopt them out. They just get killed. Few people want an older dog. It's not a 'cute playful puppy' anymore or it's believed to be 'too old to be trained'. If it's a breed commonly shunned for being 'aggressive' few people will want it and it will probably be killed, even if it has a superb family-suitable temperament, simply because it looks a certain way and people fear breeds that have the 'aggressive', 'dangerous', or 'vicious' dog label attached to them.

If the shelter isn't full to capacity, the dog is of a desirable breed, and has a decent temperament it may get a stay of execution. This usually doesn't last long. Sometimes, on rare occasion, rescue groups will come in and pluck certain dogs out for fostering. More often than not, the stay of execution only lasts a short time as eventually the space that dog is taking up will be needed for a new dog that's being/been abandoned or the animal's behavior will change.

It happens to every single animal in the shelter, for a short period of time or a long stay. They all change. The mental psyche of a dog (or any other animal) is not meant to deal with the overwhelming goings-on of the shelter. It takes a toll, and quickly. Animals turn neurotic, they pace, chew, dig, bark, etc. Being confined in a small space is a big one. After a few short days dogs, especially if caged with other dogs, tend to become aggressive and protective of their personal space. They are frightened, confused, overwhelmed. They don't want other dogs coming close to them in the kennel, they may even get into fights, and then the aggression turns to humans. They dislike having someone come and go constantly and not pay them attention, they dislike having staff shouting at them to "shut up" for barking all the time, or having their kennel/feet sprayed when hosed down. They just are so overwhelmed they just don't want to do it anymore and they introvert themselves, they just shut down, like a brick wall, and that's when the aggression comes up (confusion = stress = fear = aggression). For them, over time, enough is enough. When the day comes that they growl at a volunteer or snap that's it, they are usually euthanized the same day.

In the rare chance that a dog doesn't go completely mentally unstable from the shelter environment when given a stay of execution, chances are that some kind of illness will eventually be caught by it. If that happens, it's almost guaranteed that it will be killed. Most shelters, especially small low-budget ones, don't want to waste funds on treating illnesses, especially long term ones, when the animal's likelihood of being killed is probable anyway. Kennel cough is the number one illness that effects shelter dogs. It spreads like wildfire. If a dog even coughs or sniffles once and kennel cough is suspected it will usually be killed straight away.

When D-day comes for the dog (the day it is to be 'Destroyed', in other words euthanized or to put it bluntly, killed.) it will be taken from the kennel by a staff member with a noose-leash (or a catchpole if it's aggressive or dangerous) and led or often dragged from the kennel toward the 'the room'. The ones that are fearful/aggressive often put up a fight and are dragged off anyway. Many of the dogs are happy to see a human and they are all 'puppy smiles' and wagging tails as they 'go for a walk', unrealizing that they are being led to their own death. Once they get to that doorway they usually put on the breaks, dig their paws in, and fight to get away. They can smell the unease, the fear, and the death in the air. Sometimes they can hear other animals in there. Once the door opens they usually have to be forced in, fighting all the while.

Once in 'the room' they will be placed on a cold steel table and restrained by one to three people, depending on how big/stressed/fearful the animal is. Then the euthanasia tech or vet will load up a needle and syringe with either a pink or blue concoction of barbituates, usually sodium pentobarbitol. The leash is usually wrapped around the dog's muzzle two or three times so it cannot bite. Locating a vein on the leg is the method most vets use when administering the 'juice'. Some animals freak out and have to be forcibly held down by the techs until the needle is all the way in and and drug is administered. Sometimes the animal will tense and then explode in fear/pain/stress and jerk the leg being held, causing the needle to be ripped out and blood to go flying, the yelping/screaming can be ear piercing. Once under control again the drug is administered by the euth. tech or vet.

Most people think the term euthanizing/being 'put down' means all animals go peacefully and quietly. This is often the case, most animals do have a quick humane death like this, but there are some that will gasp for breath, shake, tremble, convulse, bite their own tongues, blink repeatedly, spasm, urinate, or defecate on themselves between the time the drug is injected and actual death occurs. Not all deaths by lethal injection are serene and uneventful, although most are. Afterward and the dog is no longer moving/breathing, most of the time laying there limp with eyes wide open, the tech will check the petechial response (the blink reflex) by touching the surface of the eye and checking for a heartbeat. Euthanizing animals day in and day out takes a toll on the techs until they become desensitized to it. After a while it just becomes the job at hand and each dog is just another dog, another weeks paycheck.

Once the dog has been killed it's lifeless corpse will either be thrown in careless piles with other euthanized once beloved family pet, stray, and abandoned animal corpses in a freezer to await the rendering truck or thrown into bins to await mass incineration or hauling off to a landfill somewhere. Some shelters sell off all the carcasses to rendering plants where they will be broken down and used for everything from fertilizer to companion animal food. The rest will be burned by the masses in huge unfiltered incinerators or trucked off by the load to landfills where they will be left to rot.

Most people don't know or care what happens when an animal is left at the shelter, it's no longer their responsibility. A lot of them have a happy adoption story in mind. The realities are grim and few ever learn that. It's 'just an animal' after all isn't it? They can just go buy a new one when they want to. And when they don't want it anymore, there is always a place where someone will take care of it until it can be adopted by someone else when they are done with it, or in reality, be disposed of. How convenient. It doesn't matter that it was a life. It means nothing once they walk out the doors and leave it in the hands of the shelter staff. It's no longer a once loved, once happy, living, breathing, sentient dog that trusted you with every breath it took, looked to you for care, protected you, loved you... it's just another statistic.

It's this mentality that keeps the shelters/pounds/rescues overflowing. The mentality that they're just animals, that responsibility for their lives does not matter. That someone else will do the job that you either no longer want to do as a pet owner, or that you failed at doing to begin with. It's that mindset that keeps backyard breeders producing litter after litter of puppies in the quest to make a few dollars. Once they sell or give that puppy away it's life is no longer in their hands and has no place in their mind anymore. It is also that mindset that causes people to buy from pet-stores, dump their dogs on the street, and keeps them from getting their animals fixed. It's lack of responsibility and lack of education. Furthermore it's a lack of giving a damn at all. Half of the people who buy puppies from pet stores know they come from puppymills. It doesn't stop them. Most people know that dumping their dog in the woods is not only illegal but is cruel. Still it happens. Because they don't give a damn.

If you're sitting there with tears streaming down your face, with mental images of wonderful pets being dragged away to their death, good. The truth hurts but it is what it is. Maybe next time it will make you think twice about taking your dog to the shelter for whatever reason, getting your kids a pet as a gift, breeding 'just one litter' of puppies, or buying from a pet store. Perhaps it will get you thinking about adopting from a shelter and saving a life instead of buying from a breeder when you commit to your next pet. Maybe it will make you think twice about the animal life that is in your hands. If you do have to give your dog up for whatever legitimate reason, at least do right by he/she that loves, protects, and looks to you for everything and take all of the necessary steps to ensure that your once beloved pet doesn't become just another lifeless corpse in a shelter dead pile and another tally in the statistics.

Parade of Freaks: Bulldogs

This... is supposed to be a dog, the bulldog, or English bulldog if you're picky. I can think of a myriad of words other than 'dog' that begin with 'D' to describe this 'breed'.

Diseased. Disgrace. Disaster. Destroyed. Dysfunctional. Doomed...

This is world champion (English) bulldog stud 'Cheerio'...



What. The. Fuck. This is what happens when humans think they have to use eugenics to create the most extreme of extremes. It doesn't even look like a dog anymore. It's a fat marshmallow pig with stumpy deformed legs, an insane amount of skin, a misshapen spine with a deformed tail, and a skull so fucked up there aren't words. It looks like his face is going backwards, instead of growing out like a normal dog it's so brachycephalic (smashed in) and covered with wrinkles you can hardly tell it is a dog. Of course he also has breathing issues from having a face so short. Look at the wrinkles around his muzzle (or where is muzzle should be), all of them sitting on top or around his nasal cavity make it hard for him to draw breath through his nose. As well, having such a short brachycephalic 'push' face, as they are called by breeders, means that his upper jaw is so short that the muscle and tissue in his throat has nowhere to grow normally. That is why bulldogs, like other push-faced breeds constantly gurgle, hack, cough, gasp, and snore, especially when lying down or sleeping.

This is what has become of the bulldog, it's a freak by all accounts in the dog world. I'm going to break it down so you can see how truly messed up this breed has become.

These are full-body conformation shots (most of them) from different angles of show bulldogs, many of them champions. They are severely downhill with front legs vastly shorter than their back ones. Their front shoulders sit far below their croup (top of hips) putting their spine in an unnatural arc. They have much too big and barrel-like chests with very little neck covered in excess skin that has nowhere to go due to the neck shortness and downhill build. The spine, aside from being curved unnaturally with the downhill build has to support a skull much too big, thus the reasoning for such a short neck, and ends in a deformity with the completely unnatural kinked 'corkscrew' tail. The legs are thick and buck-kneed with short very pasterns in the front and long hocks in the back. The toes turn out in the front much of the time as the upper leg bones grow awkwardly to support the bulkiness. The skull is round, almost ball-shaped with shallow eye-sockets (creating bulging eyes) that hide bulging eyes with massive wrinkles. The maxilla (upper jaw) is almost nonexistent being so brachycephalic ('push'-faced) that it's barely there. The mandible (lower jaw) is three times longer than the upper jaw, making it jut out under the over wrinkled/'meaty' lips. Overall they are flat, low-slung, and wide... like coffee-tables with the most screwed up head/skull in the canine world. They are so messed up they can not breed on their own, or give birth, and they are so heavy/cobby they cannot swim. There is no way a bulldog today could cut, grab, and hold a steer, or pig for castrating or slaughter. No way in hell. The dog would pass out before it made it from one side of the pen to the other.

This is a description from a breeder:

"The large, square, heavy head has the face deeply wrinkled, the lower jaw three sizes too long for its mate, the nose thumbed back into the face, the eyes very wide-set and low on the face and the ear wrinkled back to form a "rose." A ruler laid along the top of the head should touch forehead, eyebrow, nose and lower jaw; the neck is thick and short, the shoulders very wide and low, the front pasterns short with toes that slightly turn out, the back curving up to the hips, which are a higher than the shoulders. Hind legs strong, arched, with the stifle and toes turned out a little and the hock correspondingly turned in."

These are frontal views of dogs that are described by their breeders as having 'near-perfect conformation'.

The breed standard calls for being able to see both of the hind legs when at chest level and looking between the front legs. This means very narrow pelvises. Look at how wide these dogs are from the front. Ignore their fucked up heads. I'm getting to that. But look at the shoulders and chests. They have no necks, or very little to speak of, and the further you look down the more messed up they are. Each is a bit wider in the shoulders than the other, especially that last one. His shoulders basically jut out from his body. Moving down you can see how over at the knee they are, with short pasterns, and how the front feet turn outward.

And the rear view...



You can see how narrow in the hips/pelvis they are with hocks turned in (cowhocked) and twice as long as their pasterns and the deformed 'corkscrew' tails.

And the top view... The breed standard says from the top the dog should be 'pear shaped'... They succeeded.

This is the reason that almost all pups are born by C-section. Huge heads/shoulders and teeny little pelvises.

The head... Oh my the fucked up bulldog head:

I don't even know where to begin. The fact that the dog's upper jaw is pretty much nonexistent while, depending on breeder, the lower jaw which is three times too long juts out, sometimes covered by huge meaty lips, or makes the dog reminiscent of Jay Leno. The shallow eye sockets with bulging eyes hidden by too much skin, and the saggy lower eyelids showing the pink 'haw' or inner eyelid. The teeth don't line up in any sense of normality and eating/chewing can be very difficult. The jaws are so fucked up the dog can not pick up a frisbee. It's snout so short and covered in wrinkles it cannot breathe right.

When it comes to breeding this is how they must be bred...

Bulldogs absolutely can not breed on their own without assistance due to how structurally fucked up they are. Look at how exhausted these dogs are? Their tongues are purple from not being able to breathe properly and exertion. Some breeders use the 'over the leg' method to hold the female and another person assists the male. Others strap the female into a 'rape rack' affectionately called the 'breeder cradle' by its users. The female cannot fight or get out of it. She is stuck there, almost held off the ground with her paws barely touching, and made to endure. She can't escape the male or get away. Other breeders use artificial insemination to avoid all this hassle. Furthermore, almost all female bulldogs undergo labor by Cesarian section in which the puppies are cut out of her stomach because her pelvis/hips are too narrow to naturally give birth to puppies with such exaggeratedly wide heads/shoulders. Can you imagine being forced into stocks to be bred without consent and cut open twice a year just to reproduce!?

This is a dog, if you can call it that, that cannot do anything. It has absolutely no function anymore.

But it wasn't always so. 120 years ago the bulldog looked nothing like this. It was a fit, trim, leggier, muscular dog with a much longer muzzle. Over time, with the idiocy of breeding and the craze of dog showing and the addition of the show ring 'breed standard' the bulldog was changed from a well-known working dog by Pug crossbreeding and inbreeding into a disease ridden mess that is completely useless, all in the endless quest for show ribbons.

This is how the bulldog's skull changed from 1900 to 1935 to 1995.

How this was transformed into this...
 

... is absurd. All function of the bulldog has been taken away in favor of desired show-ring extremes.

This is what the bulldog used to look like, back in the 1800's to early 1900's.

...and then it happened. Someone decided to breed in the Pug to get a more compact dog with a shorter face. All during the newly created dog show craze and in the quest for ribbons. This is where it all went wrong. The dog went from a long-lived functional agile working farm/butcher's dog capable of catching/holding anything from pigs to steers all day long to a short-lived obese fucked up couch puff that is so riddled with diseases/deformities that it can barely make it across the driveway before it nearly passes out from exhaustion/overexertion. A dog incapable of reproducing on its own without human intervention. All of this for the extremes desired for the show ring.

Bulldogs are plagued with a ton of different health problems: Brachycephalic Upper-Airway Syndrome, Acne, Folliculitis, Dermatitis, Pyoderma, Cateracts, Entropion, Ectropion, Cherry Eye, Cleft Lip, Cleft Palate, Elongated Soft Palate, Trachea Hypoplasia, Mitral Valve Defect, Ateriovenous Fistula, Pulmonic Stenosis, von Vollibrande's Disease, Dystocia (Birthing Difficulties), Reproductive Hyperplasia, Hydrocephalus, Oligodendroglioma, Perianal Tumors, Hypothyroidism, Pyloric Stenosis, Distichiasis, Conjunctivitis, Corneal Ulceration, Allergies, Hot Spots, Chronic Watering Eyes/Tear Staining, Enlarged Heart, Murmurs, Hip Displasia, Luxating Patellas, Hemivertibrae, Elbow Displasia, Arthritis, Inverted/Tight Tail, Prolapsed Urethra, Pyometra, Stenotic Nares, Cancer, Gastric Diliation/Volvulous (Bloat), Heat Stroke, Demodectic Mange, Aspiration Pneumonia, etc. The list goes on and on...

With all of the health problems you would think that somewhere it would click in the human mind that the dogs being bred like this are unhealthy, and that by a structural standpoint they are good for nothing, except racking up vet bills and causing heartache by dying so young. Apparently it never has. The reason people will not take a stand and try to breed a healthier, longer lived bulldog is because not only will it "no longer look like a bulldog" (which is a crock of bullshit because bulldogs never used to look like this) but that it won't have the extremes that win in the show ring and make to produce the money-making puppies. Half as many puppies would be sold if they didn't have those huge round ball-heads, wide low-slung fat bodies, flat faces, and a shit-ton of wrinkles. Humans are attracted to those looks. Which are disgusting. Huge bulgy eyes, flat faces, excessive wrinkles, compact fat bodies. Not just on dogs either. Persian cats, and other breeds have the same issues.

A few people took the original bulldog, which looked much more like today's American Bulldog (commonly mistaken for a pit bull), and kept breeding. They got things like the American Pit Bull Terrier, the American Staffordshire Terrier, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and a few more modern English bulldog-looking type breeds such as the Olde English Bulldogge, the Alapaha Blue-Blood Bulldog, Antebellum Bulldog, Campeiro Buldogue, Dorset Old Tyme Bulldog, and Ca de Bou. Many people, bulldog afficianados, insist these are not true bulldogs. This is entirely untrue. The original bulldog looked and was more genetically like to the American Bulldog than any other breed we have today. It was the crossing of that original bulldog to the Pug and vast amounts of inbreeding that created the English bulldog abomination we have today.

This guy is a gorgeous example of old-style bulldog, keeping the original type, size, and head shape. He is an Alapaha Blue-Blood Bulldog, and he is spectacular. Perfect head, muzzle, chest, legs. This dog looks like he could go all day long and not tire. He doesn't have the nasty runny eyes and overly wrinkled face yet his face still shouts 'Bulldog!'. What a stunning boy.

Bulldogs really are the most extreme freaks of the dog world. Even as puppies I cannot agree with the "all puppies are cute!" mantra. All I see in a bulldog puppy is a lifetime of health problems, vet visits, and a life of living in a permanent state of an asthma attack. There is nothing cute or adorable about that. Unfortunately it's unlikely to change until the show ring standards change. Which is very sad. There is nothing cute about disease, deformity, and early death. No animal deserves to suffer their whole lives like bulldogs do, from birth until death. The breeders need to wake the fuck up and realize that they literally are breeding this breed to death. Without humans the bulldog would be gone, extinct within a decade. That's got to say something. Money and ribbons talk. To the breeders of these abominations, that is all that matters, not the life, or health, or structural integrity of these dogs. Breeders that continue to breed these dogs, being as fucked up as they are, should be shot. The bulldog breed standard and breeding needs to be changed, or within a short time it will be so disease ridden, so inbred, so conformationally ruined, and so fucked up (as if it already isn't!?) there will be no way to save it. Continuing like this, the bulldog truly is a doomed breed.