Uga, we hardly knew you … because you died at 4
By Gina Spadafori
November 22, 2009
Here’s an idea:
Take a great university (Georgia) in one of the best college towns in the country (Athens), with a College of Veterinary Medicine that’s utterly world-class. Have someone in that world class veterinary school say that it’s probably not a good idea for a lawyer in Savannah best known as one of the players in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” to keep getting mascots for the school.
So maybe the next one won’t die at 4.
From the article:
He died of heart-related causes according to owner Frank W. “Sonny” Seiler. He was four years old and finishing his second season as the team’s mascot. His given name was “Loran’s Best” and his first game was Aug. 30, 2008, vs. Georgia Southern.
“We are all in a state of shock,” said Seiler. “We had no warning whatsoever.”
There will be no live mascot at Georgia’s game on Saturday but a wreath will be placed on Uga VII’s doghouse on the north sideline.
“He was 10-3 last year which is not bad for a ‘freshman,’” said Seiler. “Uga VII was not as active or mischievous as his father but more distinguished. He realized his role when he put his shirt on. He was well-behaved and always appreciated the significance of his role.”
“Not as active.” A bum heart and trouble breathing will do that to ya, I bet.
How about a little outcrossing of those defective lines, for a dog who can actually, you know, breathe? A less-extreme look would still be a bulldog. In fact, it would actually be a bulldog.
R.I.P., Uga. You poor dog.
Poor Uga.
My years on the Bulldog mailing lists left me rather shocked at how blase people would be about their young dogs just ‘mysteriously’ dropping dead at 3 or 4 years old. No one ever seemed to say “Did you do an autopsy??” or even “WTH happened?”, since it was all considered to be just ‘something that happens with bulldogs”.
Thankfully, we have new generation breeders like Jennifer and her Adamant Bulldogs, who are NOT just accepting deaths like this as a sort of ‘shit happens’ type scenario. Health testing, in Bulldogs! What a concept.
Personally, I WANT to own another Bulldog someday - and I love knowing that there are finally Bully breeders out there who test. Bulldogs, like any other breed, deserve to live long, full lives, and as their breeders it is our jobs to help them accomplish this.
Comment by FrogDogz — November 22, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
They’re shocked? Really? I’m not even a Bulldog owner or enthusiast and I’m aware of the health problems that plague this breed.
I’m not surprised.
I hope that, if nothing else, Uga’s story will inspire more people to breed Bulldogs responsibly. I hope Uga will bring awareness to the health issues Bulldogs face.
RIP Uga.
Comment by RTL — November 22, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
And it’s not just, bulldogs, of course. Call me crazy, but I think dogs should be able to *walk,* too. I have two Scotties so afflicted with a movement disorder known as Scottie cramp that they have trouble moving about their world. One of them actually has to be carried half the time. And then there is cerebellar abiotrophy, a degenerative progressive ataxia recently identified in the Scottish terrier. I am so sad and angry about the state of these wonderful dogs, who also carry one of the highest cancer rates around.
Lisa in Cape May County, NJ
Comment by Lisa — November 22, 2009 @ 3:59 pm
I have a modest proposal.
One that might be acceptable to the people of Georgia, who are as deeply concerned about tradition and heritage as they are about football.
Georgia has its own native strain of the old fashioned bulldog. It is called the Alapaha blue blood bulldog, and it is derived from the old strain of bulldog derives from the dogs that came to the South after the English Civil War, when large numbers of Cavaliers came to the Southern colonies with their bulldogs. These dogs were evident when the colony of Georgia was founded in 1732. The Lane family of Rebecca, Georgia, had a peculiar strain of this bulldog, which descends from dogs they collected from the plantations after the Civil War, and one of the Lanes, Lana Lou Lane, was responsible for keeping the strain alive.
I would submit that the next Uga should be one of these bulldogs. They are bigger dogs, but they are apparently a bit healthier than the show bulldogs that have been all of the previous Ugas.
Comment by retrieverman — November 22, 2009 @ 4:15 pm
Retrieverman beat me to the punch.
Why don’t ALL the schools with bulldog sports mascots — Yale, Georgia, Georgetown, etc., about a gazillion high schools, plus the Marines — change their logos, and when applicable, their live mascots to an American kind of bulldog, one with athleticism and vigor and when applicable, local roots?
American bulldogs, Alapahas, pit bulls — something that is American and can move. And breathe. And stay aboveground.
Comment by H. Houlahan — November 22, 2009 @ 6:36 pm
Terrierman mentions in his 11/11 entry about Stubby the first Georgetown mascot was Boston Terrier/Bull Terrier cross.
Comment by Paul — November 22, 2009 @ 7:17 pm
I’m sending this to my pal HJ in South Georgia — he’s UGA grad, now a judge, a season-ticket holder and a booster. Maybe he can start a movement!
‘Cuz you KNOW they’re not listening to what any damn Yankees think!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 23, 2009 @ 7:35 am
Imagine being able to wow the crowds of sports fans with feats of strength and agility performed by the team mascot. Going long for frisbees, charging out of the tunnel and bursting through a paper-covered hoop, retrieving and perhaps destroying a plush representation of the other team’s mascot, pulling a sledge full of cheerleaders onto the field.
Beats the hell out of waddling to the sidelines and dropping dead.
Comment by H. Houlahan — November 23, 2009 @ 8:55 am
HH - wrong sports crowd.
Comment by eli — November 23, 2009 @ 9:10 am
why should a good old American school have an English dog for its mascot, anyway? That’s stupid! And oh so wrong. Didn’t we have a revolution or something?
I agree that one of the southern strains of American bulldogs would be awesome. Even the American pit bull terrier (for some reason people refuse to type that breed name) makes more sense: though it’s not a bulldog, it’s a heck of a better working dog than that English monstrosity.
Comment by EmilyS — November 23, 2009 @ 9:21 am
I don’t see anything wrong with having school doggie Mascots and using English Bull Dogs if that is the choice of the school. Fortunately in America we have the freedom to choose our dogs breeds, but I do think it is a shame that there are health problems that shorten the life of our beloved pets in some of these highly cherished breeds.
My Dobie died at 5 years old and it was very sad but that doesn’t prevent me from owning another Dobie. I had a Boxer die young from heart problems and again, it was sad, but life goes on. I’d like dogs to live to be 15 or longer and in good health too, wouldn’t that be nice. I ask the right questions, longevity of the grandparents etc but sometimes “stuff” just happens. I think it is sweet the school is honoring their missing friend.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 23, 2009 @ 10:22 am
My Dobie died at 5 years old and it was very sad but that doesn’t prevent me from owning another Dobie. I had a Boxer die young from heart problems and again, it was sad, but life goes on.
Not for those dogs it doesn’t.
Comment by H. Houlahan — November 23, 2009 @ 10:50 am
Not for those dogs it doesn’t.
Comment by H. Houlahan — November 23, 2009 @ 10:50 am
Your comment is mean spirited as if I don’t know my dogs died.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 23, 2009 @ 10:58 am
Your comment is mean spirited as if I don’t know my dogs died.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 23, 2009
Heather’s comment is blunt, but it’s not mean-spirited. Anything but: Your dogs (and countless others) died because of congenital defects that are CAUSED by their appearance or by diseases encouraged by closed-registry breeding practices.
Heather is an outspoken (!) advocate of ending such heartbreak by design.
Uga didn’t die by accident. He died because he wasn’t designed to live.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 23, 2009 @ 11:05 am
Breeding dogs for “cuteness” that impedes there lives is mean, not telling the truth.
Comment by thetroubleis — November 23, 2009 @ 11:09 am
Heather is an outspoken (!) advocate of ending such heartbreak by design.
Uga didn’t die by accident. He died because he wasn’t designed to live.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 23, 2009 @ 11:05 am
Since I don’t know Heather and she doesn’t know me - it didn’t seem very nice especially since I still ache and cry over by Dobie. I’m sure the comment could have been phrased with a little more “heart”.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 23, 2009 @ 11:18 am
Sorry Snoopy’s friend, but I am not the one who dismissed your dogs’ deaths at a very young age with “life goes on.” Not exactly a call to arms to address the atrocious health of purebred dogs.
Boxers have congenital heart problems (and are cancer factories) because of the choices that humans and their institutions have made about priorities — choices that put “purity” and appearance high above health and welfare and longevity.
Dobermans die young for the same reasons.
It is not a secret that Dobermans die young and are sick for their short lives, that boxers are tumor factories with flabby hearts. It is not a secret how one would go about fixing that fact.
This is not a lightning bolt delivered at random from the universe. This is suffering and death caused by humans caring more about appearance and an ideology of purity than about the lives of the animals they purport to love.
Not a tragedy. An injustice.
Comment by H. Houlahan — November 23, 2009 @ 11:28 am
I don’t see anything wrong with having school doggie Mascots and using English Bull Dogs if that is the choice of the school. Fortunately in America we have the freedom to choose our dogs breeds,
Yeah, but this particular school happens to be a proud institution of the Old South, inordinately proud of what Real Americans they are, especially compared to us Darn Yankees, who are, um, French or something.
It really is mindboggling that with American breeds who are much better representatives of what Uga is supposed to represent and whose geographic locus is in the South, University of Georgia chooses to have as its mascot the unhealthy-by-design English bulldog.
It’s bad enough that Yale does, but in New England, we don’t expend energy going on about how much more patriotic we are than other parts of the country, and it’s “only” the ridiculousness of having such an unhealthy breed as an athletic mascot, without the added level of irony of such pugnacious “patriots” choosing a “foreign” breed.
but I do think it is a shame that there are health problems that shorten the life of our beloved pets in some of these highly cherished breeds.
But those health problems aren’t accidents. You can’t keep the current structure of the English bulldog unchanged, and have a healthy breed. The people who are breeding healthier English bulldogs are departing in small but important ways from the current fashion in English bulldogs.
Meanwhile, we have the American bulldog, the different varieties thereof some of them specifically native to Georgia, the American Pit Bull Terrier…
U of G has the right to make its choice, and the rest of us have a right to criticize that choice if we choose.
Comment by Lis — November 23, 2009 @ 11:30 am
“Sorry Snoopy’s friend, but I am not the one who dismissed your dogs’ deaths at a very young age with “life goes on.” Not exactly a call to arms to address the atrocious health of purebred dogs.”
I also think it is a shame that some breeders are breeding dogs that should not be bred and for me part of the fault is the “show dog” mentality.
The life goes on is a way of stating truth that when we lose those we dearly love and suffer depression and heartache somehow after time we find the strength to go on and love again and not just curl up in a ball and have our heart die too. I have another Dobie and have chosen to love again - that is how life goes on. I happen to love the breed but I do not “breed puppies” as I don’t consider myself qualified in genetics. Even my son calls the new Dobie Snoppy as Snoopy is that much a part of our life still. So to remind me that my beloved pet is dead without going into detail of why you feel it important to research and fight against these breed issues seemed more hurtful than anything else. But now that I know you are fighting to help these breed issues. I wish you all the best.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 23, 2009 @ 11:44 am