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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Your comment is mean spirited as if I don’t know my dogs died.

Not for those dogs it doesn’t.

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.

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.