Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Ugh, a Pug at Westminster



From the Associated Press comes this squib about breed blindness in the face of shocking deformity and early death:

Biggie the pug has taken the toy group at the Westminster dog show. Always popular at Madison Square Garden, this little guy was a crowd favorite, drawing a shout of "Go, Biggie!" as he strutted around the ring.

Handler Esteban Farias says pugs are wonderful, fun and loyal. Plus, he says this breed has another endearing trait.

"They snore," he said.

Farias says Biggie has filled a void in his life after a previous pug pal suddenly died during a routine walk.

"We have a little friend up in heaven, Mr. Rumble, who helped us win," he said.

Right. They snore.

You mean they have a lifetime problem with a compromised breathing system due to intentionally breeding a dog without a nose?

And Mr. Rumble? He was born in 2014, rushed to a championship before 8 months old, was best of breed at Westminster last year, and was dead before age 4.

Nice work breeders!

1 comment:

Viatecio said...

The afterthought about the poor GSD who is no longer able to show (cue the grieving and funeral procession!) because of an AURAL HEMATOMA is cute.

"[H]e might have been nipped by a playful puppy recently, or perhaps he shook his ear too hard and broke a blood vessel."

Mmmmhmmm. Excuses, excuses. Convenient that they leave out the fact that many (not all, but a very rather strong majority) of aural hematomas are caused by the intense discomfort of an ear infection as the dog shakes and shakes and scratches. Could the dog have shaken his head near a fixtures (e.g. coffee table) and tramuatized it? Sure. Who knows. It could be a happy accident. Either way, it's fixable, even if it leaves the dog unshowable due to a cosmetic defect.

The fact that they preface the whole story with the dog being involved in a car accident and then say he "was unable to walk into the ring" is hilarious. I was kind of under the impression that he couldn't walk right anyway on account of his breed...