The Victorian Freak Show

Is it an accident that P.T. Barnum was not only parading around freaks, but was also holding one of the first dog shows on earth in 1862?

I think not.

And while it's no longer "cool" to attend a freak show, it's still just fine to breed and display tea cup" dogs which have seizures because their brains are too big for their skulls.

It's still fine to intentionally breed dogs that are achondroplastic dwarves, or to intentionally breed dogs that have such massive cranial facial distortions that they either have to spend their lives in respiratory distress, or have their palettes re-sectioned and their noses trimmed and sutured.

It's still fine to breed dogs with heads so big and pelvis's so small that the dogs cannot mate on their own or whelp on their own; a "rape rack" is used for the former job, and a surgeon splits the dog in two for the second.

Of course there is a big difference between accidental and intentional congenital misfortune.

Those born with "lobster claw" hands, or a face covered in fur, are victims of a bad genetic roll of the dice.

In the case of Boston Terriers, Pugs, English Bulldogs, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Chihuahuas, Chinese Cresteds, and many other breeds, however, the deformity is intentional and the suffering is entirely predictable and entirely avoidable.

Consider the two skulls below.  The one on the left is that of a Chihuahua with a "molera" -- a gap in the bone at the top of the skull because the brain is too big for the box.  A "molera" in an adult dog is  actually considered "normal " for the chihuahua! The skull on the right, is that of a child with a serious genetic defect that will require many surgeries and a great deal of pain to correct, if it can be corrected at all.

What kind of monster would intentionally breed for this kind of defect?

And the answer, of course, is a certain kind of breed-blind dog breeder who has "normalized" deformity and who ignores the suffering and distress of the animals that are put in their care.