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Ooh, come to me, ooh, come to me! | 0:00:02 | 0:00:03 | |
The British bulldog. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:05 | |
A national icon. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:06 | |
And possibly the most irresistible puppy in the world. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:11 | |
Well, I mean, I can totally see why people lose... | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
..lose all common sense when they're around these puppies | 0:00:16 | 0:00:19 | |
because they're the cutest things I've ever seen. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
And... | 0:00:22 | 0:00:23 | |
All right, I'm trying to big you up, don't do that! | 0:00:23 | 0:00:27 | |
As a nation, we're bonkers about bulldogs. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
Over the last 15 years, their numbers have quadrupled. | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
Adoring owners love to capture the spirit of the bulldog | 0:00:36 | 0:00:39 | |
and share clips online. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
Good girl. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:44 | |
But the British bulldog is plagued by health defects. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
Two years ago, shocking new research caused an international controversy. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
Scientists say it could die out | 0:00:54 | 0:00:55 | |
if it isn't crossed with other types of dog to avoid health problems. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
At the start of this year, British vets launched | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
a national campaign urging dog buyers to avoid flat-faced breeds. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:07 | |
DOG SNORTS | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
From breathing difficulties to spinal disease, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
the bulldog is in crisis. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
It's a loved, iconic breed, but in its current form, | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
it isn't fit for life. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:19 | |
I'm Catherine Tate. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:22 | |
I'm a dog owner and an animal lover. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
I'm also passionate about animal welfare. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
Are you a beautiful girl? | 0:01:27 | 0:01:28 | |
You'll come home with me? | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
I want to find out what's gone wrong with the British bulldog | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
and what we can do to save it. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:34 | |
I'll meet some of the world's leading experts | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
battling to fix the breed. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
A lot of people think a snorting bulldog is normal for the breed. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
It isn't. This is a serious disease. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:45 | |
I'll meet the breeders fighting to preserve the dog they love. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
We all aim to breed the perfect bulldog, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
but I also breed for health as well. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
And I'll ask the Kennel Club, | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
the leading authority in charge of pedigree dogs, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
whether they're doing enough. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
I'm seeing dogs that have had to have operations | 0:02:03 | 0:02:06 | |
to help them breathe. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:08 | |
Of course, no-one would ever try and defend that. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
So can we save the British bulldog or is it already too late? | 0:02:11 | 0:02:16 | |
MUSIC PLAYS | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
If Britain is a nation of dog lovers, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
I completely fulfil the stereotype. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
Come on, Twinks. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:38 | |
In fact, one of my early TV characters was a dog trainer. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
So, it's just a gentle trot and stay close. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
Don't forget the praise, you'll get nowhere without the praise. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:50 | |
-Good boy! -Good boy! | 0:02:50 | 0:02:51 | |
OK, everyone, that's our 90 minutes. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
And if we keep up this standard, in a few weeks, | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
I can see myself letting some of you bring your dogs. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
My dog is a cross between a Chihuahua and a Brussels griffon. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
And owning her has changed my life. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
DOG BARKS | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
This is Twinkle. I love her so much. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
She came along and now I am so animal-centric. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
I think quite a lot of people worry about me | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
because I certainly like animals and dogs much more than people. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:27 | |
And I don't think I'm the only one. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
Come on, Twinks. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
We Brits adore our dogs | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
and one of our top ten favourite breeds is the bulldog. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
The annual bulldog picnic in Chichester is an occasion | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
for bulldog lovers from all over Britain to get together | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
and share their passion for the breed. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
# And they all go hand in hand | 0:03:50 | 0:03:54 | |
# Hand in hand through their parklife... # | 0:03:54 | 0:03:59 | |
Every September, around 300 dogs and their owners gather for a day | 0:04:02 | 0:04:06 | |
of doggy bonding, dog shows... | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
..and some pretty impressive dressing up. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:11 | |
But it's the bulldog's personality that wins the day. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
My name's Sarah, this is Alfie. He's the most loving dog going. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
He likes cuddles, he's just absolutely brilliant. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
This is Reg and he's five and a half. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
You'd never think that an animal could bring so much love | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
and happiness to a family. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
His name's Duke and he's really friendly. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
He is a lovable dog. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:39 | |
You know, you see the old pictures, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
you see Winston Churchill with a bulldog. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:43 | |
It's just British, it's just part of our heritage, I think. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
The bulldog has been a British icon for over 200 years, | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
renowned for its courage and fighting spirit. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:56 | |
During World War II, the bulldog's bravery, tenacity | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
and resilience were celebrated as ideals of the British character. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:07 | |
They always relate back to Winston Churchill and I think that | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
Winston Churchill had the bulldog spirit. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
He looked like a bulldog | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
and the amount of bulldogs we get through called Winston | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
are just unbelievable. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:19 | |
There's no denying we love our bulldogs. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
In fact, over the last 15 years, the number of pedigree bulldogs | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
has quadrupled from around 2,000 a year to nearly 8,000. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
But now I'm hearing that the health of the breed | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
has become a huge concern for vets. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
So I want to investigate what's going on. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
I've got three articles here. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
One is from the BBC News website and the headline says, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
"English bulldog health problems prompt cross-breeding call." | 0:05:50 | 0:05:55 | |
If we go to the Times... | 0:05:55 | 0:05:56 | |
.."Bulldogs have little chance of a healthy life." | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
And the Independent which says, "English bulldogs now so inbred, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
"their appalling health problems will not improve." | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
So, they are not headlines that sit on the fence. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
These news stories are incredibly worrying. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
They paint a picture of a breed in crisis. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
So what are the main health problems affecting many British bulldogs? | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
To find out, I've come to the Royal Veterinary College | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
in Potters Bar, one of the leading vet schools in the UK, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
to meet Professor Dan Brockman. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
-Hello, are you Dan? -I am indeed, would you like to come this way? -Yeah. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
Dan is a specialist at the UK's first clinic dedicated to | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
flat-faced dogs like bulldogs, known as the brachycephalic breeds. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
One of the key problems that these dogs face | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
is their ability to breathe. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
Brachycephaly means short head. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
-Right. -But if you look at this picture, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
this is a CT of a brachycephalic dog and this is a short nose | 0:06:56 | 0:07:02 | |
and this is a CT of a much longer-nosed dog, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
probably a German shepherd or something like that. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
This structure here is the soft palate. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
Dan explains the soft palate is the tissue at the back of the roof of the mouth. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:16 | |
And in these brachycephalic dogs, the soft palate is incredibly thick | 0:07:16 | 0:07:21 | |
in comparison to the soft palate in a non-brachycephalic dog. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
And what's caused that? | 0:07:25 | 0:07:27 | |
It's just all of that tissue trying to cram into a smaller space. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
So, it's just squashed...? | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
It's all squashed in. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
Over the past 150 years, breeders have bred for | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
an ever flatter muzzle, squashing the soft tissue inside. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
This is the nostril. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
Now, a normal dog should have a very wide open space here, | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
but you can see this nostril collapses down. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
The nostrils are one of the highest causes of the resistance to airflow. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
They just can't breathe, they can't get their breath. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
-It must be the most frightening experience. -I agree. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
-And that's what these dogs experience. -I agree. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
So, what are the other issues that the bulldog presents with? | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
Well, the skin folds on the face, | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
so this fold of skin almost completely covers the nose. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
And in these little folds, here, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
there's a raging bacterial infection already. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
The eye is in here somewhere. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
-Gosh. -And all those folds of skin, if they roll all the way round, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
hair is rubbing directly onto the eye. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
They get chronic ear infections and their leg shapes are unusual | 0:08:33 | 0:08:39 | |
and they're shorter and they're often quite bent. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
So, they may be predisposed | 0:08:43 | 0:08:45 | |
to certain types of degenerative joint disease as well. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
They are inherently unhealthy. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
The bulldog's body shape is also the reason | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
that 86% of the breed has to give birth by Caesarean section. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
So, how did the bulldog get to this point? | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
Well, that's an interesting question, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
and clearly bulldogs originally | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
were bred for a purpose, because they were bull-fighting dogs. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
But what happened over the years was | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
that the function that these dogs were really bred for | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
no longer became important. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
-But people said, "Well, I quite like the look of that." -Right. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
For some reason, people thought | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
that the shorter and shorter the nose got, | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
the cuter the animals became. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
And that's really created a huge number of knock-on effects. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:35 | |
It's a purely man-made disease. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
I find it shocking how humans have played such a big role | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
in the way the bulldog looks | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
and how we're the cause of so many of its health problems. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
I want to find out more about how the dog's looks | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
have changed over the years. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
I'm looking at a picture of the original bulldog | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
which is from around about 1817. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
And you know, much, much different formation of dog. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:03 | |
It's longer, it's leaner, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:06 | |
its head and neck are in proportion, its got a muzzle, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
it's fit and athletic. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
And then we go to the dog that we call the bulldog today. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
And it's a flat face, wrinkles around the forehead, much shorter. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:22 | |
Squat, massive shoulders. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
So, the contrast in the physical differences is stark. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:33 | |
The pedigree bulldog of today has a written description of how it should look. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
This is known as the breed standard. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
"Head fairly large in proportion to size, but at no point so much in excess | 0:10:43 | 0:10:48 | |
"of others as to destroy the general symmetry | 0:10:48 | 0:10:52 | |
"or make the dog appear deformed. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
"Face relatively short, muzzle broad, blunt, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
"and inclined upward, though not excessively so. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
"Dogs showing respiratory distress highly undesirable." | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
So, this all sounds quite moderate and reasonable. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:08 | |
But, from what I'm hearing and from what I'm reading, | 0:11:08 | 0:11:13 | |
there's an awful lot of dogs out there that don't conform | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
to this description. So, I want to know what's going on. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
Despite what it says about the bulldog in the breed standard, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
one of the dog's major health problems is its poor breathing. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
So, I'm heading to the Cambridge University Vet Hospital to meet | 0:11:32 | 0:11:36 | |
leading soft tissue surgeon, Jane Ladlow, who treats many bulldogs. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
Jane and her colleague, Nai-Chieh Liu, are conducting | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
research into the bulldog breathing disease known as | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, or BOAS. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
As part of their research, they use a special chamber | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
to measure bulldogs' breathing ability | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
with greater accuracy than ever before. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
This helps them to diagnose dogs affected with BOAS | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
and treat them more effectively. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
So, what exactly is BOAS? | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
So, BOAS is when you've got too much soft tissue | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
at the back of your throat or in your nose, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
so in the bulldog it's particularly a long, thick, soft palate. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:22 | |
And this soft palate gets sucked into the airway and the voice box | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
when the animal breathes and it causes an obstruction. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
How many dogs overall are affected by BOAS? | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
It's just under 50%. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:32 | |
And we think that's probably relatively typical | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
of the population at large. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
Today, Jane is seeing Laura and her bulldog, Betsy. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
Betsy suffers from BOAS and is here for a pre-surgery consultation. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
-This is Catherine. -Hi, nice to meet you. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
-And this is Betsy. -Hello. -Oh, how lovely. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
Betsy is a British bulldog | 0:12:52 | 0:12:54 | |
with some of another bulldog breed in her known as Old Tyme. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
I think you've particularly unlucky as Betsy may have a little bit | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
of Old Tyme in her, but she's presenting very much | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
-with the classical presentation of the bulldog. -Yeah. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:07 | |
So, you have come because you're worried about the fact she's making | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
a lot of noise when she's breathing sometimes, particularly on exercise? | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
Yeah, the hotter the weather, the louder it is. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
And then, when she's running, it's like something closes in her throat, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:22 | |
-so she ends up, like, throwing up foam. -She regurgitates? -Yeah. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:27 | |
So, it's those kind of things with her, | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
especially with the hot weather. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
What's she's like when she's sleeping? | 0:13:31 | 0:13:33 | |
She snores a lot, continuously. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
She does stop breathing, I think, every now and then | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
for a short period of time | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
because the snoring stops and then it starts again. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
Is that not really scary? | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
Yeah, it is a little bit, because I don't know why she's doing it. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
-Wow! -I've brought some home footage with me | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
just to show you her breathing at her worst | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
cos now she's quite cool and relaxed. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
But this is... | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
DOG SNORTS | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
So, that's that after... | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
-It sounds like a monster, doesn't it? -It does. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
Is that you? | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
It must really freak you out. That would really freak me out. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
-Yeah, it makes you feel really upset. -Of course. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
Laura tells me it doesn't take much exercise | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
for Betsy to get into this state. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
I mean, that's severely limiting, isn't it, in terms of a dog? | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
So, we've got Betsy as our most severe grade, I'm afraid. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
And we think that she is actually quite severely affected because | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
the skull is shortened but the soft tissues are still quite long. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
And in bulldogs, it is usually a thick and long soft palate. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
And that's very much what she sounds like to me. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
Jane has decided that Betsy needs surgery to trim the excess tissue | 0:14:46 | 0:14:51 | |
at the back of her throat. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:52 | |
So if we trim that soft palate | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
and stop it being sucked into her voice box when she's breathing, | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
I think you will notice quite an improvement with her. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
And what are you hoping to achieve after the surgery? | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
How will it improve her life? | 0:15:03 | 0:15:04 | |
So, we're never going to get her to an athletic kind of dog, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:08 | |
unfortunately, because she does have these issues | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
so we're really looking for quality of life. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
So, a dog that can go out and exercise without becoming | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
too distressed or having that kind of noise. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
-Yeah. -Oh! Beautiful girl. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
We're going to get you breathing better. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
You can walk and play! | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
I'll be back to observe Betsy's surgery, | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
which hopefully will improve her quality of life. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
But, for some bulldogs, surgery isn't enough. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
The average life expectancy for British dogs is 12 years. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
For bulldogs, it's just eight. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
Many don't even make it that far. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
I've come to East Sussex to meet Donna, a former bulldog owner. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:48 | |
-Hi, Catherine. -Hello. -Come on in. -Thank you. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
Donna's bulldog, Frank, died when he was just three years old. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
Was Frank your first bulldog? | 0:15:58 | 0:16:00 | |
He was my first bulldog. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:02 | |
Aw, look at him. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:04 | |
He was brilliant with the grandchildren really. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
Temperament was lovely, with everybody, with other dogs. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
What age was he when he had his first operation? | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
Probably about five months old | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
when he had his soft palate and his nose done. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
Then he had ear infections. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
I guess the last straw for him and the biggest thing | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
-was the cruciate ligaments. -That's in the knee, is it? | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
Yeah, his knees kept dislocating. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
And, um, so he couldn't go upstairs. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
His life was really restricted and really limited in what he could do. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:37 | |
What happened before he died? | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
-What...? -Well, he had to have the cruciate ligament surgery. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
He came through the GA and I was phoned to say, "Yeah, he's fine." | 0:16:43 | 0:16:48 | |
GA, general anaesthetic? | 0:16:48 | 0:16:49 | |
Yeah, and I got a phone call about three and they said, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
"He's having trouble breathing, we're not sure why." | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
And his lungs just couldn't cope, really struggling. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
And she just said, "What do you want us to do, during the night, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
"should anything happen?" And I said, "Just do what's best for him. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
"Whatever that may be." | 0:17:05 | 0:17:06 | |
Oh, I'm so sorry for you. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
-That's all right. -That's really hard. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
That's terrible, it's really hard. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
Because, I mean, you know, losing any pet is a terrible experience. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:19 | |
Yeah. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:20 | |
Now, presumably, your vet bills were quite high, were they? | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
They were very high. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
It did get ridiculous, to be honest, | 0:17:25 | 0:17:27 | |
because the cruciate ligament surgery was £3,000 per leg. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
I think the first leg, about £800 of that was paid by the insurance, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
but then I paid the rest. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
And I paid the rest on the second leg. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:40 | |
So in his three years of life, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
how much in total do you think you spent on vet bills? | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
I'd probably say, as an estimate, between £8,000 and 10,000. | 0:17:45 | 0:17:50 | |
Gosh, that's a lot, isn't it? | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
And there was a worry of... | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
-How will you continue to pay? -That's right, yeah. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
Where is this going to go? And you continue to do what you can do... | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
-Yeah. -..because, you know, they are a member of your family, they are. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
-Yeah, of course. -You took on that dog, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
you took responsibility of that dog. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
What would you say to people considering buying a bulldog? | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
I personally would not buy another bulldog | 0:18:10 | 0:18:15 | |
and I think one of the reasons I decided to talk to you today | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
was to make people more aware, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:20 | |
and if it does make one person think about the puppy that they're buying, | 0:18:20 | 0:18:26 | |
and asking the right questions, you know, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
that's all I want to achieve, really. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
Back at Cambridge, it's the day of Betsy's surgery. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
First, Jane Ladlow and her team do a scan | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
of the inside of Betsy's nose and throat... | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
..then it's through to the operating theatre. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
The surgery will involve cutting away | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
a section of Betsy's soft palate to help her breathe. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
Before the surgery begins, | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
the tissue at the back of her mouth is so large, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
it's difficult to see her windpipe. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
When you do the soft palate, is it a case of just taking off | 0:19:13 | 0:19:18 | |
some of the length or do you have to reconstruct it? | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
So, we take off length, but we also take off thickness as well | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
because these palates are excessively thick. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
So we strip out some of the muscle and some of the soft tissue, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
but the reconstruction we're doing is really to thin the soft palate. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:35 | |
So now what I'm going to do is come up and cut the soft palate | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
right at the front part of the tonsil. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
I'm going all the way down the side. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
It's a really big chunk of tissue I'm going to take out of Betsy. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
She has a very, very thick and soft palate. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
And that's the size of the tissue that we've just taken out | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
of this dog, out of Betsy. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:02 | |
-It's quite considerable, isn't it? -It is a considerable amount | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
of tissue to have the back of your throat. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
-In excess. -It is in excess. Yes. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
OK, Catherine, if you want to have a look, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
so that's how we're going to leave the palate. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
Pretty short in comparison to where we were. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
Gosh, that's a big difference, isn't it? | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
It is a bit difference, actually. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
-It's a big chunk of tissue we took out of Betsy. -Yeah. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
By cutting away this amount of tissue, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
Jane tells me more air will reach Betsy's lungs, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
and she'll find breathing easier. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:29 | |
But Betsy's operation is not over just yet. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
Next, Jane is going to make her nostrils wider | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
so she can breathe through her nose more easily. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
So I'm taking out the bit called the nare fold, which is just behind | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
the nostril, and is quite a chunky bit of tissue. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
And by removing that, we take out a little bit of the obstruction | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
at the front of the nostrils. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
The question is, do they look about right, what do you reckon, guys? | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
Do you think they look about right? | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
I can't believe that dogs as young as Betsy | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
need invasive operations like this, just to be able breathe. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
Right, we're finished, thank you very much for that. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
Beautiful girl you are. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
Despite the fact that this surgery can cost up to £3,000, | 0:21:13 | 0:21:17 | |
it's becoming more and more commonplace. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
Is there a danger that some people out there are going to, | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
kind of, normalise this kind of procedure. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
Just think it's par for the course of having a bulldog, | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
that they just have to have a little nip and tuck, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
and then the dog will be better? | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
We see a lot of people that don't recognise that the airway noises are abnormal. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:35 | |
They think hearing a snorting bulldog is normal for the breed. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
It isn't. Or it shouldn't be. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
This is a serious disease, it carries risks, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
and it's sad to think that you have to do this routinely on dogs | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
to make them, you know, have a quality of life that's acceptable. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:50 | |
Presumably this isn't a long-term fix for the breed... | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
No, this is not a long-term fix for the breed. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
I enjoy doing this kind of surgery, | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
but if it gets to the stage where I see one of these a year, | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
as opposed to four or five a week, I would be delighted. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
We're improving them, but we are not totally fixing them, because, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
unfortunately, when the anatomy is so obstructed, you can help, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
but you can't completely sort things out. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:12 | |
I mean, I find it very difficult to not be affected | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
when I see bulldogs undergoing surgery. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
I just find it difficult to understand how we can, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
in all consciousness, go, "Yeah, I mean, it's all right." | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
I think that is, kind of, what is happening, | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
we're just allowing it to happen. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
And, you know, I don't mean to demonise people who love bulldogs, | 0:22:30 | 0:22:36 | |
because the vast majority of people care deeply | 0:22:36 | 0:22:41 | |
and would not want harm on any animal, | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
but I just don't think there's a level of awareness yet | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
that has infiltrated the public, because... | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
..clearly, the dogs are suffering. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
We as humans have to start putting the dogs first. | 0:22:55 | 0:23:00 | |
And I don't think we are. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
But despite these problems, there are people out there | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
who are doing their best to save the British bulldog. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
Right now, breeders don't have to do any health tests on their bulldogs | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
before they breed them. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:21 | |
There are no regulations to prevent unhealthy dogs | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
passing on their problems to their offspring. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
I've come to Wolverhampton to meet two show breeders | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
who are working hard to change that. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
-Hello, Catherine. -Hello. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
Lieza Handley and Vicky Collins-Nattrass | 0:23:35 | 0:23:37 | |
run the Health Committee of the Bulldog Breed Council. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
Hello, are you Vicky? | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
Nice to meet you. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:43 | |
They have launched their own health testing scheme | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
which awards bulldogs a bronze, silver or gold certificate | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
based on the quality of their health. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:51 | |
-So, where are the dogs? -They're outside. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
Lieza, Vicky and their friend, Lorraine, try to breed healthy dogs, | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
that still match the Kennel Club's breed standard. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
They're keen to show me | 0:24:04 | 0:24:05 | |
how their testing scheme is improving their dogs' health. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:09 | |
-And who's this? Hello. -This is Piper, she is eight-years-old. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
She's a beautiful girl. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
She's also a champion. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:16 | |
She passed the vet checks to become a champion in 2012. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:20 | |
A champion in the show ring or... | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
-Yes. -..or from health standards? | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
-The show ring. -The show ring. -Yes. -So this is... | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
-Her mum. -Her mum? -Yes. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:29 | |
Piper. Piper. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
-They can move, can't they, for a big unit?! -Yeah. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
These dogs are part of Lieza's ongoing breeding programme | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
to improve the bulldog's health. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:41 | |
If you didn't know, though, the noise they're making, you'd think... | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
-Yes. -..I'm in trouble. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
-She's excited. -She's excited? | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
-Yes. -That's what they do. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:52 | |
Because these are eight and ten years old, | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
these are part of the work in progress that we're doing, aren't they? | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
You'll see the difference in the young dog. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
Oh, look at this one. Who's that? | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
-That's Henny. -Henny. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:07 | |
Henny's nearly three. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:11 | |
Give it to me. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
So this is a really playful, active dog. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
Yeah, yeah. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:18 | |
I don't think I've ever seen a bulldog move like this. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
He loves these toys. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
What have you got? | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
He's a French champion, he's also took part in our health scheme. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:32 | |
And he's at gold. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
Hello. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
So, as show judges, because you're both show judges, aren't you? | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
So what is it you're looking for? | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
We all go for as close to breed standard as possible, | 0:25:48 | 0:25:52 | |
but not only that, but also health as well. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
If we look at his eyes, he's got beautiful round, dark eyes. | 0:25:55 | 0:26:00 | |
He's got a true-fitting mouth, he's got lovely nostrils, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:06 | |
and if you can see, his roll isn't impeding on his eyes, | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
or his nostrils. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:11 | |
He's got very little work in his head, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
so just that, straightaway, is good. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
His coat and his skin is in absolute perfect condition, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
short and close to the body. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
If you look at his tail, his tail is free, straight, and he can wag it. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:30 | |
And you look at his movement when he's walking normal, | 0:26:30 | 0:26:35 | |
there's no lameness, or anything in there at all. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
So as far as the health scheme goes, he's a very handsome, | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
active and healthy dog. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
And ginger! | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
And ginger! | 0:26:45 | 0:26:46 | |
Get the ginger ones out there! | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
-Oh, my God! -Sorry. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:50 | |
He doesn't even like talking about being ginger! | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
He's made a run for it. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
See what happens? | 0:26:56 | 0:26:57 | |
-This is Margot. -This is a baby one! | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
She's 15 weeks. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:03 | |
Oh, my gosh! | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
Are you a beautiful girl? | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
Want to come home with me? | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
Catherine, you can't have that one! | 0:27:11 | 0:27:12 | |
Come on! | 0:27:12 | 0:27:14 | |
You've got a lovely nostril. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:15 | |
Margot, you've got a cracking nostril. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
Lieza and Vicky hope their health certificate scheme will be adopted | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
by bulldog breeders across the country. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
So you're hopeful that, within the gene pool, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
we could see a greater number of healthier dogs, | 0:27:32 | 0:27:37 | |
-just if they were bred correctly. -With more knowledge | 0:27:37 | 0:27:41 | |
so that people are aware and don't breed bad breathers together. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
That's the main thing. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:46 | |
That would make a big difference. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
It's like me, with my breeding programme, you breed for the health. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:53 | |
Yeah. Not for the looks. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
You do breed for the look, because we breed to our breed standard, | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
and our breed standard, unfortunately, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
is the Bible for a lot of pedigree dog breeders. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
You all aim to breed the perfect bulldog. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
And every time I breed a litter, that's what I breed, | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
but I also breed for health as well. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
It sounds to me, as a layperson, that the health certificate is | 0:28:14 | 0:28:18 | |
a very good step towards getting all bulldogs | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
to be as healthy as your dogs. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
Yes, this is what we hope. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
We're hoping, we're working towards. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:28 | |
Is this scheme mandatory? | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
-No. -It's not. -No. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:33 | |
It would be good if it was, wouldn't it? | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
The only way that health testing bulldogs before breeding | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
would be able to put in place would be if the Kennel Club | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
wouldn't register anything unless it was accompanied | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
by a certificate to say that the dogs were gold level, | 0:28:46 | 0:28:50 | |
silver level, or whatever. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
So it's... | 0:28:53 | 0:28:55 | |
I think how we have it, really, | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
is as far as we can take it with the regulation. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
The health certificate is a useful tool for any bulldog buyer | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
to find out the health status of their puppy's parents. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
I'm on my way to the Kennel Club, the body which oversees | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
the health and welfare of pedigree dogs in the UK. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
It produces the breed standards | 0:29:21 | 0:29:23 | |
which says what a pedigree bulldog should look like. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
Bill Lambert is the Kennel Club's health and breeder services manager. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
What health tests are mandatory for registered bulldogs? | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
We don't have health tests that are mandatory | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
for the bulldog at the moment. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:41 | |
And the reason for that is simply that if we brought in | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
mandatory testing, it would simply force people away from registering | 0:29:44 | 0:29:48 | |
with the Kennel Club. We have no mandatory powers. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
We have no legislative powers, so we have to try and keep people with us. | 0:29:51 | 0:29:55 | |
And therefore, we do things by encouragement and persuasion, | 0:29:55 | 0:29:58 | |
rather than by force. | 0:29:58 | 0:29:59 | |
But I'm seeing dogs that have had to have operations | 0:29:59 | 0:30:04 | |
to help them breathe, which is... | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
-You know. -Of course, no-one would ever try and defend that. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
You do have to consider, obviously, the health of the dogs, | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
that's got to be paramount, | 0:30:13 | 0:30:15 | |
but you have to look at the temperament of the dogs. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:18 | |
Of course we want dogs to look like we want them to look, | 0:30:18 | 0:30:21 | |
so it's a balancing act for breeders. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
Just to pick up on something you said about we want the dogs | 0:30:23 | 0:30:27 | |
to look like we want them to look, that's a very human, kind of, | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
selfish driven thing. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:33 | |
I mean, should we not come much further on the health of the dogs | 0:30:33 | 0:30:36 | |
than we should on our own desires? | 0:30:36 | 0:30:38 | |
Of course we should, but you also need to be aware that the work that | 0:30:38 | 0:30:43 | |
we do, we influence around about 30% of the bulldogs, for example, | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
bred in the UK. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:49 | |
There's a huge percentage that are born outside our control. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:52 | |
What we've recently experienced in the UK is a sudden growth in a breed, | 0:30:52 | 0:30:57 | |
and the bulldog has grown in popularity immensely. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
15 years ago, in the Kennel Club, we registered about 2,000 a year. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:06 | |
Last year we registered almost 8,000. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
When you get this mismatch between supply and demand, you, then, | 0:31:08 | 0:31:13 | |
in the middle there, you get this gap effectively, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
and the irresponsible breeders, | 0:31:16 | 0:31:18 | |
who don't necessarily know about the breed, | 0:31:18 | 0:31:20 | |
don't care about the breed, will try and fill that gap. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
But as the governing body of pedigree dogs, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:27 | |
should the Kennel Club be braver? | 0:31:27 | 0:31:30 | |
Is there any more that the Kennel Club could do, | 0:31:30 | 0:31:34 | |
given that you are the standard to which everyone looks? | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
We are always looking to see what more we can do for all dogs. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
We are the largest contributor to genetic research at the moment, | 0:31:41 | 0:31:46 | |
anyway, so we are doing a lot. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:48 | |
But there's always more we can do. Of course. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
There is a danger, if we brought in extremely tight regulations, | 0:31:51 | 0:31:55 | |
and we restricted every aspect of dog shows, of breeding dogs, | 0:31:55 | 0:31:59 | |
we could become a tiny, boutique register, | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
where our numbers would shrink down to a very small quantity of dogs, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:07 | |
and the influence on all dogs would therefore be diluted and lost. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:13 | |
Personally, I find it disappointing that the leading authority in charge | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
of pedigree dogs in the UK feels reluctant to bring in stricter regulations. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:26 | |
The Kennel Club say they don't want to alienate people, | 0:32:29 | 0:32:33 | |
so their strategy is to simply encourage breeders to breed healthy dogs, | 0:32:33 | 0:32:39 | |
and fund research that they hope, in time, will produce results. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:43 | |
So now I want to find out if their approach could work. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
I've come to Cambridge University where, since 2015, | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
the Kennel Club has spent £150,000 funding research | 0:32:54 | 0:32:59 | |
into the bulldog breathing disease known as BOAS. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
Geneticist David Sagan, is trying to create a DNA test | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
which will allow breeders to identify | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
whether puppies are likely to develop the breathing disease. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
This could help rule out sick dogs | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
before they've been used to breed with. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:18 | |
So you could tell much earlier... | 0:33:20 | 0:33:22 | |
-Yes. -..whether the dog is potentially going to have problems? | 0:33:22 | 0:33:28 | |
Many of our cases don't develop until three, four, five years old. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:32 | |
So those dogs could be used by breeders at the moment, | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
but with the DNA test, they'd know not to use them, | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
and this will allow us to eliminate disease more quickly. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
Do you have any knowledge of what the breeders will think about this? | 0:33:42 | 0:33:47 | |
Yes, I mean, the breeders have been very concerned that they have a dog | 0:33:47 | 0:33:52 | |
where they like the shape of the dog, | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
they very much like the personality of the dog. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
So although bulldogs have developed from vicious dogs, | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
nowadays, most bulldogs are sweet as pie, and they're lovely pets. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:05 | |
And they are very concerned that if we start trying to develop tests | 0:34:05 | 0:34:11 | |
that cause radical change, or use strategies that cause | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
radical change in the genetics of the dog, | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
then they will lose these nice characteristics. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
So what we are looking to do is cause the minimum change | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
in the appearance and character of the dogs. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:26 | |
We're suggesting that you can move the population quite effectively | 0:34:26 | 0:34:30 | |
away from being severely affected over a few generations. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
I think David's research is really encouraging. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
If a test for the breathing disease can be rolled out, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:44 | |
and breeders are willing to take it on, | 0:34:44 | 0:34:45 | |
it could have a very positive impact on the breed. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
But I know there are experts out there | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
who think the pace of change is still too slow. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
One of them is Doctor Rowena Packer at the Royal Veterinary College. | 0:34:56 | 0:35:00 | |
Rowena has spent the last eight years researching the problems | 0:35:00 | 0:35:03 | |
experienced by flat-faced dogs like bulldogs. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:06 | |
And she believes we need to drastically change our attitude to the breed. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:09 | |
So I've met breeders who are really working hard to improve the bulldog's health. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:17 | |
Is that not a good thing? | 0:35:17 | 0:35:19 | |
It's, of course, a good thing in the sense that they're committed to | 0:35:19 | 0:35:22 | |
breed health, that they are trying to breed with health in mind, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:25 | |
but it's still within this box of, they should still look the same | 0:35:25 | 0:35:30 | |
and that we should only use a small gene pool. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:32 | |
And there's only so far you can actually go with that. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
I just feel like the level of ambition as to how much better | 0:35:35 | 0:35:39 | |
they can be is just set that bit too low for me. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:42 | |
Actually, we could be doing far more than just changing small things, | 0:35:42 | 0:35:45 | |
whilst still being committed to this really extreme body shape. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
I mean, would you say that there is such a thing as a healthy bulldog? | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
There is a spectrum. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
There's no doubt there are some healthy dogs within that population, | 0:35:54 | 0:35:57 | |
but there needs to be enough. | 0:35:57 | 0:35:58 | |
There's a huge issue within bulldog's genetic diversity, | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
and if we only pick those few that don't have problems, | 0:36:01 | 0:36:04 | |
then we potentially have a whole time bomb of other genetic problems down the line. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:09 | |
Because of the inbreeding? | 0:36:09 | 0:36:10 | |
Absolutely. There isn't a big gene pool to play with. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:13 | |
Because of the strict rules of keeping dogs breeding | 0:36:13 | 0:36:16 | |
within a small population, and breeding to standards that are, | 0:36:16 | 0:36:20 | |
-fundamentally, unhealthy, we're stuck in the situation. -Yeah. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
So what is the solution? | 0:36:23 | 0:36:25 | |
We need to fundamentally change the way the bulldog looks. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
It's a loved, iconic breed, but in its current form, | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
it isn't fit for life. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
It isn't fit for function, it has too many problems. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
We need to open up our minds to what a bulldog can look like, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:41 | |
we need to reject the extremes, we need to breed with, primarily, | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
health in mind. We need to not be selfish, | 0:36:45 | 0:36:47 | |
and prioritise how a dog looks above its long-term health and welfare. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:52 | |
Before meeting Rowena, I was quite hopeful, | 0:36:57 | 0:37:00 | |
but now I'm worried the problem is worse than I thought. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
I think where I am at the moment is I'm sort of all over the place. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
I'm... I'm wrestling, trying to make sense of both sides. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:12 | |
Because you meet the scientists, | 0:37:12 | 0:37:14 | |
and you meet the doctors who give a very, quite a stark... | 0:37:14 | 0:37:17 | |
..and bleak, and rightly so, unemotional assessment | 0:37:20 | 0:37:24 | |
of where the situation is. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:27 | |
The health of the bulldog is only going to get better | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
if people stop breeding for looks. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:31 | |
Then you meet the owners, and then you meet the bulldogs. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
And then, of course, you fall in love with the bulldogs, | 0:37:35 | 0:37:38 | |
and you see these owners, who are just desperately loving their dogs. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
But then, at the same time, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:43 | |
still have this obsession with the way they look. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:46 | |
And that's what I wrestle with. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:48 | |
I don't... I don't... | 0:37:48 | 0:37:51 | |
I don't know how to reconcile it. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:53 | |
Rowena believes the bulldog's problems need radical solutions. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:02 | |
She's advised me to head to Edinburgh to meet a scientist whose | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
ground-breaking research could offer a breakthrough | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
in the fight to save the bulldog. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:10 | |
Since the modern bulldog breed was established in 1875, | 0:38:13 | 0:38:17 | |
the bulldog's gene pool has shrunk, as dogs were selectively bred | 0:38:17 | 0:38:21 | |
to exaggerate their short faces, squat bodies and wrinkly skin. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:26 | |
I've come to one of the world's leading centres for the study of | 0:38:30 | 0:38:33 | |
animal genetics, the Roslin Institute. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:36 | |
This is where we take that blood on the slide and it's converted over to DNA. | 0:38:36 | 0:38:41 | |
Geneticist Jeff Schoenebeck's latest research could have a big impact | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
on the bulldog's future. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:45 | |
Why do bulldogs look the way they do? | 0:38:48 | 0:38:50 | |
It all comes down to genes | 0:38:51 | 0:38:53 | |
and what they're inheriting from their parents. | 0:38:53 | 0:38:56 | |
So it's the flavours of genes, the differences in them, | 0:38:56 | 0:39:00 | |
that give bulldogs a flatter face, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:03 | |
whereas other dogs have a longer face. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
The skull, the jaw, the neck bone, the spine bones, | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
the shoulder blade, the pelvis, these shapes, | 0:39:09 | 0:39:13 | |
they're all derivatives, | 0:39:13 | 0:39:14 | |
they're all things that emerge because of these dogs' genes. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:18 | |
Jeff tells me that, like humans, | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
dogs inherit copies of genes from each parent. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
These carry crucial information that determines different traits. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
But occasionally there are faults in these genes | 0:39:28 | 0:39:31 | |
which can cause things to go wrong. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
So I'm going to use these coloured blocks to illustrate. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
What we discovered is a mutation | 0:39:39 | 0:39:41 | |
that is driving face length shorter and shorter. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
And we see every bulldog has two copies of this. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:48 | |
So not only do they have these two genes, | 0:39:48 | 0:39:50 | |
and we can pretend they're here in red, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
but they have two copies of the same flavour of gene. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
Now that we appreciate that, you know, the flat face puts these dogs | 0:39:56 | 0:40:00 | |
at risk of things, you know, breathing difficulties, | 0:40:00 | 0:40:05 | |
eye trauma and so forth. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
If we try to breed away from these two copies of | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
the gene, well, there's nothing to breed away from. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:12 | |
They're always going to have the same two genes. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
So does that mean that we cannot correct | 0:40:15 | 0:40:20 | |
the faults within this breed | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
from within the breed? | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
What I would say is that it's going to be an uphill battle, | 0:40:25 | 0:40:28 | |
and the reason is there is no other genetic diversity. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
There is no copy of that gene that doesn't have the mutation. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:35 | |
The bulldog, in a way, is locked in now, because the breed pool | 0:40:35 | 0:40:39 | |
is closed, by definition, a bulldog can only be produced | 0:40:39 | 0:40:43 | |
by parents that are bulldogs, grandparents that are bulldogs. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:46 | |
So we're having to deal with what we've got. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
So if the current gene pool is potentially too small, | 0:40:48 | 0:40:53 | |
what is the solution? | 0:40:53 | 0:40:56 | |
Well, there's a couple of different solutions that people are considering. | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
There are groups that are looking at | 0:41:02 | 0:41:04 | |
introducing something that's not a bulldog | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
and crossing it to a bulldog to bring in some genetic diversity | 0:41:06 | 0:41:10 | |
that wasn't there before with hopes that, maybe, | 0:41:10 | 0:41:12 | |
we can increase the face length a little bit. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
What we're talking about is out-crossing these dogs... | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
That means mating a bulldog with another dog that does not contain | 0:41:18 | 0:41:23 | |
characteristics that are problematic? | 0:41:23 | 0:41:25 | |
Yeah, that's right. | 0:41:25 | 0:41:27 | |
It doesn't have to necessarily be drastic, | 0:41:27 | 0:41:29 | |
but even trickling in some new genetic material, | 0:41:29 | 0:41:32 | |
under a controlled manner, personally, | 0:41:32 | 0:41:36 | |
I don't see the problem with this. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
It seems Jeff's research is a crucial piece of the scientific puzzle. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:45 | |
The big stumbling block seems to be the discovery of this mutant gene | 0:41:47 | 0:41:52 | |
that's going to be a massive obstacle, because although... | 0:41:52 | 0:41:57 | |
As I understand it, although, you know, that's not the only thing | 0:41:57 | 0:42:01 | |
that is creating the shorter muzzle, | 0:42:01 | 0:42:05 | |
it's certainly one of the big hitters. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
And there doesn't seem any way to breed away from that | 0:42:08 | 0:42:12 | |
within the existing gene pool. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:14 | |
One of the potential solutions to the problem is out-crossing. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
But Jeff isn't talking about out-crossing with any old dog. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:23 | |
The British bulldog would need to be carefully matched with dogs | 0:42:28 | 0:42:31 | |
that could provide healthy new genes while preserving as much of | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
the bulldog's appearance and form as possible. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:37 | |
I'm heading to Essex to meet a woman who breeds, perhaps, | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
the healthiest of all out-crossed bulldogs, the Leavitt bulldog. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:47 | |
-Hi. -Hello, are you Jessica? -Yes. Come in. -I'm Catherine. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:52 | |
-Let me block these guys. -Who's this? -This is Ruby and Arthur. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:57 | |
Hello, darling. There's a good boy. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
Arthur will give you hugs. | 0:43:01 | 0:43:02 | |
Always. | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
Jess, these are Leavitt bulldogs. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
-Leavitt bulldogs, yeah. -What's the origin of the Leavitt breed? | 0:43:07 | 0:43:10 | |
So, basically, they were recreated by David Leavitt, 40 years ago. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:16 | |
He wanted a dog that resembled the old bulldog, the working bulldog. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:20 | |
So they are the result of a British bulldog being out-crossed with... | 0:43:20 | 0:43:25 | |
-A bull mastiff, a bull terrier and an American bulldog. -OK. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:29 | |
Can you talk us through the difference between | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
the British bulldog and the Leavitt? | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
They are less exaggerated, the muzzle is longer, | 0:43:34 | 0:43:38 | |
they have a full tail, they are bred to move freely. | 0:43:38 | 0:43:42 | |
And we want the dogs to still resemble that type. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:46 | |
Yes, yes. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
-Thank you for the kisses! -But the emphasis is on the health. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:52 | |
So the key to it is that there's nothing extreme about them. | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
You know, we want a dog that is functional, that's comfortable, | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
that is able to do everything a family, you know, | 0:43:59 | 0:44:03 | |
member wants to do with them. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:05 | |
There's no bum wiping, there's no face cleaning... | 0:44:05 | 0:44:08 | |
Are you giving me a facial? | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
No, the point of them is that... I mean, Ruby's seven, | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
she's never been to the vet. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:15 | |
Nothing. They're totally different to a Kennel Club bulldog. | 0:44:17 | 0:44:20 | |
Were you ever worried that the temperament of the dog would change, | 0:44:20 | 0:44:23 | |
aside from the health of it, the actual temperament? | 0:44:23 | 0:44:26 | |
They're bred by people that are just so, so careful. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:29 | |
So temperament is a really big deal for me. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
So I look for really, you know, placid, gentle family dogs. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:37 | |
Which, generally, in the breed, they are. | 0:44:37 | 0:44:39 | |
What kind of health testing is involved for the Leavitt breeding scheme? | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
Well, before a dog is bred, they are fully health screened. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
So we test all their joints, their elbows, their hips, | 0:44:49 | 0:44:53 | |
we X-ray their spine. | 0:44:53 | 0:44:55 | |
Is this testing compulsory? | 0:44:55 | 0:44:56 | |
-Yes. -Wow! -They have to meet a certain standard. | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
And they're not recognised as Leavitt bulldogs without this level of testing. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:04 | |
So is it pass or fail? | 0:45:04 | 0:45:06 | |
Pass or fail. It's the responsible way to breed dogs. | 0:45:06 | 0:45:10 | |
I can't imagine looking at a dog and going to breed it, | 0:45:10 | 0:45:14 | |
not having a clue of the health of their joints. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:17 | |
And I just can't, because... And then raise a litter of puppies, | 0:45:17 | 0:45:22 | |
looking at them and going, "Oh," and then have families | 0:45:22 | 0:45:25 | |
invested in them and you could just be breeding a dog | 0:45:25 | 0:45:28 | |
that is not healthy. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:30 | |
It's just not going to get better, | 0:45:30 | 0:45:32 | |
unless breeders put their neck on the line. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
You know, people don't instantly recognise them as bulldogs, | 0:45:34 | 0:45:37 | |
but I quite like that. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:39 | |
She'll creep up, look. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:40 | |
The creeping paws. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:43 | |
Are you a little baby! Argh! | 0:45:43 | 0:45:45 | |
Ruby! Arthur, come here. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
I can just... You know, like kids get like, and you know when you go, | 0:45:48 | 0:45:52 | |
-just don't ask for anything when you go in there... -Yeah. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:55 | |
-And they go... -Wait till everyone's gone home, and then play. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
This is what you get. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:00 | |
For God's sake! | 0:46:00 | 0:46:01 | |
So, I loved Jessica's Leavitt bulldogs. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
They're beautiful, super healthy, energetic, athletic dogs. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:12 | |
I worry, though, that from an out-crossing point of view, | 0:46:14 | 0:46:19 | |
they're just not going to be an acceptable alternative. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:21 | |
It may just be a step too far for the devotees of the British bulldog. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:27 | |
So how attached are bulldog owners to the classic bulldog breed? | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
I've come to the monthly bulldog meet up in Hyde Park | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
which attracts bulldog lovers from all over London. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:39 | |
I mean, this is bulldog heaven, isn't it? | 0:46:40 | 0:46:44 | |
Hello, darling. Who is this? | 0:46:45 | 0:46:47 | |
-Buster. -Buster? How old is Buster? | 0:46:47 | 0:46:49 | |
-Seven months. -Oh, so he's a little one. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:52 | |
What made you get a bulldog? | 0:46:52 | 0:46:53 | |
I love the temperament, I love the way they look. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:55 | |
They don't need much walking. | 0:46:55 | 0:46:57 | |
They're couch potatoes. | 0:46:57 | 0:46:58 | |
He'll just lie down. | 0:46:58 | 0:46:59 | |
-Who is this? -This is Boris. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:02 | |
A popular name, it seems, with bulldogs. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:04 | |
A lot of people say, is it because of Boris Johnson? | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
-It's not. -Were you, like, dead set on a bulldog? | 0:47:07 | 0:47:11 | |
-Yeah, I was, yes. -I don't think we could have another breed now. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:13 | |
-Really? -After having a bulldog you can't have another one. -Really? | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
-They are such characters. -Now I've had a bulldog, that's it. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:19 | |
-So who is this? -This is Max. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:21 | |
Come on. | 0:47:21 | 0:47:22 | |
-Hello, baby. -I am bulldog mad. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:26 | |
The only dog I will have is an English bulldog. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:28 | |
Really? Why was that? | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
I just love the way they look. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:31 | |
I love the temperament. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
And, listen, I know that people say a lot of health problems associated | 0:47:34 | 0:47:38 | |
with bulldogs, but actually, | 0:47:38 | 0:47:40 | |
there are a lot of health problems associated with any dog. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:43 | |
I mean, shall I have a Labrador because they're healthier... | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
For you, you want a bulldog because it looks like a bulldog? | 0:47:48 | 0:47:51 | |
For me, a bulldog. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:54 | |
My first one was a bulldog, my second one is a bulldog. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
And if tomorrow I got another one, it would only be a bulldog. | 0:47:57 | 0:48:01 | |
MUSIC PLAYS | 0:48:02 | 0:48:03 | |
It seems that, despite the health problems and the cost, | 0:48:06 | 0:48:09 | |
people remain devoted to the British bulldog. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
In the last 15 years, their numbers have gone through the roof. | 0:48:12 | 0:48:15 | |
And our love for the bulldog is so great | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
that advertisers have cottoned on to their popularity. | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
Looking at the amount of commercials they're in, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
you wonder has that made them more desirable. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
Lots of car commercials. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:35 | |
Mini Cooper loves the bulldog. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:38 | |
Oi! | 0:48:38 | 0:48:39 | |
Oi! Pretty girl. | 0:48:41 | 0:48:42 | |
Nice car. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:47 | |
You know, there's tissues, | 0:48:47 | 0:48:48 | |
there's snacks, there's mattresses, | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
skin products. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:52 | |
Andy, hold up, bruv. I know you're about to rob this bank, | 0:48:52 | 0:48:56 | |
cos I'm a telepathic bulldog, yeah. | 0:48:56 | 0:48:58 | |
It's so popular. | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
And you can kind of see why, you know, they're incredibly watchable. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:06 | |
So endearing, and of course, | 0:49:06 | 0:49:08 | |
a lot of their expressions can be interpreted as funny. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
You know, they've got human-like qualities, it seems. | 0:49:11 | 0:49:14 | |
The bulldog's downfall may be its endearing cuteness. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
The fashion for bulldogs is now so great that British breeders can't | 0:49:20 | 0:49:24 | |
keep up with demand, and the market is being flooded with bulldogs | 0:49:24 | 0:49:27 | |
smuggled in from eastern Europe. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:29 | |
Many of the people who breed them have little regard for their health, | 0:49:31 | 0:49:35 | |
so if puppies are intercepted at the border and are suspected of | 0:49:35 | 0:49:38 | |
being under age, they're sent to quarantine facilities, | 0:49:38 | 0:49:41 | |
like this one run by Julie Adams. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:43 | |
Hello, then. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
Hello. Hello, beautiful. | 0:49:48 | 0:49:50 | |
Hello, beautiful. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
Hello, then. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:54 | |
So what is the story of these little guys? | 0:49:54 | 0:49:57 | |
So these little guys are Hungarian. | 0:49:57 | 0:49:59 | |
They came in to us at about eight weeks old, so they've grown up here. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
And what age are they supposed to be? | 0:50:02 | 0:50:04 | |
The minimum age to be legal to come into the UK would be 15 weeks. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:08 | |
So they're serving seven weeks in quarantine to get them up to the UK | 0:50:08 | 0:50:11 | |
legal standard and protect the rest of the UK animal population | 0:50:11 | 0:50:15 | |
from potential rabies in the area. | 0:50:15 | 0:50:17 | |
And they're being transferred so young | 0:50:17 | 0:50:20 | |
because they're cuter and easier to sell? | 0:50:20 | 0:50:23 | |
Yes, cuter and easier to sell. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:25 | |
What condition were they in? | 0:50:25 | 0:50:26 | |
They were transported in a crate that was very small, | 0:50:26 | 0:50:30 | |
there was no bedding in that crate. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
Because they'll have often been bred in very high volume conditions with | 0:50:32 | 0:50:36 | |
other puppies, they will tend to have things like kennel cough | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
and chest infections, respiratory infections. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:41 | |
On top of the typical neglect suffered by smuggled dogs, | 0:50:41 | 0:50:44 | |
bulldog puppies suffer their own specific health problems. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:47 | |
Cherry eyes are common in the breed anyway, but we find them coming over | 0:50:49 | 0:50:52 | |
-untreated, so they'll have eye infections. -So you could | 0:50:52 | 0:50:55 | |
get a dog come through quarantine looking like this already? | 0:50:55 | 0:50:58 | |
These were arrivals that we had about three weeks ago. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
And, you know, all needing to be treated for infection. | 0:51:01 | 0:51:05 | |
And this is probably one of the worst cases we saw a few months ago, | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
where the pup had got two cherry eyes and had no vision at all. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:12 | |
So they can be very, very poorly. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
So what will happen to these little beautiful boys next? | 0:51:15 | 0:51:19 | |
Frequently, unfortunately, because they're bought | 0:51:19 | 0:51:22 | |
very cheaply in Europe, we find they are abandoned. | 0:51:22 | 0:51:24 | |
So then we do have to work with rescues and agencies | 0:51:24 | 0:51:26 | |
to be able to re-home them back into the UK. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
It seems that the bulldog smuggling problem is escalating. | 0:51:31 | 0:51:34 | |
One of the charities that often has to pick up the pieces | 0:51:36 | 0:51:39 | |
from this illegal trade is the Dogs Trust | 0:51:39 | 0:51:41 | |
which cares for smuggled pups before reforming them. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:44 | |
Adam Leavey, one of the managers, explains that bulldogs are now | 0:51:46 | 0:51:50 | |
one of the top four most smuggled breeds. | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
There's a huge demand for these pups, | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
and they go for extortionate amounts of money. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
And, you know, the small breeds are easier to transport in, | 0:51:58 | 0:52:02 | |
and unfortunately, people are supplying that demand. | 0:52:02 | 0:52:06 | |
Can you talk me through what kind of numbers are involved in purchasing, | 0:52:06 | 0:52:10 | |
and the profits that are coming out of this? | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
You know, a bulldog can sort of go for anything up to £2,500 for a puppy. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:19 | |
Now, the ones that come in from eastern and central Europe, | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
you know, they are being bought for £100, | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
and then transporting a whole load of them across. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:28 | |
So if you're bringing a shipment of them across, and you can, in a car, | 0:52:28 | 0:52:32 | |
in a postal van, you could have £10,000, £15,000 of profit from one journey. | 0:52:32 | 0:52:37 | |
-You know, why smuggle drugs when you can smuggle pups? -Yeah, of course. | 0:52:37 | 0:52:42 | |
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:44 | |
So the puppies that are successfully smuggled in, where do they get sold? | 0:52:44 | 0:52:47 | |
Well, all manner of places, really. | 0:52:47 | 0:52:49 | |
So the classic one at the moment is online. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:52 | |
Because, you know, we are very much part of that generation | 0:52:52 | 0:52:55 | |
where we want something, we go online, we want it now. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
We've got to feed that demand. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:00 | |
Pet stores are another one as well. | 0:53:00 | 0:53:02 | |
Do you think these breeders are taking advantage of the fact | 0:53:02 | 0:53:05 | |
that people are not doing their research? | 0:53:05 | 0:53:07 | |
-Yes. -And they just want a bulldog puppy, don't they? | 0:53:07 | 0:53:10 | |
-Absolutely. -And they are, you know, probably unwittingly, | 0:53:10 | 0:53:16 | |
becoming accomplices in this terrible cycle. | 0:53:16 | 0:53:20 | |
You know, people go and they let | 0:53:20 | 0:53:22 | |
their emotions get the better of them, | 0:53:22 | 0:53:24 | |
and as soon as they see a puppy, | 0:53:24 | 0:53:26 | |
you hold a little bulldog puppy up to anyone, | 0:53:26 | 0:53:29 | |
it's just a bundle of joy, really. | 0:53:29 | 0:53:32 | |
And they just go with their heart, you know, | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
all rationale sort of goes out of their head and they make | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
an emotional decision, and even if they are thinking, | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
"Oh, I'm a little concerned about the background of this pup, | 0:53:40 | 0:53:44 | |
"I'm rescuing it from that environment." | 0:53:44 | 0:53:47 | |
-Actually, all they're doing is fuelling that trade. -Yeah, yeah. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:51 | |
I'm coming to the end of my journey, | 0:53:56 | 0:53:58 | |
but before I sign off, there is one dog I want to see again. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:02 | |
Back at Cambridge I met Laura whose bulldog, Betsy, | 0:54:04 | 0:54:07 | |
was struggling to breathe. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:08 | |
At the time, I was shocked at how badly Betsy was affected. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:14 | |
BETSY SNORTS | 0:54:14 | 0:54:16 | |
Is that you? | 0:54:16 | 0:54:17 | |
It's been five weeks since Betsy's surgery to help her breathe better. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:23 | |
I've arranged to meet her and Laura at their local park. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:25 | |
-Hello. -Who's that? | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
-Who's that? -Hello, Miss Betsy. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:33 | |
Hello, darling. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
-How is she? -Yeah, she's really good. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:38 | |
-She's fabulous. -You're doing so well. | 0:54:38 | 0:54:40 | |
You was asleep when I saw you last. | 0:54:40 | 0:54:43 | |
Yes, you was, you was asleep. | 0:54:43 | 0:54:45 | |
Do you remember? | 0:54:45 | 0:54:46 | |
-How is she doing? -She's doing really, really well. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
-Is she? -Yeah, amazing. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:51 | |
Once I let her off the lead, she's a completely different dog. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:53 | |
Really? What's the main differences from before the operation | 0:54:53 | 0:54:57 | |
to after the operation in her, kind of, like, quality of life? | 0:54:57 | 0:55:01 | |
I think the first one has got to be the energy levels. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:04 | |
They are really up, with the running. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:08 | |
The second is the noise. | 0:55:08 | 0:55:10 | |
I think, obviously, you heard her previously, when she got hot, or, | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
you know, stressed. I can't hear her at all any more. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
I have to actually look for her. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:18 | |
And the other is, she just seems brighter in herself. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:22 | |
Her eyes seem brighter, and her whole personality is a little bit | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
-brighter when she's out and about. -Yeah. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
I suppose it's like us, isn't it? If we can't get enough oxygen in, | 0:55:28 | 0:55:32 | |
that will have a massive effect on, you know, energy levels, lethargy, | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
you know, your mood as well. | 0:55:36 | 0:55:39 | |
So, you know, she's her best self now. | 0:55:39 | 0:55:43 | |
-She is. -That's great. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:44 | |
Do you think you'd be more inclined, if you do get another bulldog puppy, | 0:55:44 | 0:55:48 | |
to go to a breeder that health tests? | 0:55:48 | 0:55:51 | |
Yes, definitely. I think I'd do more research. | 0:55:51 | 0:55:54 | |
I'd definitely put more thought into it. | 0:55:54 | 0:55:57 | |
-So you're pleased you had the operation? -Yes, massively. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:00 | |
-Definitely. -I was there while she had the operation, | 0:56:00 | 0:56:03 | |
it was pretty invasive for her. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:04 | |
-Yeah. -You know, it's a lot for them to go through, isn't it? | 0:56:04 | 0:56:10 | |
-It is. -To get to this point. | 0:56:10 | 0:56:13 | |
I don't think it's an easy fix, but I'm glad there's something | 0:56:13 | 0:56:16 | |
out there that helped her breathe, | 0:56:16 | 0:56:17 | |
-but I don't want to have to have gone through that. -No. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:20 | |
Oh, well, she's beautiful. | 0:56:20 | 0:56:21 | |
-We're delighted that everything's worked out. -Yeah, thank you. | 0:56:21 | 0:56:24 | |
But sorry she had to do it in the first place. | 0:56:24 | 0:56:27 | |
Aren't we? | 0:56:27 | 0:56:29 | |
-Are we going to see her in action? -You certainly can, | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
-she's very excited about her ball. -Oh, my goodness. -Are you ready? | 0:56:31 | 0:56:34 | |
Oh, wow! | 0:56:36 | 0:56:38 | |
Betsy's story has a happy ending, | 0:56:41 | 0:56:43 | |
but I still find it worrying that we have to put dogs through | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
such invasive surgery because of the way they've been bred. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:50 | |
Science is trying to find solutions, but in the meantime, | 0:56:51 | 0:56:55 | |
dogs are suffering. | 0:56:55 | 0:56:57 | |
For the bulldog's sake, things do need to change. | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
And everyone has their part to play in that. | 0:57:00 | 0:57:03 | |
The Kennel Club, the breeders, the advertisers, and we, | 0:57:03 | 0:57:07 | |
the puppy-buying public. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:09 | |
Because unless we start putting their health and wellbeing | 0:57:09 | 0:57:13 | |
above our own desires, | 0:57:13 | 0:57:16 | |
we may well be in danger of loving this dog to extinction. | 0:57:16 | 0:57:20 |