The bulldog is a huge part of British cultural identity: charismatic with an unconventionally adorable face on a solid, stout build.
Sightings on the street stir up images of Union Jacks, garden parties, Buckingham Palace and James Bond - Judie Dench's M even had one wearing the Jack perched on her desk.
As with so many dog breeds though, getting the iconic look just right isn’t a product of nature alone and has instead come about from lengthy generational breeding techniques.
Like pugs, extensive breeding can lead to health problems in the animals. Some experts have now said the breed's health is so bad for their welfare that they could be banned in the UK.
Why might bulldogs be banned in the UK?
The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has revealed the findings of a study that the bulldog’s iconic facial features - the flat nose, skinfolds and huge underbite - all contribute to the beloved breed being twice as likely to have shorter life expectancies than other breeds.
The unique features often lead to issues with breathing and their eyes - so serious are these issues that experts have now called for the “immediate redefinition of the breed”.
The hope of this “redefinition” is to encourage both consumers and breeders to value a healthy dog over one that meets the classic bulldog image.
Why were bulldogs bred?
Dr Dan O’Neill, a senior author of the study at the Royal Veterinary College, said: “The issues with English bulldogs are really issues with humans and what we deem cute and what we deem acceptable.”
In other words, bulldogs are being bred simply to meet a human desire for the 'cute' dog we see today.
He added: “We need people to view dogs not from a human perspective, where short noses and wrinkled skin are considered cute, but from the dog’s perspective, where good innate health is cute.”
How long do bulldogs live?
The RVC’s study looked at 2,662 bulldogs’ health records, as well as those of 22,039 from other breeds.
The dogs were selected randomly via vet records in the UK. Researchers found that, on average, bulldogs are dying far younger, with just one in ten living until the age of eight.
A quarter of the other breeds were eight or older, which implies that bulldogs are generally living for less time.
Research has been done into their health conditions, too.
According to work in the journal Canine Medicine and Genetics, bulldogs are twice as likely to develop health conditions when compared to other dog breeds.
The researchers looked at 43 medical conditions and found that bulldogs had a predisposition for 24 of them.
Features regarded as cute are often at the heart of what makes the dogs unhealthy.
Dermatitis is 38 times more likely due to their skin folds, while prolapsed eyelid glands, known as ‘cherry eye’, is 27 times more likely in bulldogs.
Their shortened skulls make them 19 times more likely to have certain abnormalities with their airways.
Some countries have already taken steps to ban the breeding of the dogs, including Norway and the Netherlands
“Consequently, immediate redefinition of the breed towards a moderate conformation is strongly advocated to avoid the UK joining the growing list of countries where breeding of English bulldogs is banned,” the researchers said.
