‘He has the wonderful face of his father and is already the biggest cuddly bear’, a Belgian seller on the Dutch website Puppyplaats.nl praises a ‘beautiful honey pied French bulldog’. Can be picked up for 2,000 euros in a village on the North Brabant side of the national border.
The animal has ‘nice nostrils’, the breeder writes, ‘not unimportant for their breathing’. Kelly Kessen, veterinarian and employee of animal rights organization Stichting Dier&Recht, is skeptical about the advertisement. ‘The nostrils are completely closed off and the muzzle is much too short. Strange to make the claim that the puppy is healthy.’
The advertisement is an example of the wide range on websites, especially Marktplaats, and closed Facebook groups where short-snouted dogs are traded. Since the breeding ban of 2014, it is no longer allowed to breed companion animals in our country in a way that harms the welfare of the animal.
This is the case with animals with a snout that is too short, says Kessen. ‘Because the mucous membranes are in front of their windpipe, it is difficult for them to breathe.’ The short-snouted dogs also lack many other features that a normal dog does, British research shows.
‘Breeding ban does not help enough’
‘We see that the breeding ban does not help enough,’ says Kessen. ‘People are importing dogs with a too short muzzle from abroad on a large scale and there is also a lot of illegal breeding in the Netherlands.’ Waiting for an import ban. ‘Since that will take a while, we are now appealing to the consumer.’
They also point out to the consumer the ‘sky-high medical costs’ of such a French bulldog or pug. Apart from the purchase price, which is between 1,500 and 2,500 euros, it concerns operations on the airways, cutting out mucous membranes and treating the teeth. ‘I have worked in practice for fifteen years: owners are often shocked by the costs’, says Kessen.
At the Commedia pug association, they know the criticism. Board member Jan Grit believes that the studies on which the Dutch breeding ban is based are wrong. ‘No direct relationship has been shown between respiratory problems and muzzle length, at most it is a risk factor.’ The breeders of Commedia therefore pay particular attention to breathing. “It is possible to breed healthy dogs if they are tested for their breath.”
According to Grit, the breeding ban is counterproductive. ‘Dogs bred in the Netherlands are healthy, but due to the strict rules they now come from Eastern Europe with trucks full. Those dogs are considerably unhealthier, because there is no control over them.’