Jemima Harrison of the Pedigree Dogs Exposed blog did a post on the Neapolitan mastiffs at Crufts.
Well, the Neapolitan mastiff mafia showed up.
And if you read the comments on that post, you can see what happens when people believe absurdities. They commit atrocities. In this cause, it is Qualzucht, a German term that means “torture breeding.”
The arguments these people make in defense of breeding for such extremes actually are a wonderful showcase of the real problem facing this breed.
It is being “improved” by a breed-blind loons, who only think in terms of their own breed and its abstract definition of perfection. If they only realized how bizarre their arguments are to those who are not so indoctrinated into the Neapolitan mastiff faith.
The worst argument on that whole thread is that Neapolitan mastiffs have eyes just like elephants or hippos, so they are fine.
Um, no, they don’t— at all.
Here’s the deal with the eyes. These dogs spend their entire life at some level of discomfort, simply because all that thick dog skin pulls on their haws and eyelids– continuously. Dogs are much tougher than we are, and they amazingly tolerate all that discomfort. But if any human had these eyes, he or she would be demanding a trip to a physician immediately to alleviate all the discomfort.
These dogs have lots of problems besides those caused by the skin around their eyes. In fact, there are too many for me to elucidate here. But they have problems with their hearts and skin, which are largely the result of reduced genetic diversity issues. They had to breed very closely to get the dogs to look like they do. And they have joint problems, which are largely the result of what happens when a dog has to grow into that particular shape and frame.
Owners of Neo puppies are instructed never to rough house with their puppies or allow the puppies to rough house with other dogs.
That suggestion alone should tell us that something is quite wrong here.
But no, if you say anything, you’re in league with PETA.
Oh yeah, and you have to own one of these dogs to criticize them.
These are the desperation cries of the deluded and indoctrinated.
Critical thinking skills must be missing in Neapolitan mastiff community at large.
Well, they would have to be missing, because most of these people think their dogs are the dogs that fought gladiators.
But they have no genetic evidence at all to back up this claim.
It’s just a legend, like the Russian circus dogs in the golden retriever’s pedigree or the supposed relationship between Ancient Egyptian dog and Maltese hounds.
And if the breed’s existence is based upon nonsense, you can do all sorts of nonsensical things to them in terms of breeding choices.
There is no objective reality anymore.
It’s just a story, a symbol, a work of art.
And that’s why the Neapolitan mastiff is in the mess it’s in.
No one cares about objective reality.
It’s all the legend and lore.
No substance.
I think we should rename them the infected scrotum face breed. That makes a much better story than Roman Gladiators.
The first comment on this one is almost as good as the elephant comment:
http://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.com/2011/03/fiona-at-crufts-win-for-breed.html#comments
When I first got ‘into’ dogs, I thought, “Wow, these guys who have been breeding twenty, thirty, forty years must *know* so much, with all the experience they have.”
I guess experience is not always the greatest teacher.
Well someone picked up the popular sire meme.
And then dropped the ball.
Yes, because as we all know, doing a cross to get a normal gene in there and then proceeding to breed to return to breed type, and then to get that gene into as many dogs as possible without too much close breeding is EXACTLY the same as one dog siring hundreds of puppies.