Angry Vet Reveals Six Popular Pet Breeds That Are Actually Not “Cute”

It is great to know that people are learning about the danger of inbreeding and are encouraged to adopt from shelters. Various media is also being used to help raise awareness of unethical practices towards animals. Cat The Vet from the UK is a practicing veterinarian who went viral with her video warning people about animal breeds that should be stopped being glamorized on social media.

Are they cute? Sure, but did you know they also come with a set of life-threatening defects from birth?

The Scottish Fold is born with fragile cartilage.

“Look at those little cute folded ears, aren’t they adorable? Do you know why they fold? Because they’ve got weak, rubbish cartilage in them, which makes them collapse under their own weight.

Do you know where else you have cartilage? Every single joint in your body.

And do you know what horrible, weak cartilage gives you? Arthritis. An incredibly painful, debilitating joint condition that we are basically breeding deliberately into these cats, just because we think their little ears look cute.
 
But it’s not that good enough excuse for breeding a cat that spends most of its life totally crippled and ends up being euthanized really really early because it cannot even walk. If you see these cats being used by brands for advertising or touted by celebrities as the ‘latest thing to have,’ please let them know this is not cute. This is cruel.”

Choosing pets based on how they look is the norm for many people. This isn’t wrong at all, but it has led to multiple issues where there’s a discrepancy of adoption rate for animals in shelters just because of how they look.

Jenny Jinya, an artist who’s gone viral with her heartbreaking comics about animal cruelty, shares one about discrimination against black cats. National Today reported a study by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shows that black cats make up the biggest chunk of the animal shelter pie chart.

Flat-faced dog breeds (pugs, bulldogs, Boston Terriers, etc) have compromised airways and can actually suffocate when they sleep.

“These dogs have amazing personalities and make wonderful pets, but we have to talk about how they suffer for the way they look. Many of these dogs struggle to breathe normally, starting with nostrils that are often just tiny little slits, and their faces may be flat on the outside but on the inside they often have nearly as much tissue as a dog with a normal length nose, and that can really compromise their airways.
 
You know those cute pictures all over the internet of dogs falling asleep with toys in their mouths or their heads propped up? They do that because when they relax, all that extra tissue at the back of their mouths completely collapses, and without the toy or propping their head up, they would literally suffocate while they sleep.
 
They also suffer from lots of skin problems, particularly sweaty, itchy skin folds. Painful dental decay is common because the same amount of teeth as a normal dog’s is jammed into this tiny space. Spinal abnormalities are really common, meaning they can struggle to walk and become paralyzed. And cute, bulging eyes means they frequently suffer from painful eye problems.”

Munchkins have defective, short limbs that prevent them from being as active to frolic as normal cats do.

“These cats have a genetic mutation that makes their legs really short. I get why people like them, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are deliberately breeding cats with a debilitating genetic mutation, just because we think they look cute.

Think about how active our cats naturally are, how much they love to run and jump and play. Munchkin cats still have those instincts but they can’t do it as much or as well because we have deliberately restricted them.

X-rays show just how deformed their limbs and joints really are. Look how smooth and straight the normal cat’s one is, compared to how short and twisted the Munchkin cat’s ones are. Look at how smooth and clean the elbow joint is in the normal cat compared to how horrible and gnarly the one in the Munchkin cat is.
 
This means they are not only physically restricted in how much they can move, but this joint would be really painful as well.

International Cat Care, one of the leading scientific bodies for feline research in the world, makes this statement about Munchkin cats: ‘Our position on breeding cats is that first no harm should be done. If there is even the smallest chance that having this ‘look’ causes problems, then we should not be accepting of it as a breed based on a genetic deformity.'”

The Exotic Bullies. Just hideous not because of their appearance, but because they were bred with everything that’s bad from your typical Pitbulls.

“Essentially someone came to say ‘Hey, let’s take the bulldog with their flat faces and terrible skin and awful health problems and make it worse!’
 
Look at the shape of the limbs on this poor dog. That is basically elbow dysplasia, hip dysplasia, horrible arthritis, completely and utterly preordained. These dogs struggle a lot to even walk. I cannot fathom why anyone would choose to breed a dog that is clearly going to suffer for the way it looks for its entire life.
 
In some countries, producing these dogs is illegal because it’s classed as ‘torture breeding’. And of course, just to add injury to insult, they always chop their ears off.”

These breeds often have their ears cut to help them win fights in illegal dog-fighting clubs. The inhumane sports make people breed dogs with dangerous defects as they were raised viciously to be aggressive and to attack on sight. It is a felony in all 50 States of America.

Jenny Jinya has also made a comic that touches the hearts of people to raise awareness about the cruelty of dogfighting kennels.

Flat-faced cats (Himalayan, Persian) have similar problems to flat-faced dogs.

“Their tiny nostrils inevitably make it really hard for them to breathe. You can see how narrow, pinched, and squashed their faces are when you compare them to a normal cat. It comes as no surprise that they suffer from dental problems because there is no room for their teeth!

Their skulls are really misshapen and flat, which can lead to serious brain problems and even be fatal. Flat faces mean that the tears can’t drain properly, which can leave them with really sticky, dirty, painful infected skin on their face.
 
And those great big eyes which are so prized? They’re actually really vulnerable to problems because they stick out so far.
 
The final insult is this super fluffy thick coat which they cannot hope to groom themselves.”

Pekingese dogs were royalty dogs with many health conditions.

“They suffer greatly because of the way they look. Their skulls are really flat, which means they suffer from all of the problems the brachycephalic breeds do, like eye, breathing, skinfold problems.
 
When you compare their skeleton to a normal dog you can see why they suffer from so many mobility problems as well.
 
The Pekingese are very vulnerable to overheating, mainly because of the HUGE coat they’ve been bred with, but also because of their flat faces. In this picture of a ‘Best In Show’ Pekingese dog, you can see he is sat on an ice pack to keep him cool in the arena.”

The Pekingese dogs were bred for the Imperial Court of China as a lapdog. It earned its name from Beijing (Peking) the place where the Forbidden City was located. A puppy can cost you up to $3,000 each, but they were truly bred for a pampered life as they’re riddled with many health problems.

They are cute, yes, they are. They deserve as much love as any other animal, but they should never be bred for aesthetic purposes!

@cat_the_vet Pets That People Think Are Cute But Are Not! The Scottish Fold Cat. #catthevet #scottishfold #catsoftiktok #vettok #fyp ♬ Angry Cat – Theodoros Popa

So many people were horrified to have only heard it now.