I received the latest blogpost from the excellent Jemima Harrison at Pedigree Dogs Exposed today. It links to a video showing a person identified as Jodie Marsh attempting to revive an unconscious bulldog. Apparently, this woman is a “UK media personality, glamour [sic] model and bodybuilder”. Ms Marsh states that this poor dog collapses approximately six times a year – not surprisingly because humans have bred her to have a skull that is too small and squashed to contain her facial tissue which blocks her airway when she is asleep. Humans that buy dogs in this condition perpetuate the misery and legitimise the practice of breeding extreme brachycephalic dogs.
As Jemima notes, Ms Marsh is not even performing CPR correctly. She has also publicly deterred people from seeking corrective surgery for their animals.
Whilst I may have never heard of her, this woman clearly has a public profile and thus may influence more ignorant people to mimic her in buying dogs such as this and in literally mis-treating them when they inevitably fall victim to their misshapen bodies. Apparently some of her fans have hailed her as heroic. What a sad indictment of our society that people find heroism in pummelling a lifeless dog for minutes half a dozen times a year. Yet again, evidence gives lie to the sentiment that we are “a nation of animal lovers”. That would only be true if this had never been possible in the first place. We could even make up for lost time by wielding the power of the Veterinary Surgeons Act and the AWA.