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STOP USING PUGS AS ADVERTISING ACCESSORIES!

Pugs, French bulldogs and other flat nosed breeds of dogs are known to suffer from a number of pronounced breed related health issues. While we don’t discourage people from owning these wonderful pets, we do have an issue how their image is used by media, advertising and fashion organizations.

Recently, a large online fashion site used the image for a sleeping French bulldog on their instagram account. This account has 1.7 million followers and sells low priced, on trend clothing through the use of influencers. We feel strongly that portraying a dog such as a French bulldog in this manner pitches them as a commodity or as a fashion accessory where their main selling method is ‘influencing’.

This can fuel demand for such breeds and the general public can be influenced to get a particular breed of dog without doing their research into what is involved. This surge in demand has also increased irresponsible breeding of certain breeds. Ireland is known as the puppy farming capital of Europe and the Dog Breeding Establishment Act is not robust enough to deal with large scale puppy farming.

We advocate people to consider adoption first before considering buying a dog. However we understand people have many reasons for opting to purchase a pet. With this in mind, we encourage prospective buyers to do their own research in advance to check if the breed of cat or dog that they are thinking of buying is suitable for them. Village Vets offer a free pre-purchase consultation with anyone who is thinking of getting a new pet.

We also encourage buyers to download the puppy contract from this website and use it as a guide when looking for a healthy puppy and ensuring that they are dealing with a responsible dog breeder. An ethical and responsible dog breeder will have no issue working with the puppy contract and will give you, and them, peace of mind that both sides have puppy and animal welfare at heart.

Meanwhile we, at Village Vets, will keep pushing all PR, media, advertising and fashion industries to advertise responsible when they are considering using animals or pets in their marketing.

#breedtobreathe #makinglivesbetter