In society today, many people search for and purchase pets for company, socializing, beauty, status and it gives them something to do. In most cases, what makes an animal a pet is that it is given a name, allowed in the house, and they are consumed as food.  As humans, naming an animal includes them into their social circle. Even though there are several reasons as to why people get pets, it is said that companion animals

are more often brought into someone’s home because the animals are attractive. There are many people who say that human’s waste money to keep their companionship even though some companion ships turn into abuse or neglect of an animal. In the past, animals were obtained at a young age and were used to help hunt for food. These, that were chosen to help hunt, were exempt from consumption and were usually taken care of by the women or children of the family. As time passed, companion animals became more of a way to show off a person’s wealth instead of the ability of the animal. Small breed dogs were then developed for the main purpose of companionship. People who bought these animals saw pet keeping as a form of heresy. Because of this, purebred and hunting dogs became available only for the wealthy, while the poor were prohibited to own hunting dogs. Years later the middle class become eligible for pet keeping based on their disposable income for animals. As time continues to pass, the purpose of having a pet transferred from animal’s functions to the animals appearance.

Until today, high income is correlated to pet keeping. It was not until after World War II that the demand for companion animals really rised. There was an idea that the perfect family included a purebred dog. Due to this demand, society saw a rise of puppy mills. Puppy mills are said to be an establishment that breeds puppies for sale, typically on an intensive basis and in conditions regarded as inhumane. These establishments focus on certain breeds of animals that are popular among pet owners which are mostly purebred dogs. A main reason that pure bred animals are popularized is because of the AKC. The AKC is the American Kennel Club which focuses on identifying the ideal dog depending on qualities that the breed of animal is known for. These qualities include height, weight and mainly appearance. The AKC only qualifies animals that have a known animal family history and similar phenotypic background. Because the standards have become so strict, and participants wanted to make the perfect bred dog, inbreeding became an issue.

Inbreeding has caused many diseases within the different dog breeds because pureo breath.  I believe that the pug is one of the animals that have been severely affected by inbreeding. It is saddening to know that these animals are having all of these horrible conditions because people are trying to create the ideal pug. As the blog continues, Jemima Harrison goes on to compare the crossbred Pug, which has less health conditions. She continues on by saying that a Pug cross is 50% cheaper to insure than a 100% real Pug through the Kennel Club's own pet insurance. It is unfair that society has let this picture perfect pug become such an unhealthy pug. I agree with Jemima that crossbreeding should be implementedbreds are part of a closed gene pool. After every generation, animals have been more closely related since there are not any new genes that are being introduced. There are also certain genes that are lost. In the pedigree dog exposed blog post there are several posts regarding the issues that inbreeding has been causing. One example was of the health problems of pug that was written by Jemima Harrison named “100 per cent puggered.” The post consists of saying that the pug has 100% real brachycephalic obstructed airway syndrome, 100% real pug dog encephalitis,  100% real hemivertrebrae, 100% real corneal ulcers,  100% real stenotic nostrils, 100% real skin fold dermatitis,  100% real deformed mouth and teeth, and 100% real pigmentary keratitis. Due to inbreeding the pug has had a lot of deformities like the ones she pointed out and have made it difficult for the dog t

to breeds like pugs that are in terrible shape. In the same blog I found another post from Jemima Harrison called “Save the Jack Russell…sign the petition.” In this post she wrote about the differences between Jack Russell dogs that have changed their appearance as the years passed in order to be a winner of the KC. She continues on to express her concern of the KC continuing to accept the breed regardless of the health concerns that might evolve.  Another example she used were on fox terriors. It is very obvious that this woman believes that the KC is promoting these types of genetically troubled dogs, and I believe to some extent that this is true.

Dalmatians are another breed of dog that has had issues when inbreed. These dogs carry a gene that causes them to form uric acid stones that block their bladder. In order to try to get rid of this gene a crossbred occurred in order to reintroduce the normal gene. It was not until recently that the AKC accepted these dogs to be registered. There are two ways that can eliminate these types of issues which are crossbreeding like I stated before or outbreeding. Crossbreeding can be used in order to create another type of dog with specific functions. Outbreeding can be used to improve the severely in bred dogs but also not dramatically change the dog’s breeds phenotypically or behaviorally.

                Inbreeding has been shown to cause many issues within specific dog breeds. In my opinion whenever an animal is showing the same health issue over several generations, something has to be done to change it. It is unfair that people have been influenced to buy this picture perfect dog that they believe is cute. I believe that people are now more likely to form a valuable companionship rather than overworking the animals abilities

, however people are turning these animals into projects. I think that extensive inbreeding should not be acceptable. The point where an animal is suffering in order for their owner to consider them attractive should not be a reason why inbreeding exists.