If a giraffe is an animal designed by committee, a bulldog must
have been put together by a vet facing large house payments.
Newborn bulldogs typically have heads so out of proportion to a
mother's birth canal that they have to be delivered by cesarean
section. By the time they become adults, their skulls are as big
around as the dogs' height at the shoulder. Bulldogs also
frequently have bad hearts. "I have a friend who's been trying
to breed bulldogs for years," says Janice Koler-Matznick,
founder of the Primitive and Aboriginal Dog Society. "She'll get
a litter of three puppies, all of which die, or they'll all have
bad hearts, and she'll have to put them down. It's just
heartbreaking." Koler-Matznick isn't too keen on German
shepherds, either, at least not the ones that win at dog shows.
("They have this wonderfully long rear end, which is also
crippled," she says.) Or bloodhounds. ("They've been selected to
be a giant nose on legs, but unfortunately those legs don't work
too well.") Koler-Matznick isn't