There are many reasons dogs are a human’s best friend, from their unwavering loyalty to their adorable furry faces.
But when it comes to choosing our gorgeous little four-legged companions, there are several breeds that always seem to make their way to the front of the queue for many, including pugs.
I’m not sure whether it’s their teeny, tiny stature or their googly eyes that makes them so attractive to prospective dog parents, but there’s something about the little creatures that makes them one of the most adopted dogs ever.
While I agree they are gorgeous little things, pug lovers might feel a tad differently about their furry friends after seeing this MRI scan of a pug doing the rounds on the internet. After all, who doesn’t want to see what their beloved pet looks like from the inside?
Actor and comedian Andy Richter took to Twitter to share a photo of his friend’s pooch’s MRI scan and it has left people feeling all weird.
He simply wrote ‘My friend’s pug went to the vet’ alongside the disturbing picture, which has since garnered more than 131,000 likes and almost 16,000 retweets.
While the picture might be amusing (in a slightly terrifying way), it does actually highlight the way pugs have been messed around as a result of human breeding.
London-based vet Dr Rory Cowlam told the Independent:
If you were to get a pug head cake and cut it to take a look down the middle, that is what you are looking at.
This is a slice at the level of the eyes, looking head-on at the pug, just two or three inches further back.
Pugs look very different from pretty much every other breed of dog, mostly because of their flat faces and wide eyes, and this is predominantly as a result of years of selective breeding from humans who were desperate to get the ‘cutest’ pugs possible. This sadly has meant we have created a breed that’s far from the breed it should originally have looked like.
Their irresistibly cute looks come with health issues too, including breathing issues, eye problems, knee cap issues, allergies, epilepsy, lack of blood flow to the head, back problems and difficulty giving birth.
Dr Cowlam continued:
We have, through human selection, bred them to look more like a human baby because we find that cute.
But, unfortunately that cute look is not very good for the animal.
Pugs are undeniably adorable, but anyone who wishes to adopt one must be willing to cover all trips to the vet and potential procedures necessary for such a breed.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.