As we wait to see Russ’ replacement, here’s a lengthy New York Times piece (h/t Jim Galloway) on whether the bulldog breed should be modified to make it healthier. You know who is front and center in the story:
In the first half of Georgia’s football game against South Carolina in 2009, Uga VII, who had been dozing on a bag of ice in his air-conditioned sideline doghouse, was cajoled onto the field to pose for pictures with some cheerleaders and Gov. Sonny Perdue. Uga (pronounced UGH-uh) wore his trademark red Georgia jersey and spiked red leather collar, and he looked bored as an ESPN cameraman shoved a camera in his wrinkly, smooshed bulldog face.
And here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know.
The food also boasts “highly digestible proteins,” because bulldogs are the most relentless farters in the canine world.
GATA, indeed.
Get The Picture 
Wonder if Ray Drew wants to get close enough to smell that one?
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Is there really any doubt that Seiler has overdone it? His ego won’t let him admit to mistakes, but c’mon. It’s sad what he’s done to the dogs. Short lives aside, the dogs have become lethargic, immobile, fat and — while still cute — strange looking.
Equally stupid is PETA’s petition for a robotic dog. PETA blows any credibility it had on the matter when it advocates for that kind of solution.
What would be good to see is a relaxation of Seiler’s uber strict (in)breeding policy to allow the future lines of the dog to be genetically diversified a bit and to return to the slimmer, healthier version of the breed. The all white requirement is also ridiculous at this stage.
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/CmaTbORW5fJ/Georgia+Southern+v+Georgia/Hg8f1tGUmMQ/UGA+VII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_Spain
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PETA’s efforts are stupid on purpose. They just want to get attention to the issue even if it means looking ridiculous (like certain talking heads I can think of).
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My standard response to PETA’s pseudo-protests is naked painted chicks or GTFO. If they want to paint a naked girl up like an English bulldog and put her in a cage, fine, but otherwise I won’t be bothered.
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Yes, we would like more hot chicks painted naked for the cause!
Wait, what was the cause again?
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Hunker down hairy Habsburgs!
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My wife says the article is dead on……ohhh……canine, I see. Well the two female black and tans in my clan will give them a good go using Sam Walton’s high protein mix. The girls will beg you to go outside with a funny expression on their faces just before emitting a sound. I just exclaim, “Frogs!! We got Frogs!”. they jump up and down, run around in circles and look for frogs. I’m going to read them a bedtime story about Bart, the Spider. Hmmmm.
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Had a bloodhound once that could melt lead.
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This made me think of a story I heard last weekend. Almost 100% of turkeys found on Thanksgiving tables are the product of artificial insemination. It’s due to the fact Americans like breast meat so much, therefore the broad-breasted turkey was bred. The large breast gets in the way of love making.
You can read or listen about the story at the Freakonomics site.
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Really, I never found large breast to interfer, wait Turkeys, my bad my mind drifted.
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I don’t know. I’ve been having a hard time since my breasts got big.
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Dang if I’d told that.
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UGA VI was awesome. We need another one like him.
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Russ for UGA IX!!!! Occupy the Dawghouse!!!!!
Seriously, Sonny’s claim that since Russ is so old, he “doesn’t want to go through the selection process again so soon” is pretty lame given the problems his line is having health wise. Russ seeing us through these past few seasons is deserving of serving out his term.
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We have had more than one to die at Russ’s present age(9). Not sure I heard right on that age.
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What’s the big deal. We won the SEC East with Russ as mascot plus he seems healthy enough and active. Keep him until he passes on to the Great Kennel in the Sky and get a new mascot then. The fixation with being all white is the root cause of the inbreeding problem so let’s just be happy with a bulldog with a white face and cover up the parts that are brown with a sweater like we are doing at present with Russ. BTW Senior, Mrs. Mayor agrees with Mrs. Cojones that the inbreeding definitely needs to stop. You’d think a guy as smart as Sonny Seiler is supposed to be would know that.
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I say we find a pit bull chained to a 50-gallon drum, put a UGA jersey on him, throw a few t-bones in the Tech crowd and watch him go to work. Or put naked chics in a cage like Doug said.
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Not a bad idea. I found a throw away dog while doing draw inspections on a commercial project we were doing. Someone had just tossed a 3 month old dog. I didn’t know it was a dog when I first saw it.I thought it might be a opossum, but it was mid afternoon. When I finally got close … I discovered it was a abandoned dog… with non-contagious mange(vet said). Hairless. Anyway, took it to the vet… vet said it would die… but we will try and the dog made it. Later they said it might be a pitt or a stafford. I thought WTF have I got myself into. Turns out the MollyDollyDawg is the best dog we ever had. Leading scorer during the family Ga/GaTech touch football game.(She is a Georgia Girl). Smartest dog since Lassie. Go figure.
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Awesome. Sometimes all it takes is a good owner.
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As both of these are good ideas, and not in direct competition with each other, I recommend we do both.
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Now you would think that a unversity with an alleged top flight vet school and with a nationally known bulldog would not have issues on breeding and maintaining a line.
Personally, I am not hung-up a spotless bulldog. Maybe it is time to form a search committee and found a new breeder / handler. Looking for a dawg that will hunt all the time, does not like any team other than his Dawgs, pisses on the polls relentlessly, and forms a pile for Lee Corso to stand by and say a few cuss words.
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+1
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No comments on the farting? That’s the best part of the post!
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+1
agreed. That is a mascot I can stand behind.
(though not literally because bulldog farts are apparently the worst.)
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*pfffffft*
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Post of the year IYAM.
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Just keep Russ, he’s doing a fine job and who really cares if he is spotless white, I’d rather have a healthy playful Uga.
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While they say the issue with Russ is age, not pure white, etc, there’s one other problem. He rarely comes out of the house b/c he doesn’t like the noise and the crowd and bands bother him. That’s been told to me by one of the handlers. That’s why he’s not as playful.
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Olde English Bulldogge. Better looking healthier breed.
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im down with that,
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I agree…but will McGarity be able to tell Sonny that?
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My bulldog is healthy, athletic and all white…and by God, he’s the most prolific farting machine on the planet. I volunteer Dooley, the three-year-old Bulldog to stalk the sidelines next year.
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Sounds like he fits the bill. Must be fun at your house on rainy days when he can’t go out much 😉
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On a serious note, the AKC standards are really responsible for more harm than good to most dog breeds. Constant breeding to a unrealistic visual standards makes for a lot of sickly purebreds.
Our Shi Tzu was pure bred (AKC). She was cute as a button, but had a hard time breathing thru her smooshed nose, had a lot of eye problems and when the time came, she had to be insiminated, on the side mind you, b/c the boy dog couldn’t get it done. It is not just the English Bulldogs that are suffering from inbreeding for AKC guidelines.
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Big + 1
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For real, a lot of the most beautiful labrador retrievers can barely walk at 8 years old due to joint problems.
Another example, virtually all English Bulldog pups have to be delivered by C-section these days.
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Way far afield, but what do you make of Richt’s answers about the RB situation for Saturday in the ABH article?
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I know a little bit about this because my brother’s family is in the business. The inbreeding concerns are entirely valid.
Anyway, check out this bad boy (this is not one of my brother’s dogs). Black & White bulldogs are all the rage these days, going for upwards of $7000 a pup. How’d you like this handsome devil roaming the sidelines?
http://www.recycler.com/details/862266/english-bulldog-stud
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That is a good looking dog. A black and white is an interesting idea. He would look good in a jersey.
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Yeah, it would really be something, but don’t worry about it ever happening.
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Reminds me of my Boston Terrier.
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You need to quit feeding him so much!
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If you’ve ever spent time around a bulldog, especially indoors, you already knew about the farting… holy cow can that stink peel some paint!
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Look at the UGAs over the years. They get progressively more freakish, like Playboy centerfolds over the years. I think I’ll go research that…
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Yeah, the Playmates are getting weirder and weirder. It must be the botox and the silicone. They’re just overdoing it with both trying to get some look that sets them apart from all the others. Sad, really.
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+1 Hugh. BTW, can I come over to your place?
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Great article. It hits on the real culprit and that’s the fact that breeders, Seiler included, have selected physical traits that curse the dogs to many, many health issues. I’d be down with moving back to the look of some of the early UGA’s. The breed now looks like a genetics experiment gone awry.
Moving the breeding and selection away from Seiler? He’d fucking kill the person who made that decision. He’s had great expense and time invested in the dogs and at this point it is an investment in terms of income, recognition and access. It would have to be done over his dead body.
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Sonny Seiler is 78. Realistically how much longer can he do this anyway? That problem will solve itself.
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Are you suggesting he needs to be put down?
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Seriously, Charles Darwin himself commented on the sad state of bulldog breeding!
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Yeah, but Charlie was a damn Clemson fan.
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