As a veterinary technician I suppose I see more than the average person when it comes to the physical problems some dogs and cats suffer due to human manipulation of the canine and feline species through breeding for specific features.

I'm the one who cleans the feces off the persian cat's rear end because humans have created it to have a face that's way too flat to work properly, as well as WAY too much hair to keep under control. The bum-cleaning I do along with the extensive, often painful, dematting of all that hair. Some cats get so matted they have to be sedated regularly just to be groomed. Sedation is risky, and hard on the system.

I'm also the one who sees the entropian eye surgeries done on the poor malformed persian cat face, in an attempt to alleviate chronic eye irritation from having such a man-made deformity of a face.

The same is true for all those brachycephalic (flat-faced) little and big dogs. They suffer so many painful problems, just because some humans think a dog with a flat face looks cute. Corneal ulcers, blocked tear ducts, entropian, teeth that rot and fall out prematurely because their jaw doesn't appose right, and the ever increasing problem of the elongated soft palate, that has to be corrected surgically in order to prevent the palate from blocking the airway and causing death.

Each of these poor flat-faced patients is an anaesthetic risk too, simply because they can't breathe right. Post-surgical extubation (removing the breathing tube) is dicey, and they have to be held in a specific position and watched so their airway stays clear.

I guess some people think it's cute, but I think it's horrible what we've done through selective breeding. If the animals could talk, I bet they'd agree. I bet they'd love to be normal and healthy, with long noses and healthy teeth that lay all in a straight line instead of crammed in sideways, and have natural racing airways, and a comfortable, functional haircoat, and legs that are straight and not bent, or way too short for a body that is too big and long for the spine to adequately support.

Last week I walked past the window of a local hairdresser, and there on the couch was a man with a French bulldog. The hairdresser was applying some sort of paste solution with a q-tip to the tear stains under the dog's eyes. I bet if that little French bulldog could talk he'd ask for a proper long nose so that his tear ducts would be patent and not leak tears out on his fur where it stains and displeases his owner with its unsightliness. He'd probably ask for his long tail back too so that he could express his doggy self the way nature intended and other dogs could understand. I just hope that whatever the hairdresser was using wasn't burning his eyes with chemical fumes.

So how far will we humans take it? I think that when we are dying our dog's imperfections at the local hairdresser's, it's time to stop. Long past time.