Vets warn of dangers of designer dog breeding
- Video report by ITV News Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith
In recent years, pugs have become the unlikely stars of advertising, resulting in demand for the breed rocketing.
But the trend for breeding designer dogs is having a terrible impact on their health.
With pugs there is demand for bigger ears and wrinklier noses, but breeding for these characteristics exacerbates health problems the dogs are already prone to.
The Scottish SPCA has seen the damage designer breeding can do, especially when the dogs come cheap from a puppy farm and are not bred with the dogs' health in mind
"They're bred for numbers not for actual quality.
"They end up with breathing problems, bone problems, and often they can't give birth naturally because the pugs' heads are too large, so they really have a pretty miserable life,"
As a result, vets are reminding potential buyers that not only are dogs for life, not just for Christmas, it is their health and not their social media appeal which should be on buyers' wishlists.