The Netherlands Decision To Ban Brachycephalic Dogs

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126 – August, 2025

By Barbara E. Magera MD

Recently, the animal rights group, PETA filed a lawsuit against the AKC in an attempt to abandon the breed standard of the French Bulldog and other breeds. PETA asserts that the AKC breed standards promote the propagation of unhealthy dogs.

Recently, the Netherlands government decided to ban the breeding or ownership of brachycephalic (BCY) dogs as listed in Table 1. The ban includes both purebred and cross-bred dogs.

The Dutch claim that BCY dogs are ‘suffering’ primarily due to respiratory issues. Many animal rights groups also advocate that breeding these canines contributes to the population of ‘sick’ animals.

Critical to the Dutch decision is what criterion was used to define brachycephaly (BYCY). The physical characteristics of a short skull, flat-nosed face and short muzzle suggests but does not define BYCY. Others characterize BYCY by using external measurements of skull width-to-length ratios. Using the Cephalic Index (CI), the measured skull width is divided by the skull length and multiplied by 100. A CI value of 80 percent or greater suggests BYCY; however, this is a crude measurement recognized for inaccuracies and does not alone diagnose BYCY.

Using external features to classify a breed as BYCY is inaccurate because of wide variations in skull-to-muzzle lengths of individual dogs. When comparing individual canines, much variation exists in skull anatomy, muzzle length and snout features.

Click here to read the complete article
126 – August, 2025

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Posted by AnthonyA on Aug 8 2025. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.