I’m so sorry that this dog has now gone, but I’ve never seen a Neapolitan mastiff with such extreme (and very uncomfortable and unhealthy conformation).
It’s sad when dogs die. They ought to live to be in their forties!
However, we have a moral responsibility to breed dogs that have a good quality of life. Dogs with eyes that hang open, very loose connective tissue, bacteria and yeast-filled skin folds, and flews that never stop dripping really can’t be said to be living a good quality of life.
This dogs eyes were so severe that it was completely blind.
This is the kind of dog that is being produced through breeding according to its breed standard. This dog likely wouldn’t have won any prizes at a dog show, but its siblings might have.
This is one of those dogs where “pet quality” actually meant “vet quality.”
sad look on the little boy’s face
I feel bad for the kids who lost their pet. What happened to the athletic, capable molosser this breed was recreated to represent?
These people brought this upon themselves for purchasing such a creature. No sympathy from me. Thus boy was bred from a couple of idiots. Hopefully he will grow up to be better than his parents but it looks like he is being trained to think this is okay.
from the dates on the opening screen, this dog lived to a little over nine years of age. That’s pretty good for a Neo.
http://jalostus.kennelliitto.fi/frmTerveystilastot.aspx?R=197&Lang=en gives the overall average age of death for a Neo in Finland as 5 yr 1 mo. Only 13% of the dogs listed died of old age, and those who did die of old age lived on average 9 yr 3 mo.
The wrinkles are monstrous, and breeding for such wrinkles is abominable. However worse problems affect the breed, if the Finnish data are representative, more than one in four Neos dies of “skeletal or articular” diseases (at an average age of 2 yr 6 mo); in my opinion that’s a worse way to go.