Someone who is fond of animal videos (aren't we all, secretly?) sent me the YouTube below. It's cute, a wee bulldog rolling down a hill and variously flinging herself about a grassy knoll on a sunny day just for the helluvit. Or so it would seem. As I live a hermit's life in Nowheresville, Maine, I occasionally fall prey to temptation and browse the comments sections of various sites, you know, see what's out there, who's out there, even though experience has often proved this a fraught activity. Sane people know comment browsing, especially on YouTube, is never a good idea if one hopes to carry on believing the world a livable place populated by reasonable folks. Still, it surprised me to see a heated exchange had developed on the subject of this apparently fun-loving doggie. Assertions by various posters, arguments really (into which I've noticed most comments sections seem to inevitably devolve), ran along these lines:
What appears to be a pup having fun is a cruel lie, or as a politician might put it, misleading – some asshole has straightjacketed her in a wee sweatshirt and she's doing everything she can to get the damn thing off. Oh! cruel humanity!
People are "trolls" (what on earth does this mean? Have folks taken to lurking under bridges? Are they homeless? Apparently it's an insult, judging by the bitter knee-jerk response of accusees).
English Bulldogs were bred (by aforementioned cruel humans) to flat faces and short stature in order to maintain a low profile and take some of the "bull" heat off matadors in the ring. Hence "bull" dog. (This may be true, but for my money, it's the most absurd, not to say exploitative, notion, and the one for which humans should be tried and hanged forthwith. By animals, of course, a la Animal Farm?)
Bulldog births frequently require C-sections because humans have so contorted (read: bioengineered) the breed's appearance and shape for their own sadistic amusement that flat wide head just won't make it through mum's wee vagina.
One commenter found the poor doggie's T-shirt "disturbing" but refused to explain why (someone should probably check up on him, and soon. Not me though, you do it.)
Further assertions abound, to wit: Idiots love idioms; "adorbs" is the new "adorable"; people like animals better than people; bulldogs are known to skateboard, solo and voluntarily; dogs become morose if their master's videos are neglected by the viewing public; this video is doggie porn, this pup no better than a common whore, and her master a low life pimp.
I am reminded of an episode of West Wing when Josh can't resist commenting on his own fans' website, believing his eloquence will set them straight, and lives to regret kowtowing to his ego's need not simply to express itself but to dominate the commentary. Isn't there some Aesop Fable about this?
We report; you decide.... Is this cruel and unusual?
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