{"id":55446,"date":"2023-11-20T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/20\/the-french-bulldog-revolution-a-culture-war-over-americas-most-popular-dog\/"},"modified":"2023-11-20T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T13:00:00","slug":"the-french-bulldog-revolution-a-culture-war-over-americas-most-popular-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/20\/the-french-bulldog-revolution-a-culture-war-over-americas-most-popular-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"The French Bulldog Revolution: A Culture War Over America\u2019s Most Popular Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Goldenberg died in 1936, but his breed standard has lived on. While revised from time to time by the committee of the FBDCA, it entrenched the idea that color is paramount to competitive French bulldog showing. And it fortified the FBDCA\u2019s power in determining those standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main theme is there\u2019s extreme racism and discrimination,\u201d MacPherson said. \u201cAnd the attitudes of people where they have transferred the kind of discriminatory behaviors that were once toward people of the wrong color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 2008, the<\/strong> FBDCA began its \u201cNo Fad Colors\u201d campaign. That same year, Terry Huntley began breeding French bulldogs, and he started to compete with them in shows. As a relative newcomer, \u201cI was told that I would probably never win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At first, Huntley, who enjoyed the competitive thrill of showing dogs and learning about the breed, didn\u2019t think much of the color standard. He\u2019s owned and bred blue dogs. But for Huntley, who is Black, he grasped that the fissure in the Frenchie community \u201cis not the color of the dogs, it\u2019s the color of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Determined to win titles for his dogs, Huntley said he began to hire handlers who were white and seen as popular with judges to present his dogs in the ring. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty much giving your dog to a person and saying, \u2018Hey, take this dog in for me.\u2019\u2009\u201d He said the same dogs he had shown were now getting ribbons from judges when they competed with a white handler. \u201cJust because they\u2019re a popular person and you hope that their popularity rubs off on your dog and you get to win. Sometimes, it\u2019s not about who you are, it\u2019s about who you can pay to champion your dog out.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sean Thomas, a Black dog breeder based in Colorado who works with non-AKC shows, the color wars surrounding Frenchies \u201cis a witch hunt,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s laughable to me.\u201d Thomas said his focus is on health testing and creating show environments that are family-friendly.<\/p>\n