According to the 2017-2018 APPA National Pet Owners Survey, 68 percent of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 84.6 millions homes. There’s no doubt that pets hold a lot of value in our hearts, and we pretty much consider them to be family. Everyone has different reasons for having a pet, one of them being that they’re just so cute, and you just have to have them. And while that is a valid reason, it can also be a dangerous way of thinking.

Pugs, bulldogs, and Scottish fold cats are all popular examples of breeds that can suffer from people prioritizing their cuteness over their safety and health. Pugs and bulldogs are brachycephalic dogs, which refers to the flat face and short nose of dogs, and it can occur in cats as well, like the aforementioned Scottish fold and British shorthairs. 50 percent of French bulldogs suffer from BAOS, which is a set of upper airway abnormalities that affect brachycephalic dogs and cause them a lot of pain and suffering.

Along with this, the signature ears of a Scottish fold is actually a genetic mutation that causes these felines to live short, painful lives, and have hereditary conditions such as Osteochondrodysplasia, a developmental abnormality that affects cartilage and bone development, polycystic kidney disease, and cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease.

Sure, they’re a different species, with slightly different priorities and needs, but they still have lives. Their heart is beating just as ours do, so why do we push their health aside in favor of pleasing our aesthetics? Not only should we do better, but the people who continue to breed these animals should do better as well. It’s cruel and selfish, and shows that we lack the responsibility needed to care for these creatures.

Besides the fact that it is painful for them to live in general, it would also cause a lot of financial issues, as it would require more than average trips to the veterinarian for extra treatment, as well as buying medicine for them to lessen their pain. The cons significantly outweigh the pros.

You can’t say you love animals if you continue to support an industry that clearly breeds these animals just for financial gain and not out of consideration for their wellbeing. If you truly care about and love animals, you have to face the hard truth: these animals really shouldn’t exist. They’re miserable, living day by day in excruciating pain, and their life is already shorter than other pets. Stop being complicit in their pain by contributing to their reproduction by giving money to breeders.