TORMENT OF THE FRANKENPUPS
FlUFF Puff Husky Boy is no everyday dog. His appearance is certainly striking: bright blue eyes, a short, squashed muzzle and an almost feathery white coat with flashes of pink. But his looks, perhaps, are not the most surprising thing about him.
Reared in Chelmsford, essex, Fluff Puff was recently sold to a Texas breeder to work — we believe — as a stud dog. And the price paid? An astonishing $1million (£780,000). That’s if we take his breeder, Diego Sanchez — whose breeding outfit Dezinerbullz is licensed by his local council in Maldon — at his word.
In video footage, Sanchez, a Colombian national, is seen delivering Fluff Puff to his new American owner at a luxury london flat. Fluff Puff was then flown to Houston: it was, according to Sanchez, a historic moment.
In a separate post online, Sanchez boasted that Fluff Puff was ‘unique... long-awaited, so very rare and so special’, adding: ‘He was recently sold by @dezinerbullzfamily for 1 Million!!!’
even allowing for a significant degree of exaggeration, there is no doubt that Fluff Puff is a highly desirable asset. For he is a ‘Frankenpup’: and a stud at that, capable of siring a long line of puppies bearing his own highly unusual physical characteristics.
In Britain and America, there is a craze for French bulldogs — now the second most popular breed here despite the litany of health problems they often suffer. According to The Kennel Club, demand for French bulldogs has soared by 1,000 per cent in the past decade. Celebrity bulldog enthusiasts include Holly Willoughby, lady Gaga, Madonna, Hugh Jackman and Reese Witherspoon.
Diego Sanchez’s legal breeding business shows that vast amounts of money can be made on designer dogs.
For many people, a typical ‘Frenchie’ is not enough. Unscrupulous breeders are therefore concocting ever-weirder specimens in canine ‘fertility clinics’: artificially inseminating dogs and delivering the puppies by caesarean section, as the bitches’ narrow pelvises mean they cannot deliver naturally.
The result is dogs bred as fashion accessories, often appearing in ‘gangsta’ videos on social media, carried around by scantily clad women while the male breeders drive expensive sports cars and emerge from helicopters.
French bulldogs that are either ‘hairless’ or — as in Fluff Puff’s case — have particularly soft and downy fur carry the highest prices. A cross between a French bulldog and a husky, Fluff Puff stands to make his new owner a fortune.
The profits from ‘Frankenpups’ are staggering — as the Daily Mail can reveal after a lengthy investigation.
In poorly regulated clinics across Britain, they are being bred for ever more bizarre physical characteristics: completely flat faces that leave them gasping to breathe, rolls of skin that render them half-blind and unable to blink properly, and baldness that leaves them prone to sunburn, skin cancer and other ailments.
S oMe are selected for the fashionable shades of their coats: now in vogue are ‘pink’, ‘platinum’, ‘isabella’ (a washed-out beige) and ‘merle’, an almost patterned appearance. Vets warn that dogs with merle coats often suffer from serious genetic defects, especially deafness.
only last week, the experts said that the fad for pugs to have bulging eyes, folds of skin and flat faces is causing them to suffer terribly.
Pugs are more than 50 times at risk of serious breathing problems than other breeds and are far more likely to be afflicted by health problems including agonising eye ulcers and dermatitis.
Yet many Frankenpups make the suffering of pugs look easy. Too often, these dogs die painfully and young of excruciating congenital diseases.
Though there is no suggestion that Mr Sanchez is involved in any illegal activity, it is clear — as his ‘£1 million’ boasts attest — that he is a significant figure in the designer dog industry.
In 2018, he sold a 50 per cent ‘share’ in one of his bulldogs, Douglas, for $235,000 (£177,000) to an American breeder. The dog, which struggled to breathe, was flown to the U.S. and found to have a serious heart murmur. It had to be put down aged just 16 months.
Mr Sanchez bred Douglas with another local breeder named Barry Macklin, who runs Unique essex Bullz. They are endorsed on Facebook by the troubled former eastenders actress Danniella Westbrook, an on-off cocaine addict.
Today, on Sanchez’s public ‘price list’, a ‘fluffy’ French bulldog starts at £80,000. (As a stud, Fluff Puff would be expected to cost considerably more.) Sanchez is licensed by Maldon Council to breed up to 50 puppies a year.
Records at Companies House show that his firm, Dezinerbullz, was compulsorily struck off in February, although it continues to advertise dogs online.
In 2020, Sanchez’s business partner, Susan Bello-Pearson, was found guilty of 12 offences of supplying and possessing unauthorised veterinary medicines. She was fined £5,000. A spokesman for Maldon Council told the Mail that the council had no power to withdraw the breeding licence as a result of this conviction.
For all his boasting on Facebook about his ‘special’ dog, Mr Sanchez refused to speak to the Mail or answer any of our questions. ‘I not interested,’ he told us by text.
Yet others are prepared to speak out against the Frankenpups industry. British Veterinary Association (BVA) president Justine Shotton, told us: ‘Dogs bred to have certain characteristics, such as being hairless, having more skin wrinkles or faces that are even flatter than normal, may look “cute” or unique. But these poor dogs may have a lifetime of suffering ahead.’
In just five years, the number of canine ‘clinics’ breeding ever more freakish dogs has grown from just one to more than 150. A report from the animal welfare charity Naturewatch Foundation found that these clinics, run by unqualified practitioners, are regularly performing highly dangerous procedures on unfortunate dogs.
In almost all cases, artificial insemination is being used to breed dogs that would otherwise be unable to mate, while hormones taken from pigs are used illegally to boost litter sizes and increase profits. Many of these procedures, including taking blood samples and artificial insemination, are illegal unless performed by a registered vet.
Fabian Rivers, a Birmingham vet who sits on the BVA council, told the Mail: ‘It has become a free-for-all.
The clinics are getting away with murder — they are making so much money.
‘They are breeding these poor dogs with terrible health problems often in conditions that are completely illegal and dangerous. Some of the clinics are run by rank amateurs with no training and no veterinary knowledge at all.’
So whaT kind of people are drawn into the murky world of breeding Frankenpups?
Earlier this year, Britain saw its first litter of ‘hairless’ French bulldogs — which experts believe is a cross between a French bulldog and a Chinese crested dog, a naturally hairless breed.
In the macho world of bulldogbreeding, this was big news. The litter was apparently masterminded by breeders Paul Robertson and Gari Ferrari, who are believed to have worked with a network of UK-wide breeders.
The Mail understands that this group is connected with a breeder in China who operates close to the border with North Korea.
Ferrari and Robertson are the alleged ‘brains’ behind a hairless bulldog they have produced and have named ‘Gari Baldy’ — a pun on the 19th-century Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi.
The two men do not come across as pleasant individuals.
Ferrari is associated with a canine clinic, ‘Burgh Bullz K9 Fertility Service’, in Cowdenbeath, Fife.
In a stomach-churning video obtained by the Mail, he indulges in an appalling racist rant, calling someone a ‘P*** c***’ and a ‘monkey’, while using the homophobic slur ‘f ***** ’.
‘I don’t give a f***, I am racist!’ he snarls at the other man, who has darker skin than him. ‘I don’t like people like you!’
Robertson, meanwhile, is a longestablished bulldog breeder with a macho reputation — as is common in this world, where bling and fast cars are as vital to the image as the dogs themselves.
Robertson’s online publicity material includes the words ‘Gangster’ as well as a picture of the notorious Kray twins, who terrorised London in the 1960s.
one of his stud dogs, an English bulldog, is even called ‘Mr Kray’.
In February, Robertson announced on Facebook that ‘the first litter of hairless French Bulldog [sic] in the UK has finally arrived safely . . . the haters doubted us and tried to ruin us’.
The Mail understands Robertson and Ferrari were selling puppies from this litter for £20,000 each. again, there is no suggestion that either of the men is acting illegally.
we showed pictures of these puppies to a qualified BVa vet.
She told us: ‘This is an example of unnecessary extreme breeding. hairless dogs are highly prone to skin infections (pyoderma) and inflammation (dermatitis).
‘There is also an increased risk of skin cancer... They may also have dental abnormalities as these are often associated with the gene that causes hairlessness.’
Yet perhaps the most heartbreaking example of ‘extreme breeding’ that we have seen in our investigations is Robertson’s bulldog Major Playa.
It is, frankly, a terrible sight: a canine mutant. Multiple heavy rolls of skin obscure the face and muzzle of this unfortunate dog, which is panting terribly.
The BVa’s vet was aghast when she saw the pictures of this animal. ‘This poor dog will have trouble breathing,’ she told us.
‘The droopiness of the skin may also lead to eye problems and there is an increased risk of skin infections.’
Last November, the police and the SSPCa raided Robertson’s premises outside Edinburgh. No charges resulted but some veterinary equipment was removed.
N EIThER Robertson nor Ferrari responded to the Mail’s enquiries. however, one mainstream breeder of unusual dogs, Mr Suk Ram, of Precious Bullz in warwickshire, was prepared to talk. he is a successful breeder and French bulldog enthusiast.
an aficionado of Lamborghinis and other supercars, in which he has posed with French bulldogs, he denies that he was involved with the syndicate that bred the first hairless French bulldogs in the UK.
he told us: ‘“Extreme” or new breeding concepts within any breed can create health concerns. I would strongly advise a thorough conversation with a vet prior to any breedings of this sort.
‘after personal research on
With rolls of skin covering his face, making it hard to breathe, this poor creature is part of a cruel craze for dogs bred with bizarre features. Even worse, they make vast profits for the ruthless men who create them in underground fertility labs
hairless French bulldogs, i’ll stick to hair on my dogs.’
Although Mr ram denied to the Mail that he was involved with the syndicate, social media posts from his firm suggested otherwise, as he proudly heralded the imminent arrival of a litter of hairless pups.
He told the Mail that these social media posts were not intended for the public and were simply an example of ‘market research’ with existing clients.
He said: ‘you are probing me regarding this subject and i am now finding it uncomfortable.’
the Mail asked Mr ram if he had encountered criminals among breeders of Frankenpups. He said no but added: ‘i do not attend any meetings within the dog-breeding world without close protection security next to me.’
the SSPCA is leading a
Uk-wide campaign to bring rogue breeders to book.
its Special investigations Unit, based at a secret location, has recently been involved in a number of surveillance operations and raids on clinics and breeders.
Cases are soon to reach the courts, but prosecutions have been subject to long delays, meaning that breeders have continued selling dogs at huge profits.
in an exclusive interview at the SSPCA’s HQ, Chief Superintendent Mike Flynn told the Mail that high-value French bulldogs have become a common currency among drug barons.
He said: ‘Pretty much every breeder using these clinics has criminal connections.
‘Many are involved in conventional criminal activity, particularly drug dealing and are looking for a way to launder that money.
‘they don’t want to have a large stash of money under the floorboards, so they invest it in dogs — and that is their pot of gold. they often have links abroad, especially in the United States and South America, particularly Colombia and Mexico.’
Semen taken from stud dogs in the Uk is often exported by breeders, but occasionally the dogs themselves — like Diego Sanchez’s ‘£1 million’ Fluff Puff — are flown out of the country, for which they need a ‘fit to fly’ certificate from a qualified vet.
one practice, Platinum Vets, recently awarded a bulldog a ‘fit to fly’ certificate that allowed its breeder to export it to Mexico. the dog had several rolls of skin around its face — much prized by breeders of Frankenpups.
the Mail showed a picture of this dog to a BVA-nominated vet. She said: ‘this dog has horrendously excessive skin folds and rolls, with the nasal fold obscuring the nostrils and the droopiness of the skin may lead to eye problems. the pinched nostrils hinder the ability to breathe.’
Platinum Vets manager lynne Brockett admitted to the Mail that ‘[this] dog’s looks were perhaps overdone by the breeder’. However, she added: ‘A fit to fly certificate is based on health — not looks. it was approved by our vet.’
Although welfare organisations including the BVA, the rSPCA, the royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and the kennel Club are emphatically opposed to Frankenpups, the issue remains a growing problem.
the government has clamped down on puppy farming through stricter legislation — partly driven by the Prime Minister’s wife Carrie Johnson, whose terrier Dilyn was rescued from a Welsh puppy farm — but the breeders of Frankenpups are more difficult to bring to heel.
‘Freak-breeding is now out of control in the Uk,’ says Jemima Harrison, who runs the Cruffa campaign exposing unethical dog-breeding practices. ‘Another huge worry is that we never get to see the rejects that have been born in the crazy race to create the next big thing. But they will be there, hidden from view, dumped or culled.
‘the Animal Welfare Act makes it illegal to breed dogs in a way that could be detrimental to the health and welfare of their offspring. But the legislation seems impossible to enforce.’
Until these matters are tested in the courts, it is down to the nation’s dog lovers to take a stand against the breeders of freaks and Frankenpups — and not provide them with a market.
otherwise, these wretched animals will continue to suffer for the sake of human greed.