PETA Calls For The End Of A Beloved Georgia Bulldogs Tradition

Georgia Bulldogs mascot Uga X peta statement

Getty Image / Todd Kirkland


People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is calling on the Georgia Bulldogs to end one of their most beloved traditions.

PETA released a statement calling for the University of Georgia Bulldogs to stop using a live English Bulldog as their mascot. PETA refers to Uga X, the current Georgia Bulldogs mascot, as part of “breathing-impaired breeds (BIB)”, and claim that Georgia’s use of a live bulldog as their mascot “drives demand” for these breeds that are “banned in other countries.”

Look at this magnificent creature:

The full PETA statement on the Georgia Bulldogs’ mascot reads:

Athens, Ga. – In the wake of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) decisive national championship win over Texas Christian University, PETA sent a letter this morning to UGA President Jere W. Morehead urging him to make the school a winner not only in football but also in its treatment of others by retiring the school’s English bulldog mascot, Uga. The group notes that the school’s use of Uga drives demand for breathing-impaired breeds (BIB), such as pugs, boxers, and English and French bulldogs, whose breeding is being banned in other countries, as their purposely bred, grotesquely flattened faces leave them struggling to walk, play, and even breathe.

“As the back-to-back national champion, can’t UGA find it in its heart to honestly examine the impact of its promotion of deformed dogs and call time on its outdated, live-animal mascot program?” asks PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Jere Morehead to be a peach and replace poor Uga with a human mascot who can support the team in a winning way.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—notes that Uga is a living, feeling being, not a toy to be carted to chaotic football stadiums across the country and trotted out in front of scores of screaming fans.

Full stop. Not happening. Nope.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s the Attorney General for the State of Georgia:

Uga X has overseen 2 SEC Championships and 2 National Championships. That’s on top of a Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, 2 Peach Bowls, and an Orange Bowl.

Uga X (also known as “Que”) is the grandson of Uga IX. We’ve got a legacy here, people. And the Georgia Bulldogs sure as heck aren’t going to retire their live bulldog mascot after this ‘Chosen One’ brought 2 Nattys back to Athens after a decades-long drought.

If you have time, I suggest reading up on the history of the Georgia Bulldogs ‘Uga’ live mascot namesakes that PETA are up in arms about. It’s a fascinating Wiki page.