Florida dog shelters are overrun with bulldogs after trend for the animals spiked demand and led to overbreeding

Since November, more than 150 French bulldogs, commonly called Frenchies, have invaded a Florida rescue shelter tasked with rehoming them. 

Ashley Pedersen, founder of Space Coast Frenchie Rescue in Brevard County, told local cable station WKMG 6 she's 'averaging one surrender a day' and that the dogs are coming from all over Florida.

Sky high demand and out-of-control overbreeding has led to shelters across Florida becoming full, Pedersen said. Many of them are reaching out to her and her cofounder Courtney Schilling to take some of the dogs off their hands. 

Schilling took the call to action seriously, sheltering 15 dogs at her house at one point.

Frenchies' magnetic appeal is a result of their scrunched faces and flattened noses, according to scientists. They say the dogs' appearance is similar enough to human infants to make the average person swoon over their cuteness.

Pictured: Ashley Pedersen (left) and Courtney Schilling (right) are the founders of Space Coast Frenchie Rescue in Brevard County, Florida

Pictured: A black French bulldog

Winston, a French bulldog, competes in a competition during the 147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog show in 2023

Frenchies are so desirable in fact that there's been a noticeable trend of them getting stolen.

A 21-year-old woman stole another woman's French bulldog in broad daylight in Los Angeles. The victim, Ali Zacharias, chased after the thief and was caught on camera hanging from the hood of the perpetrator's car as she tried to escape with the dog.

Breeders are well aware of the rabid demand and are now flooding the market with Frenchies in hopes to make a quick buck, according to associate veterinarian Jocelyn Brickett.

A staggering number of Frenchies being deprived of a loving, safe home isn't the only problem with the supposed get-rich-quick scheme of overbreeding them. 

Brickett, who works at the Eau Gallie Veterinary Hospital in Melbourne, Florida, said haphazard breeding leads to dire genetic defects in the dogs. 

She pointed out one Frenchie named Keller at Pedersen and Schilling's shelter as a prime example of selective breeding gone wrong.

Pictured: Dogs in cages at Space Coast Frenchie Rescue in Brevard County

Zacharias said she thought she was going to die as the car went faster and faster

Lily is the first dog that was bred by Hawbucks Franse Bulldog Kennel, a kennel whose owner is trying to breed a healthier Frenchie. Lily still looks like a French bulldog, but she has a longer tail, back, and legs than are often seen in the breed.

'Keller is a result of trying to breed the mural color, so they breed two mural dogs together, which leads to this kind of white syndrome, so he's blind and deaf due to them breeding those two colors together,' Brickett said to WKMG 6. 'People need to stop doing that and leave it to the professionals.' 

But even the average French bulldog often suffers from respiratory problems, spine malformations and skin problems as a result of constant inbreeding over the last century or so. As a result the breed has an average lifespan of 4.5 years. 

Still, people don't seem to care. 

French bulldogs have been the most popular dog in the US for two years in a row, according to the American Kennel Club. The UK, too, fancies flat-faced dogs, including bulldogs and pugs.

Hawbucks Franse Bulldog Kennel is one breeder trying to restore the healthiness French bulldogs once had by weeding out its major defects, DailyMail.com reported in March. 

Though, for people who love the purebred dogs, it might be a dealbreaker because the kennel said it might need to breed the Frenchies with other types of canines.