After hearing the sad news that
Uga VIII passed away, the first thought that came to mind was, "what is going on with the
Seiler's Uga line?" Let's recap it briefly, just for the sake of conversation:
Uga's V and VI both died of congestive heart failure, but both lasted for better than nine seasons as Georgia's mascot.
Uga VII took over the mascot duties in August 2008, but died suddenly in November of 2009 of, again, heart trouble. He was only 4-years old.
The unexpected death of Uga VII left no time for a replacement to be readied so Russ, the brown speckled English bulldog, took over in the interim while the Seiler family prepped a new Uga for the 2010 football season.
Uga VIII, who came to be known as "Big Bad Bruce" was formally introduced to Georgia Bulldog fans in September of 2010. By December of that same year, it was announced that he was suffering from gastrointestinal problems and he would be unable to travel to the bowl game.
That gastro problem later turned out to be cancer—lymphoma specifically—and in mid-January it was learned that Uga VIII was receiving chemo for his illness and responding well.
Today, he too is gone.
So, the natural question has to be, what is going on with the Uga line?
While you hate to seem insensitive to the situation of the Seiler family—the Uga's are their family pet after all—you have to start asking the question of when it becomes time to stop breeding dogs from that particular line of Uga's.
Full disclosure, I know nothing about dog breeding, nor am I qualified to assess the overall health and viability of the dogs in the Seiler's care. As a matter of fact, I am no more privy to information than the next person, but from the standpoint of a person who has come to love all the things that Uga represents to the university, and its fans, it seems logical to wonder what is going on?
Why are the Uga's living for shorter and shorter periods of time?
While I am nowhere near ready to take
PETA's stance and call for a robot dog, I must admit, I am starting to wonder if we all need to be concerned about the viability of having a living mascot on the sidelines going forward.
What say you?
