Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: Cute dog with a sad story

Beauty ideals don't just impact humans. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel has been bred to such a degree that it suffers massive health problems. Photo: dpa

Floppy ears and big, pleading eyes: It’s hard to resist a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which is probably one of the reasons why they have been immensely popular for centuries.

But as is often the case, the attention came with strings attached: The bid for breeding ever more beautiful specimens over the past 300 years has made the cute brown-and-white spaniels more vulnerable to certain diseases, a recent study found.