The Frenchie Revolution

Money, murder, fur. Welcome to the war over America's most popular dog

- By Mary Pilon. Ilustrations by Christopher Buzelli

NOWADAYS, CHARLA LENARTH DEBATES WHETHER SHE SHOULD WEAR A WIRE TO COMPETE AT FRENCH BULLDOG SHOWS.

Lenarth, 56, tours the nation in search of top ribbons for Jezebel, one of her several French bulldogs. And ever since Woofstock, a ’60s-themed competition celebrating “four days of peace, music and dogs,” she has been concerned about Jezebel’s safety—and her own. When she and Jezebel turned up in Vallejo, California, for the June 2022 show, the rumor mill had been percolating for weeks with allegations that both mystified and angered Lenarth. Only seven months into campaigning Jezebel (as dog enthusiasts call showing), she was a relative newcomer to the elite dog show scene.

Sitting indoors at the Solano County Fairgrounds amid tie-dye, beads, spectators wielding peace signs, and 1,969 dogs, “these three women came over and stood over me,” she recalled recently. She set down Jezebel, who’d been resting peacefully in her lap, and rose to speak to them. Two of the women were dressed to show their dogs; one was there to watch. “I didn’t like that feeling,” Lenarth said. “One woman said I was an abomination. Another used the F-word and said, ‘You don’t deserve to be here.’ One woman said, ‘I will haunt you until you quit.’ ”