Yesterday, Anita put up a post on Wendy, the Arnold Schwarzenegger of whippets, which got that way because of a rare genetic mutation.
Here's a similar phenomenon in cows, in a breed called the Belgian Blue. The photo above is from Yann Arthus-Bertrand (who was actually featured in Neatorama before).
More Supercow photos: Link
@fluff
It's true that it's not restricted to france, but pretty much every industrial nation has prohibited it, and some even prohibit fois gras from regions that are known to do that. France didn't give a crap about how everyone else was doing the right thing, they just kept on force-feeding their geese, and still do to this day...france really doesn't follow progressive things.