Can Animals Have Down Syndrome? The Truth Behind the Viral Myth If you spend time on social media, you’ve probably come across photos of cats with wide-set eyes, dogs with oversized tongues, or oddly-featured tigers with captions reading: “this animal has Down syndrome.” The images go viral, people adore them, and nobody questions the diagnosis. But there’s a problem: it’s not scientifically possible. What Is Down Syndrome, and Why Is It Exclusive to Humans? Down syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic condition in which a person is born with an extra copy of chromosome 21. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes — 46 in total. The scientific…