Hey humans,
My last post expressing my dismay for people who breed dogs with the sole intention of making a profit started a great conversation and brought up some interesting points. You can check out the conversation on Steve Dale's blog here as well as right here on my post that began the discussion.
I know there are many contributing factors that lead to the "surplus" of dogs in our country. Many of these animals end up in the shelter system and a large percentage of those are ultimately put down. I prefer not to get into the exact numbers, as that's up for debate as well. But I think we can all agree the numbers are probably well over 1 million each year. Think about that number for a second. Think about the dogs many of us have adopted from shelters and what loving members of the family they turned out to be. Then imagine our lives without them. It's a huge waste, not loss, of life. And joy.
I want to say that I have a lot of respect for the people who are doing everything right when it comes to dog breeding. To clarify again, the post I wrote the other day was not intended to be critical of their practices, and I apologize for not going to greater lengths to emphasize that point. I know there are people out their who love their breeds and responsibly breed their animals so that they are of a sound body and temperament. As Steve Dale pointed out, many of these breeders LOSE money but continue to do it anyway because of their love and respect for their chosen breeds.
That being said, I also have a great respect for life, more so than theoretical future lives. So even though we may agree that many breeders are using best practices with proper intent, the following question still nags to be asked again:
Is it truly responsible to knowingly add more animals to a world where millions are being put down every year?
When I pose the question to myself many thoughts come to my mind. One
argument against cracking down on all breeding is the sucking sound of
irresponsible breeders rushing in to fill the void. Not good.
argument against cracking down on all breeding is the sucking sound of
irresponsible breeders rushing in to fill the void. Not good.
Yet the question still stands. Again, not as a critique or indictment of the responsible breeders or the practice's existence. But it's a legitimate question to stir an intelligent non-agenda-pushing discussion. Because frankly I understand that many of the commenters on both Steve's and my blog were really just using my narrow topic as a way in, a means to illuminate, educate and call us to action on bigger, more complex issues regarding the treatment of animals facing us all as a society--and that's great. Until everyone understands the finer points of the discussion all the passion in the world won't improve the lives of dogs.
Got an opinion? Love to hear it.
Chris
Filed under: A better life for dogs
Tags: responsible dog breeding
So, Chris - what do you do? Outlaw breeders? Well aside from that starting to happen thanks to incredibly ridiculous laws....reproductive experts warn a dire future for pure bred dogs. That would be fine if people didn't demand pure bred dogs, which they do. And that is not going to change. And maybe it shouldn't change.
Now,breed specific rescue is good....but that would one day be the only choice if breeders go away, and ultimately if there's no breeding...well, you know, the birds and the bees....so people will go anywhere then to get their pure bred dogs. In other words, we're driving the good breeders away or underground (where they may not be so good), while others are underground already. It's the others that are becoming more prominent in some places, the opposite of your intent I'm sure.
And puppy mills continue - they should not - we have laws today to deal with it, but they're not being enforced. And when they are, the prosecutions are lame.
Adoption - yes, a wonderful option. Of course! I am all for that.
The problems - which you ought to know more than anyone....First behavior. Number one reason why dogs (and cats) die...people aren't as bonded as they could be because the cat misses the box, or the dog won't stop barking. Circumstances in life change, and the pet is gone. There's data to demonstrate more animals die of 'bad behavior' than all the kins of cancers combined.
Then those millions (or whatever the number) of dogs in shelters that die. Well, a good percent of those (no one knows how many) are Pit Bull types, and in specific geographic areas today (this changes every several years) Chihuahua's and also mostly in rural areas sporting breed dogs. Let's address why these dogs are there in such large numbers. We are not doing that. Partly, spay/neuter, but there are a myriad of other reasons. Many shelters around America, half or more of all their dogs today are Pit Bull types.
None of this has anything to do with responsible breeders who are doing it right...using your own techniques - when a dolphin, dog, cat or person does it right, aren't we supposed to reward and not punish? Reproductive experts and the general public indicate that we need code of ethic breeders.
By the way, we should stop having babies here in America because there are too many orphans in this country, and especially in other nations.
And one more thing - and this is something we need to STOP, proposed pet limit laws - like the one soon to be suggested in Nashville, deter adoption, deter rescue and deter pet fostering - let's do something about this!!!
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/steve-dale-pet-world/2010/08/nashville-suggesting-pet-limit-laws-based-on-size-of-the-yard.html
Hey Steve,
All good points and I can't argue with any of them. The comment of yours that I liked the best was "let's do something about this!!!" This is a huge problem and most of it is human created. I have to be believe that we can come up with a solution. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Just so many flaws my head is going to explode. It is absolutely ridiculous to say the laws regarding breeding regulations are horrible, so lets not do anything to change them. It is because they are unenforceable and lame that people want to change them, but instead of being met with education and encouragement, the movements are blocked. I don't see a whole lot of breed clubs, rescues, and shelters stepping up to educate the average dog owner on what to look for in a breeder, look at their websites. But they are the first to complain about bad breeding and such. So instead of staying and trying to better the whole process your saying they now have gone underground. Awesome, things are totally going to get solved.
The pitts in shelter problem has so much more to it then just being overpopulated by random breeders. It has a lot more to do with an unearned reputation. I have been witness to numerous trainer, vets and techs telling people to not adopt a pitt because of the uncertainty of their background. But the snarling lab next to it, go right ahead, it's just a lab.
BUT lets make a huge issue out of pet limitation, which many suburbs of chicago already have in place and it has not deterred fostering or adoption to my knowledge. That is totally what we should focus on.
End of the day I can't be to upset with Chris' blog, he was trying to educate people and basically it was the truth , there are greedy people out there out to make money with no regards to the dog.
Thanks for the comment graham4043. Education is key and thanks for realizing the intent of my posts. There are so many contributing factors to this problem and it's overwhelming. I did only ask one question on my last post and it led to a series of...more questions. Steve had some good points but he went off in a few directions and that may be part of the problem. My thoughts are that we have to break up each of the components to the problem and come up with individual solutions. Not to say that there aren't any solutions in place right now but something different has to be done. I'm a huge fan of pitbulls and I do agree with your thoughts on that subject. Great thoughts and thanks for taking the time to respond.