Question - Why do people sell and breed dogs?

Recently on a dog list I am on we discussed this and then the topic was closed, for good reason. The owner of the list had this to say and I wanted to share with everyone, penny for thought kind of thing. Much more worth a penny though. I hope you will think of this the next time this question comes up for you. Please feel free to join the lists located at the end...

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There are a couple of different reasons for ending this thread.

1. We have people on this list who have WONDERFUL dogs from every kind of breeder you can imagine. Putting down their kind of breeder is often seen as insulting their dog. Petdogs-L is here to HELP people

remember, ‘Advice without attitude’?

Oh yes, even dogs belonging to you folks who got them from a shelter or rescue have a breeder—you just don’t know who it is.

2. It is a simple fact that America needs and will continue to need breeders of all kinds. In fact, the kinds of breeders that people are most likely to look down on—people who don’t know much about it but breed an occasional litter in the garage or a shack in the backyard, for example—will be supplying steadily MORE of our dogs in the future, as the animal rights movement and wooden-headed do-gooderism steadily shut down those breeders that might be considered more ‘responsible.’

Yep. The future is MORE small scale, unskilled home breeding. LESS professional breeding, especially less large scale commercial breeding. Importing of young puppies for resale has already been banned. And we can expect to see an almost complete end to skilled home hobby breeding of purebred dogs.

A dozen different kinds of laws are steadily choking off the more established and in-the-open types of breeding. Pet limit laws, mandatory spay/neuter laws, breeder licensing laws, abusive enforcement of welfare laws, limits on the number of dogs that may be owned for breeding, zoning laws, requirements for a business license to breed even one litter, expensive litter permits if you want to sell more than a single dog in a year, and more ... That’s the direction the laws are going and stopping them is going to take a monumental effort.

Only people who can hide from or don’t know about such laws are likely to be able to keep on, after the next 10 years or so. And we can wave goodbye to purebred dogs if that’s how things go.

We’re also likely to see some animal shelters start their own breeding programs, as dog shortages grow and prices go up. Shelters are exempt from all the laws that make breeding difficult or impossible for private individuals so they’ll be able to, they’ll make money they need to keep the doors open, and they’ll do it. The thought ought to curl your hair (the average shelter is far too dirty and the staff seriously short of breeding skills), but it will happen anyway.

Petdogs-L is the only one of the several public lists that Sharyn and I run that isn’t devoted to fighting to keep the rights of dog owners and breeders to continue following long existing animal welfare laws and traditional husbandry practices. While it’s certainly okay for posts on this topic to pop up here now and then, that’s not what this list is for, and talking about the subject makes it harder to do the REAL petdogs-L job.

If you believe the picture painted above, then there are several things you can do to help make it NOT happen.

1. NEVER give money to HSUS, PETA or any other national animal organization. Every single one has been taken over by animal rightists and will use your money to promote the end of pet dog breeding—and in some cases, every other use of animals. (Meat, eggs, medical research, fur and leather, fishing and hunting ... you name it, if it involves animals, HSUS wants it stopped.)

Give to your local animal shelter or quality rescue group instead. They nearly always need money and your dollars will actually help animals, rather than lining the pockets of activists, lobbyists, and lawyers.

2. You can read much more about the ‘Future of Dogs’ at:

http://www.pet-law.com/future/foreword.html

Click the link at the bottom of each page to get to the next.

3. Tell your friends what you’ve discovered.

4. Consider joining the national pet law list at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pet-law

That’s an even busier list than petdogs-L; it’s devoted to fighting for pet owner and breeder rights, full time.

If you think all of the above is nonsense, then you can ignore it. But expect posts that bring up the subject to not be approved. And don’t complain here if a few years out you can’t afford to buy the dog you want.

Walt Hutchens

co-moderator,

petdogs-L