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

Question - Why do people sell and breed dogs?

Semantics and Rhetoric

Semantics and Rhetoric
by Anka Andrews

Increasingly, in my various reading of dog related articles, I find myself referred to as 'pet parent' or 'pet guardian'. I don't care for that.

I'm a woman. I am not my dogs' mother, I'm not their parent. I'm not some freak of Nature, haven't given birth to dogs or cats or any other pets. While they do have parents, I am not one of them. Their fathers know nothing of their existence, having been no more than sperm donors. Their mothers would not only not recognize them if they saw them but would quite possibly offer to mate with them, or fight them for food. While all of this may be de rigeur in some strata of human society it does not fit into commonly accepted human norms. To be designated 'pet
parent' diminishes the concept of parenthood.

I am not a pet guardian. Guardianship implies oversight by someone else, a third party who sets rules of conduct and care with which I have to comply. I make my own decisions about my dealings with my dogs according to my conscience and the values I hold which govern my interactions with living things. I guard my dogs' welfare to the very high standards I've set but I am not their guardian.

I am their owner. They are my property. I can sell them at will. I can store them in crates. I can sterilize them, or not. I can show them off. I can treat them and feed them any way I chose to.

Parenthood and guardianship bestow rights to that which is being parented or guarded. The guardian of an estate, for instance, has to make sure that the contractual provisions of the estate, its rights, are being met. Parents speak for their children in defense and support of those children's rights.

Dogs don't have rights; neither do trees or rocks or crocodiles. Rights are a human concept. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Those are the basic human rights. Dog ownership requires of moral people that we do all we can to protect our animals' lives, offer them as much liberty as is safe for them, and do what we can to help them be happy.

By allowing ourselves to be called pet parents and pet guardians we are giving consent to abide by a standard of conduct set for us by others. Animal Rights groups and politicians are queuing up everywhere to limit our rights as property owners. They tell us that we must neuter our pets. That we may not keep them confined in kennels and crates. They limit where and how we can travel with our property. They make demands on and regulate our ownership and thusly whittle away at our rights.

Primary cultural change is often insidious. It seeps into our consciousness gently, slowly and with great subtlety until we've bought into it without ever having noticed. Like high fructose corn syrup, it pervades. We do it, here, on our e-mail list. We talk about our fur kids, mommy and daddy doing this or that with them, we proclaim that they're our children. They are not. They're our dogs. We are their owners.

It's time for a reality check.

Watch your language!

From AKC judge, Charlotte Clem McGowan (sporting, working, terrier, toy, herding, BIS+): Nov 20, 2008 6:27 PM (PST)

I would like to make some observations about language. The animal rights people want to change language to help them in their quest to give animals legal standing and we are helping them. Time to stop.

Adopting - this is a term used for humans. We don't adopt animals. Sorry, rescues don't offer dogs for adoption either. They offer them for placement. They re-home them. But they aren't adopted. If money changes hands, they sell them. A shelter here in Mass grosses over $700,000 a year selling imported shelter strays, mutts and feral street dogs. They go for $350 a pop. They don't rescue in my opinion, they keep product in the store! They have a big so-called not for profit 501(c)3 business.

If we start calling it like it is (and I do) believe me you are going to feel so much better. Now if a purebred rescue collects money from someone for a dog, they are taking money as a placement or re-homing fee or they are asking to be reimbursed for expenses related to the re-homing. If you need it to be warmer and fuzzier, it is humane re-homing. Let's drop adoption. Animal rights people love us if we help them. Let's stop helping them.

Fostering - This is a term used for children taken by the state and put in the care of people not their parents. We don't foster dogs. We provide temporary care for displaced dogs. Sorry if you find that awkward but we can all benefit by retraining ourselves.

Guardian - legal term used for the legally responsible person caring for a minor child or incapacitated person. I think we get this one. We have to fight Guardian language in animal ordinances tooth and nail because a guardian takes away ownership from the owner. If you own a dog it is yours. If you are a guardian, you are not an owner. You are a person or entity with legal care responsibility. If dogs have guardians instead of owners, we no longer have ownership rights.

Puppy Mill- There is no such thing. Puppy mill is a slur, like the"N....." word. Let's stop using it. We hate substandard kennels. We want all dogs to be kept well. Well kept dogs are well kept dogs whether they are in kennels or in homes. It isn't about how many dogs there are it is about how well they are kept.

HSU$ call all farms factory farms. When have you ever heard them talk about or care about family farms? Now they call all breeders puppy mills. They try to mumble in a remote footnote that there might be some good breeders but for them it is all about shelters and if not shelters rescues. Do you get it? They use language to slander all animal use and all dog breeders. Their mumbled lip service doesn't fly with me.

Rescue - what is a rescue? To me, IMHO, it is taking on the care and re-homing of a dog in a true need situation. This includes when the owners are incapacitated or die, have to go into a care facility like a nursing home, lose their home, etc. When some one just wants to dump a dog because they are tired of it, that's a disposal job. I am not nice to such people.

When purebred rescues go into auctions and buy dogs I call that just plain dumb. That is assisting and supporting commercial breeders. Some people may not agree but supporting this sort of thing does absolutely nothing for purebred dogs. Words that do not belong in the language at all - fur babies, fur kids, fur children. All of these terms make animals into children who (gasp) need guardians, adoption and fostering. So I hope you watch your language