Re: why breed purebred dogs - I don't think there's a pressing need to maintain every type of working dog. For one, I think the dog-aggression of the fighting breeds would be well lost. And I'm sympathetic to the idea that why should we breed more purebreds? All my dogs came from shelters, two were mixes, and I've known a lot of show people I didn't much care for. But practically, if we did that, within 10 years, every dog in the US would be a pit bull or lab mix. Maybe they'd all have homes, but I wouldn't have a dog, and neither would thousands of other people who either wouldn't or couldn't handle them. And the odds are pretty good that we'd lose a lot of the best qualities of our dogs once the only people breeding deliberately were the people doing it for money or machismo. The delicacy of a toy spaniel's leap onto an elderly owner's lap, the gleeful snap of a terrier's jaws on a stick, the joyous burst of speed of a collie - they'd all be lost. The breeds aren't just cute histories with legs and show careers, they're types of behavior that people have developed to fill specific needs and desires - and which they're fallen deeply in love with. Eliminating them by ending the breeding of purebreds would break a lot of human hearts.