Hey RR....I am a breeder and I am responsible and I do NOT need an SS. If you do and that makes you feel more secure then fine.
Now back to generalities...
At some point a breeder needs to be able to stop taking credit, and needing ownership (real or imagined) and control...and give some to the people actually raising the dog, imo.
I also know how easy it is, ESP on the internet to make oneself sound perfect and fabulous...and be something altogether different IRL. That goes for breeders and owners, both. No piece of paper or number is going to insulate you from that.
My puppy folks stay in touch with me and vice versa because they want to...not because I will hunt them down using their SSN...lol.
i agree...
And sometimes you do lose contact. We haven't spoken to Trey's breeder in probably 6-7 years. We signed contracts for him and she had our numbers. We both moved across country and it just lost touch... We emailed her last year but never got a response, so I dunno.
Good breeders try to prevent this as much as possible but there's really only so much you can do. A contract is really only a warning. Unless you keep all your pups then you're never going to have total control over what happens to them as they grow. Unless you pediatric spay/neuter there is always the chance that someone will let their dog be bred be it accident or on purpose.
Breeder contracts really don't seem to hold up too well in court.
Hopefully it serves more as a deterrent. Hopefully between that and the interviewing process you weed out bad homes. Why would someone want a dog they have to go through all this for if they're not serious about it?
One way that Trey's breeder has it work which she had found really useful is giving the owner back a portion of the cost after the dog is spayed/neutered. We got $100 'refunded' for neutering him and while that doesn't cover the cost of the neuter, it is just bit more of an insurance that it will get done. That plus the contract we signed that we would fix the dog.
We are good friends with my papillons' breeder. We go over a lot, hang out with the dogs, meet up at shows, heck my father even goes hunting with her husband... We only know them through the dogs. Having a good mentor who is interested in keeping up with the dogs is so helpful. She boards our dogs and I know she'd always be there to take care of them were something to happen to us. She has kept in touch with everyone who has her pups- I know them all. I know all the dogs and she emails them back and forth and some of them even email us with news of our dogs' relatives. It's really cool.
However, personal information is personal information.
SSN is not worth any puppy. I know I can get a dog from a breeder or rescue that doesn't require it so I will. My father had some identity theft problems and while I'm sure no one wants to masquerade as a me (a broke college student) I just won't risk it.