Red_ACD_for_me, had you forgon wanting an ACD and decided the rescue any old mut from a shelter, the reputible breader would not have brought another dog into this world and a an unwanted dog would have been given a chance at a happy life. Instead the unwanted dog is stuck in a shelter and will be put down because no one wants him.
For every reputuble puppy breed and then placed in a home of a dog lover, there is one dog in a shelter who will be put down because that dog lovers home was closed to him.
I beg to differ. My husband and I have been fostering dogs from the local animal shelter through a rescue for 1 and a half years now. There are some really sweet dogs, and I'm glad we are able to help them on their way to a permanent home....BUT!
none of them has been a suitable match for our family.
Every single pound dog we have fostered has come to us with severe emotional problems that makes them unstable enough around children for us to say "no way am I going to risk my family's safety having this animal around." Despite the fact that they are all soo sweet, they are a risk to us.
Then we decided we are going to start over with a puppy. We are done fostering because I am having a baby and do not want another mentally unstable animal around my child. How about a puppy from the pound? We would love one....however:
90% of the puppies/dogs here are "pitbulls" because they have square heads and short fur. It is impossible to look at a little gerbilish puppy and know if it will keep it's square head when it's grown. We are not allowed to have any "pitbull" or "pit mix" where we live because of all the breed specific legislation crapola.
This has lead us on a mystical quest for a responsible borzoi breeder, and when we find one who health tests and works their dogs to prove their temperment and physical soundness, we WILL buy a puppy from them, because it will guarantee a much higher chance we will finally have the stable, healthy, loving companion that we have been searching for and could not find out of the hundreds of dogs that passed through the animal shelter. That puppy will not be displacing a shelter dog from a loved home, as we have no intention of bringing an unpredictable and potentially dangerous animal into our home with our children, or getting evicted because the puppy we picked has a square head. Been there, done that, no thanks.
As for responsibly bred animals being more healthy, they are. Humans are incredibly unhealthy creatures. Look at us, we have chronic back pain issues, many of us are killed by heart problems, cancer cases are through the roof, many people have reproductive problems, etc. etc. Wild animals ARE selectively bred for health. If they are not healthy enough to fend for themselves, THEY DIE. Also, wild animals do not live a happy and carefree/disease free ideal life. A wolf or coyote doesn't live 15 + years in the wild. They die around 5 or 6 years, very young by our standards of canine longevity.
It's the same thing in dogs. Right now we are fostering a 10 MONTH old staghound, and he has:
Severe allergies that cause bleeding sores on his skin
Hip dysplasia so severe he cannot walk more than 1.5 blocks without collapsing
Eye problems
Ear infections
Heart problems
And all that at only 10 months old. He is still a puppy for crying out loud. Regardless, we had planned on adopting him and giving him the best life possible. Then we found out that gee, someone beat the heck out of him before and he is now a reactive fear biter when sometimes people touch his back. We absolutely cannot keep him with the baby now, and so the rescue is working on placing him with someone who
1. Has the money for his medical bills
2. Has no children
Seamus' situation has been the last straw. We are tired of trying to fix everybody else's screwups as far as "oops, I didn't mean for my dog to get pregnant," and "Oh gee, I beat the crap out of this dog and now it's ruined and will never be safe around children," or "I triedto make this dog mean enough for dog fighting but it didn't work, so now it's just a ruined neurotic mess." While I admire people who do take these animals into their homes on a permanent basis, it's not for my family. We are going to get a puppy who's parents have been tested for eye, heart, and joint problems and found healthy. We are going to get a puppy who's parents were mated because they both have great temperaments and they both have good working ability and they are good specimens of their breed. We are going to raise it with love and kindness so that it doesn't snap when someone pets it, or tries to give it a treat, so that it can be a safe, healthy and good family companion that we will enjoy until the end of it's days.
That is the end of my rant.