Another thread got me thinking.
The anti-breeder sentiment is possibly making the problem worse. Now bear with me through this.
First off I have to say I do support rescue and have and do foster for the JRTRO and helped rehab dogs who were due to be PTS. When we wanted a BC we adopted from BC rescue of Ontario. I do breed JRTs very occasionally because there are so many JRTs needing homes already (so I also don't breed for the pet market)
Now there are two groups of anti breeder people. People who support PETA and want no more pets of any kind period. Those people are just wackjobs we can forget about them for the time being.
Then there are people who say no more breeding till all the dogs in shelters find homes.
Ok lets talk about that.
We all know that until people stop buying impulse puppies at pet stores and are more educated about where to find a puppy the Millers and BYB will still be in business. This is where the rescue and pet store dogs come from. IMO BYB and Millers don't care about dogs or the plight of the over population problem. So they are not going to slow down production.. why should they. They just sell them to people who dump them in shelters and rescues. They still get the cash just the same.
The shelters and rescues are just cleaning up other people's messes. As long as there are those who will jump in and clean up the messes what insentive does the breeder of those dogs have to stop? Shelters and rescues give a place for people to 'feel good' about dumping their dogs. They delude themselves into thinking that 9 year old arthritic Fluffy will find a great home that can look after his health problems, or that Sharkie the biting terrier who messes on the floor will find someone who can train him.
The issue is we need to educate the public. By sending telling them to just adopt and save a life and to not go to a breeder is good for the dog they get.. but is it good for dogs? We tell people not to go to a BYB or get from a pet store. We list health problems temperament problems bad breedign practicies etc etc... yet that is the dog they adopt! (of course all don't have issues.. but all byb or milled dogs don't either.. you just have a much higher chance) How do we educate the public without shoot ourselves in the foot?
And realistically if those breeders who DO care about dogs (AKA all the good and ethical breeders who will do everything in their power to keep pups out of shelters etc) stop breeding... what happens when they do want to start breeding again? What happens to all those health tested proven bloodlines? If our goal is to have a happy well adjusted healthy dog population we need to keep the good breeders going and stop the bad ones. Right now the anti-breeder types are supporting the bad breeders indirectly and harming the good ones.
How do we fix this? Educating the public is difficult. Dogs are not objects and its not their fault they were bred, but we need to some how stop making it so easy for the Millers to pump out dogs.
The only idea I have had is to mandate that all pups sold in petstores are microchipped. The name of the breeder MUST stay on the microchip as a second name. That way if the dog ever gets sent to a shelter the dog can be shipped back to the breeder (and a follow up to see what they did with the dog... I am not against painless euthanasia after a period of looking for a home for an unwanted dog.. its better than being a stray or living their life in a cage). If every unwanted dog got returned to the breeder that might curb the excess production of pups.
Not that you could make this happen... if the people who drop off Fluffy or Sharkie had to watch their 'beloved' pet being euthed it might make dumping them a little harder to do.
The anti-breeder sentiment is possibly making the problem worse. Now bear with me through this.
First off I have to say I do support rescue and have and do foster for the JRTRO and helped rehab dogs who were due to be PTS. When we wanted a BC we adopted from BC rescue of Ontario. I do breed JRTs very occasionally because there are so many JRTs needing homes already (so I also don't breed for the pet market)
Now there are two groups of anti breeder people. People who support PETA and want no more pets of any kind period. Those people are just wackjobs we can forget about them for the time being.
Then there are people who say no more breeding till all the dogs in shelters find homes.
Ok lets talk about that.
We all know that until people stop buying impulse puppies at pet stores and are more educated about where to find a puppy the Millers and BYB will still be in business. This is where the rescue and pet store dogs come from. IMO BYB and Millers don't care about dogs or the plight of the over population problem. So they are not going to slow down production.. why should they. They just sell them to people who dump them in shelters and rescues. They still get the cash just the same.
The shelters and rescues are just cleaning up other people's messes. As long as there are those who will jump in and clean up the messes what insentive does the breeder of those dogs have to stop? Shelters and rescues give a place for people to 'feel good' about dumping their dogs. They delude themselves into thinking that 9 year old arthritic Fluffy will find a great home that can look after his health problems, or that Sharkie the biting terrier who messes on the floor will find someone who can train him.
The issue is we need to educate the public. By sending telling them to just adopt and save a life and to not go to a breeder is good for the dog they get.. but is it good for dogs? We tell people not to go to a BYB or get from a pet store. We list health problems temperament problems bad breedign practicies etc etc... yet that is the dog they adopt! (of course all don't have issues.. but all byb or milled dogs don't either.. you just have a much higher chance) How do we educate the public without shoot ourselves in the foot?
And realistically if those breeders who DO care about dogs (AKA all the good and ethical breeders who will do everything in their power to keep pups out of shelters etc) stop breeding... what happens when they do want to start breeding again? What happens to all those health tested proven bloodlines? If our goal is to have a happy well adjusted healthy dog population we need to keep the good breeders going and stop the bad ones. Right now the anti-breeder types are supporting the bad breeders indirectly and harming the good ones.
How do we fix this? Educating the public is difficult. Dogs are not objects and its not their fault they were bred, but we need to some how stop making it so easy for the Millers to pump out dogs.
The only idea I have had is to mandate that all pups sold in petstores are microchipped. The name of the breeder MUST stay on the microchip as a second name. That way if the dog ever gets sent to a shelter the dog can be shipped back to the breeder (and a follow up to see what they did with the dog... I am not against painless euthanasia after a period of looking for a home for an unwanted dog.. its better than being a stray or living their life in a cage). If every unwanted dog got returned to the breeder that might curb the excess production of pups.
Not that you could make this happen... if the people who drop off Fluffy or Sharkie had to watch their 'beloved' pet being euthed it might make dumping them a little harder to do.