Today is Puppy Mill Awareness Day. (I learned about the day through my favorite Vet Blog.)
Gandhi said that the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. If we think about puppy mills and illegal breeding facilities, we have further evidence that our nation is in trouble.
What do puppies have to do with Human Resources? Over the years, I have run into my fair share of professionals — IT, Finance, Legal, HR, Aviation — who left corporate America for various reasons (e.g., layoffs, retirement, opting out) and are now breeding dogs for profit.
I know the economy is tough and money is tight, but I have a difficult time with the idea of making money on dogs.
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The good news is that most people are kind and caring towards animals. Spay & neutering efforts have been successful in large parts of America, and there is a shortage of unwanted, healthy, mixed-breed puppies in the marketplace.
There are thoughtful breeders out there who raise their animals in a humane way. Responsible members of my community have told me that they love a specific breed of dog, want to see healthy dogs inserted into the population, and very rarely make a profit on their endeavors. I can’t argue with animal lovers who are trying to do the right thing. If you love animals and want to buy a puppy from a reputable breeder, that’s okay by me. If you are a registered business owner and follow local laws and guidelines and breed puppies, it’s no business of mine as to how you earn a living.
The bad news is that shifty & unethical entrepreneurs are filling our communities with unwanted and over-bred dogs. When a puppy is born with genetic malformations, or if an adult dog can no longer have puppies, those dogs are either killed or dumped at a local animal services facility. When a breeder in your community acts in an irresponsible and uninformed manner, and when a simple breeding operation gets out of hand, the consequences are dire for local agencies. Those agencies, funded by your tax dollars, are required to step in and save the day.
Furthermore, many breeders operate under the radar of the IRS, state tax agencies, and local guidelines & ordinances. Your community doesn’t reap the benefits of a business that operates within its jurisdiction, but your local agencies are asked to intervene when a puppy mill is discovered, animals are dumped at shelters, and when puppies and older dogs require emergency medical care.
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I think Gandhi is right — the greatness of a nation community and its moral fiscal progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. This philosophy applies to children, the environment, and a host of other local issues, too.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! I have 2 papillons. One was from a wonderful breeder, and the other was a rescue from a puppy mill. Stoli (the papillon from the breeder) is AKC registered and from championship lines, which I could care less about. Bandit (the puppy mill rescue) spend the first 3 months of his life in a tiny cage and had to fight for food. He had virtually no human interaction until we brought him home. He was a “throw-away” because he was born with an umbilical hernia and dew claws. Both of those are easy fixes with simple surgery. Thankfully, this horrible breeder was busted before they put Bandit down, and we were lucky enough to log onto Petfinder.com and find him the day he was listed.
When we met him, he was terrified of people, and only understood how to interact with other dogs. Luckily, Stoli and he became best friends right away and slowly Bandit started trusting us more and more. He didn’t know how to jump up on things for several months because he was used to being in a cage full time. We named him Bandit because he was an expert at stealing Stoli’s food and bones (likely a survival technique from being caged with tons of other puppies).
Today, he is my shadow. I can’t go anywhere that he isn’t right on my heels. He sleeps on my feet or laptop while I’m working.
thank goodness that puppy mill was busted, or else I wouldn’t have my wonderful Bandit!
Here are some pictures:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j259/phdbreezy/l_79bb192827b9710771f7421dd9e98387.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j259/phdbreezy/l_0384305be7f42c08e045cdf45f5d1712.jpg
If it’s okay with you, I’m going to follow your lead and post about this too today. It’s such an important issue.
I just wrote the longest comment ever and it dissappeared. Does the site delete comments if they include links?
“Backyard breeders” make me as livid as puppy/kitten mills do. I watch way too much Judge Judy/Judge Joe Brown/etc, and have seen quite a few cases where someone is suing over buying a sickly puppy from someone who is breeding dogs strictly for the money. And even worse is when part of the basis of the lawsuit is that the buyer had intended to churn out puppies too, because “if you spend that much money on a dog, you’re entitled to make it back, right?” These backyard breeders don’t give a damn about genetics or health, and often simply breed together siblings because that’s what they have. Working with purebreds is tricky enough when you study pedigrees and are aware of potential health issues and the risks of breeding too close on a line. If you don’t give a shit about anything except making your money back, you’re no better than a damn mill breeder.
I am proud of what I’ve done as a member of the cat fancy. My show fees have gone towards research into feline health, and CFA heavily funded research into early spay/neuter which is now benefiting both hobbyist breeders and shelters – no more worrying about whether a buyer/adopter will honor the contract clause to spay/neuter the kitten. (and they regularly ignore it, as they do the “do not declaw” clause) And I hate the perception that serious hobbyist breeders and backyard breeders and puppy/kitten mills are all the same thing. (some legislation tries to treat them all alike – and of course, only the serious hobbyist breeders are even concerned about such laws being passed because the backyard breeders and mills will just ignore them anyway)
When you seek out a purebred, remember our adage: if you’re making a profit, you’re doing it wrong… (and that’s why I now just adopt purebred rescues and occasionally show – breeding is freakin’ expensive if you’re doing it right)
@Breanne Awesome comments and an even better post. EVERYONE GO CHECK OUT BREANNE’S ADORABLE DOGGIES.
@Perrik I go back & forth on breeders. There are responsible ones out there, but I never seem to find them. I’m only exposed to the muck & the crap when I’m involved at the local animal rescue. That being said, I would totally want another purebred Maine Coon cat. My cat, Lucy, is about the best cat a woman could ever ask for… and Lucy is a rescue, but if I knew of a reputable Maine Coon breeder (& if I didn’t have five cats) I would get another one in a heartbeat. They are awesome. PS – I totally support early spay/neuter. I had all my fosters done at 8 wks and it was no problem. We did the side spay/flank spay for the girls and that worked out well, too.
@laurie Look to the breed clubs. You want someone who is keeping up with the kind of info that gets passed around among the serious breeders. It’s not a guarantee of quality, but it’s a start. I love Maine Coons, but couldn’t take the constant flow of happy but misinformed cat owners who visit shows and insist that their cat has to be a purebred Maine Coon just because it sort of looks like one. I get more than enough of that with Chartreux! Makes me want to start working with Devon Rex. No one has a cat at home who looks like that.
If I ever start breeding again, no kittens are going to their pet homes before being snipped. I can’t enforce the sales contract after they leave my house, but I’ll be damned if any of my cats contribute to the overpopulation problem.
Considering the number of animals that never make it out of shelters, I appalled by the number of breeders. Period.
HSUS has stats – http://tinyurl.com/drsqz. If I ever need a downer, I visit that site.
We have an animal (dog) adopted from our shelter. We donate time and money to the cause. But, much like HR, we can’t make stupid people smart. Hell, we can’t make them treat their animals well either.
We keep at it; we can’t save them all but we can save some. And it made a difference to our sweet boy who went from the streets (dumped off in a park) to the shelter to our home. He is our “velcro” dog now, always having to touch one of us.
A sweet post about the myths of adopting dogs came be found here – http://www.magsr.org/myths.htm. This is about GSDs (our breed) but is most likely applicable to all dogs.
Nice post Laurie.