The war of words on Facebook has not let up. The Petco Foundation posted something that came from my friends the I HATE DOG BREEDERS page. Many breeders became upset for understandable reasons and yet another firestorm let loose.
On one side you have animal rescue folks who say every dog bought by a breeder kills a shelter dog. This is not rational. Most responsible breeders are breeding for a purpose, hunting, showing, performance events etc. The people looking for this type of dog is not going to usually pick a shelter dog. NOT because they are bad dogs but because you look for specific traits and it is hard to determine if a dog has those traits in a shelter environment.
If you like to show conformation you must have a purebred dog with papers. You want health and genetic testing to help ensure (hopefully) that the dog is sound. Not many shelter dogs come with papers, genetic testing and ancestors with OFA clearances. But in the eyes of some of the activists ALL Breeders are GREEDERS. In it for the money, do not care about the dogs.
Then on the other side you have the people in the trenches. People who day in and day out attempt to save an animal or animals whose only crime is being owned by a sub human or the product of irresponsible owners. Every day is life and death and honestly I can understand the frustration they feel. I wish I had the strength to do what they do.
But you do hear of rescues gone wild that go from helping animals to hurting them by taking in too many and not having the money or time to care for them. Either by ignoring the facts or having too much pride they subject these animals again to a poor life or an agonizing death. To use the same logic that all Breeders are Greedy SOBs then it is fair to say All Rescues are Hoarders.
And for the record that is NOT my opinion. I am always donating money and supplies to my local rescues. Some know I breed dogs others have no clue. A local puppy mill was raided and they needed supplies – I took over my puppy supplies to the Charlotte Humane Society (an A+++++++ group!)
The problem that I see is that both sides are so dug in they don’t even realize how similar they are.
A good rescue and a good breeder actually interview similarly – they look for a stable forever home. They interview the people, they ask for references, they offer to take a dog back if it does not work out. It is a process and not everyone is approved – the point is not to make a space for another animal but to try and ensure that animal has a forever home!
Companion dogs in a responsible breeders program are microchipped and sold with a spay and neuter contract or sterilized before they leave. WOW! Just like a rescue! Send either an update picture and they are THRILLED!
So really are we all that different. We all bemoan the idiot backyard breeder or the careless people or the guy down the street who thinks he can make a quick buck. I do not understand why we have to be on opposite sides when really we all want the same thing.
