National Dog Day

I'm going to talk about something near and dear to my heart. That thing is puppies!

My Moose, look at how cute he is!

In honor of National Dog Day - which I realize was yesterday, but you know how this works! I update on Wednesdays! Stop complaining! - I'll be flooding you with pictures of my pooch, and, extra fun for you, dropping some knowledge on your ass.

Here's Moose and his adoptive big brother Beau. Moose wants to play constantly; Beau is a good sport who tolerates such nonsense because he knows that children are our future.

Specifically, I want to address breeders. There are a lot of people out there, including some dear friends of mine, who make the mistake of looking for their pet with a breeder. There are lots of reasons you shouldn't do this, which I will enumerate in detail shortly, and only one reason I can imagine you would: you want a specific breed of dog. And I will grant, to a person not in the know, a breeder seems like the best chance for getting the specific type of dog you want. Here's why that's crap.

He knows just how to tilt his head to melt you heart.

First of all, and I may get some disagreement here, but purebred dogs are a hugely bad idea in general. When we breed the same bloodlines together so much to retain that purity, called inbreeding, we are also repeatedly breeding in health defects. These defects get worse and worse the more we breed "pure" dogs. Here is an article from the Humane Society that explains the problem in detail, and here is an article from PetMD explaining the issue more succinctly (although I disagree with the phrase "quality breeders" as I don't believe there is such a thing.) And here is a excerpt from the PetMD piece for the truly lazy who don't want to click either link:

"As many of these gene pools are limited or closed, the risk of genetic defects rises significantly with each successive coupling.

Defects include a higher risk of cancer and tumors; eye and heart disease; joint and bone disorders; skin, immune system and neurological diseases; and even epilepsy."

See what I mean, he's so good at posing!

So, really, if I had my druthers, purebred dogs wouldn't happen at all anymore. Let's let nature take it's course and breed those defects out! But let's say you're not interested in a real, true purebred show dog. You just want a type like Border Collie, Labrador, Springer Spaniel (fun fact, all of these breeds are shown in my pictures!). That's great! There is still no need to seek out a breeder. There is a great site called Petfinder that is set up to help you find the breed you want, in your city, from a rescue. Let's leave breeders out of the equation.

He's so cute when he's napping! Who are we kidding, he's cute all the time!

Now that I've brilliantly cast down the one reason to go to a breeder, let's discuss more specifically why you should never go to a breeder! Some of these I've already touched on a bit, but here we go:

1. Dogs bred for pure bloodlines suffer from genetic defects that negative affect their health and reduce their quality of life. It is not a practice we should support. Mixed breeds have a much better chance at a long, healthy life.

2. It's estimated that between 6 and 8 million pets enter shelters each year (that number includes cats and dogs). Only about half that number get adopted while around 2.7 million are euthanized.* Those are not numbers I want to live with guys. They only way to ensure these shelter dogs (and cats!) live is to bring them home! If you want a pet, save a life! Only 30% of pets currently in homes come from shelters*. We can do better.

3. Tying points 1 and 2 together, an estimated 25% of dogs in shelters are purebred*. So if you're hellbent on getting one, you still have the opportunity to rescue one and save a life.

4. Rescues are cheaper. They cost less to bring home because you're not paying for some dog bred to be a show champion, they usually have fewer health problems you'll have to pay for, and a lot of vets give discounts if the animal is a rescue as a way of encouraging people to rescue. 

5. Why does it matter where the dog came from? Maybe I did get it from a breeder but if I didn't buy it, it would have ended up in a shelter too! That might be true, although odds are still good that someone else who doesn't know better will swoop in and take the dog. The flaw in that logic, though, is that if people refuse to buy from breeders and only adopt shelter dogs, that dog will still end up in a home. Maybe even yours. And breeders will go out of business! As it stands now, breeders contribute to the dog overpopulation problem. We don't need more dogs being born when there are literally millions currently waiting for homes!

6. The point that is most important to me is that - while I'll allow there are some people out there who breed dogs responsibly in the sense that they take good care of the dogs and do genetic testing to find and care for any defect (still don't support breeding them though) -  many breeders are not responsible or ethical. What I'm referring to are backyard breeders and puppy mills. Backyard breeders are defined as:

"people who breed animals, often without registration. In some cases the animals are inbred narrowly for looks with little regard to health," (from wikipedia). 

Puppy mills are even worse. According to the ASPCA: 

"A puppy mill is a large-scale commercial dog breeding operation that places profit over the well-being of its dogs—who are often severely neglected—and acts without regard to responsible breeding practices."

A puppy mill can be likened to a dog factory. Often, the animals are kept in cages that they NEVER leave, unless sold or being used to breed. They receive little food and water, and less care. These are dogs that often die from neglect, or if lucky enough to be rescued, suffer from life-long health problems as a result of the abuse. Here's a video from inside one:

If that video doesn't break your heart, you have ice in your veins. And there are hundreds of similar if not worse examples. We can help put a stop to this kind of cruelty by eliminating the demand for breeders. Just refuse to patronize them.

7. My last point is not about breeders specifically, but I feel I need to point out that you should be careful when you get cats and dogs from pet stores as well. Some pet stores, the good ones. pair with shelters so the animals you purchase are rescues. But far too many work with backyard breeders and puppy mills. Do a little research first, and don't support any business that keeps this practice alive. 

This is an older picture. He was still so tiny! 

Moose was a rescue (as was Beau, but he's not mine so I'm not telling that story). He was a bit of a non-traditional rescue in the sense that we skipped the middle man. A friend of mine found him and one of his brothers walking down the street in Memphis. I saw this picture of him:

Precious little baby!

that she posted on Facebook, asking if anyone could take him. (Someone had already claimed his litter mate.) Otherwise he'd end up at an already overcrowded shelter. My heart melted. Who could say no to that precious face. So I talked to Fiance (at the time Boyfriend) and we agreed we could take him. This was just days before I was to move from Memphis to Nashville, so we bought supplies and I picked him up on my way out of town. Here we are, at his happy ending. He has a home with other dogs to play with, regular vet visits to keep him in good health, and people who love him with our whole hearts. He's so big now! And such a goofball.

Please, please, please help us put a stop to breeders and the unnecessary deaths of dogs. Adopt and save a life. It's so worth it.

*Statistics from the Humane Society webpage.