One Thing I'll Never Understand...

[mohavedatura]

First of all, let me say that I have nothing whatsoever against people getting a dog from a reputable breeder. When I was looking for a little dog, I was getting a bit frustrated with our shelter and considered just giving up after the second dog I tried to adopt from them was stolen. Shelters are not perfect. Neither are rescues. And while I

Comments

Yes ma'am

[dragonhearth]

Shelter dogs are the bomb. I have one,had two of them. they love love love you. I'd add to that, shelter or rescue dogs can be great

Re: Yes ma'am

[mohavedatura]

It's not so much back yard breeders I have a beef with. Lucky is a cutie and I did actually think about going the BYB route when it seemed my luck was up at the pound. Though I have to say I haven't been as lucky as you. Most of the BYBs I met have either been the 'I'm doing this to make some money' kind or the 'Doh! I let my unspayed female play with her unneutered son and now I has puppies again!' kind.

My two biggest beefs are that phrase 'You don't know what you're getting' and people like that lady in the article. I wish more people would do what you mentioned... go to the home and look at the environment the puppies were bred in. No shipping, no pet stores and no brokers. If the folks who supported this lady had seen her house, she'd never have had 60 dogs to abuse.

That's awesome on Sunna. Sadly, it appears Trip may have been fixed too late. He seems to understand that he is supposed to go outside to go potty. But the lil' muppet has been marking all over the house. He's sneaky about it, too, so we haven't caught him.

[butterflysnf]

I got my dog from my local animal shelter, I think that knowing how our shelter works makes me want to tell people go get a dog from there, I believe that some volunteers and the people that work there do what they can to keep the animals in comfort and ok. It is tho a place where animals do get killed if they are not rescued. It is not the greatest place to work but one can have the comfort to make the best for these animals.
Having said I would recomend a dog from a shelter but any puppy or dog needs a good home no matter where they come from.

[mohavedatura]

The one out here is pretty high kill, too. At least, it was. They have been doing things to change it, but you can still see they are very underfunded. I got icon doggie a few weeks ago. The elbow of his right front leg was smashed at one point and then fully healed. They didn't have an x-ray to check it out. I was a little horrified to see the state he was in, since they don't have the people to groom them. I'm so glad that your shelter has someone like you there to look after the animals :)

[butterflysnf]

LOL we are talking about the same shelter
(btw I added you as a friend)
I will say that yes, the clinic in the shelter needs more funding, I have worked there but I love the vets that work there as well, they do their best with what they have.
I am not volunteering there at the moment but I hope to do it soon, I worked there in the kitty area and clinic, also with the horses, and the people who work there try to be loving towards all the animals there.
Working with the horses was an experience I will not forget lol my main job was to clean the stables and I did it with a group of people and one man make sure we were all paranoid before the day was over.
Our Local shelter serves all the areas around Lancaster, there is word that another shelter will be open in Palmdale so yay!

[mohavedatura]

Oh wow. I didn't even see that :) Have you seen the AV Adopt Pet Store in East Lancaster? That's where I got my little Trip. I couldn't believe how many animals were there all ready to go. Most of the ones I looked at in the main shelter were on waiting lists.

[childinthegrave]

i live in pa. it is pretty pathetic. when it's not puppy mills, it's BYBs, or it's just plain old ignorant asswipes who don't get their dogs fixed (ok, so my puppy just had her first ~cycle~ and i technically fall under the ignorant asswipe category, but that's only because it's the middle of winter, we're broke, and didn't realize she was ~of age~ yet

[mohavedatura]

Naw. I think a lot of people will let an animal go during its first heat. My cat Sonic's first heat crept up on me too, especially since she didn't yowl like other cats do. So we're in the same category :) I don't think you earn 'ignorant asswipe' unless you just let your dog keep going into heat, all the while being shocked and surprised that she is producing puppies.

One of my coworkers (who is the sweetest lady in the world) does this. Her little chi is way too tiny and sickly, enough so that all but one of her first litter died. She just produced another litter - sired by the surviving puppy. When CW was telling me, she says "Can you believe she's pregnant again? I tried to keep them apart, but the boy was crying for her. It was soooo cute!" I adore this lady or else I'd tell her she was probably going to kill her little female.

And that's OK :) I tend to be long and senseless, too :) It's why I love LJ so much.

Hey, so what we hear out here about the puppymills in PA... is it exaggerated?