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Taken from http://khukuri.livejournal.com/82805.html#cutid1
Wonderful and informative article on Backyard Breeders (BYBs) vs. Responsible Breeders
Let's talk about pets, shall we?
When I was working at the (relatively small) pound, over the holidays each vet put down usually over a hundred puppies and kittens a day. There were more to do, but they just couldn't take doing more than that.
The puppies and kittens were perfectly adoptable, lovely, lively little things. Each and every one of them would have made a great pet. They ran the gamut from generic mutts to purebreds to the latest trendy "designer dog". Some were strays with little human interaction, but they licked our faces anyway. Some had been starved, or beaten, or abused; they begged us for pats. At the end of the day I helped empty them out of the freezer bins in the euthanasia room and pushed them in wheelbarrows across the car park to the incinerator.
HOW NOT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS PROBLEM:
(I am just gonna focus on dogs here, but all of these issues also apply to cats)
The only valid reason to breed more dogs is to improve the breed. Not because you want to experience puppyhood, not because you think your bitch should have just one litter, not because she'd be "such a good mother", not because your friends want one. Along those lines, it is never ethical to breed crossbreeds (this includes "designer dogs").
To improve the breed, responsible breeders:
-show their dogs, to prove that that dog is a good example of the breed.
-test the sire and dam to make sure that they're not carrying genetic disorders, e.g. x-raying hip joints for soundness, scanning retinas for degenerative disorders, testing their DNA to see if they carry neurological disorders.
-usually only breed one or two breeds, because they are personally involved with that breed/s, and because breeding is an involved, lengthy process that extends beyond just throwing two dogs together, and few people have enough resources and energy to contribute enough to several breeds at once.
-make sure that the puppies go to good homes that what the breed will be like, what they will have to do to keep it happy, and that it's the right sort of dog for their lifestyle. They do this by everything from interviews to lengthy correspondence to home inspections.
-makes sure that puppies that aren't breeding quality are desexed, so as to not produce even more dogs with health or confirmation problems.
Puppy mills and backyard breeders breed by:
-putting any two dogs together
-accepting paypal, credit cards, postal orders, and cash.
Can you see the difference? So, of course you never want to support unethical breeders! Easy, huh? You can do this by:
-When getting a puppy, making sure that you go to a responsible breeder (remember: shows, tests, checks you out)!
-Never EVER EVER buy from a pet store. No responsible breeder will ever sell to a pet store. Ever. Pet store puppies are usually farmed. By buying from them you are supporting a practice that pumps out puppy after puppy, without health checking them, without giving their new owners any information on how to best care for them. This is where pound dogs come from. Pet stores, puppy mills, and backyard breeders are the reason that those freezer bins were so full at the end of the day.
-Steering puppy-searching friends and family away from pet stores.
But Khukuri! I don't want a show dog, I just want a pet!
Even puppies from a Grand Champion x Grand Champion mating will not necessarily be show quality. Genetics are funny things! You can get a lovely pet dog from most litters; the breeder will pick out the ones that are pet quality and will just make sure that you get them desexed.
People who breed just for pet quality dogs are not trying to improve the breed. They have no reason to breed other than their own want to see puppies (irresponsible, and with the numbers of puppies being put down, vile), or to turn a quick buck. People breeding for pet quality are only contributing to the overpopulation problem.
Crossbreds are healthier than those inbred purebreds! Hybrid vigour yeeeeah!
If anyone tries to sell you a dog by mentioning hybrid vigour, punch them in the teeth. Hybrid vigour is the theory that crossing two species will result in a healthier animal. What these pseudo-science shilling fuckwits don't seem to realise, however, is that dogs are all one species and that the offspring between a lab and a poodle is not any healthier than one that's pure lab. In fact, your shiny new puppy is now able to develop disorders common to both those breeds, doubling the vet bills you'll have to pay.
Not to mention that dogs being crossbred are never health tested- it would cost too much, and their Malticockershitzapoos are healthy-looking enough! "Healthy-looking" or "never had health problems" don't mean jack. Just look at hip dysplasia, a common disorder that leaves your dog in pain and unable to walk properly. This is easily preventable by testing dogs and not breeding from any that carry it. But it usually shows up between 2-4 years of age, after BYBs have already cranked out some litters. If the breeders don't bother testing before breeding, the only cure for it is hip replacement surgery- with the surgery racking in at between $3000-$5000 for each hip, your wallet better believe in the myth of hybrid vigour as much as you do.
But this puppy farm offers health guarantees!
A puppy farm/pet store health guarantee says that your new dog will be healthy for a certain period of time, usually between one to three months. That's all.
A responsible breeder's health guarantee says "I have done everything possible to make sure that this dog will live a long, healthy life. I have tested the parents for all genetic disorders that the breed is prone to, and have made sure that the dog's confirmation has not left it susceptible to extra problems. I want this dog to be healthy."
But Groodles and Labradoodles and Otherdoodles are hypoallergenic, that's awesome!
No, they're not.
Let's look at it this way- by crossing two dogs of different breeds, the puppies will have some of the characteristics of the mum, and some from the dad. No-one can say what they'll get from who. Some traits, like coat quality, will be a mix from both parents. Each puppy will have a different mix, so the whole litter will be variable. This is not a replicatable and controlled thing (like a breed), this is just the random smashing of genes.
So you only have a small chance of your puppy being anything close to hypoallergenic, but you've doubled the chance that it might have hip dysplasia, common to all of those breeds. Well done!
I want a puppy! Where do I start?
If you want a specific breed, head online and check out the club for that breed in your state. They should have links to reputable, ethical, and just plain good kennels in your area. Wander through them, do your research, see who has dogs that you like the look of, then fire off some emails. Also, the breed club should have someone to ring who can tell you what breeders have or are expecting a litter, and should be able to give you their numbers.
Alternatively, search for a breed-specific rescue, or an online pet rescue, like Petfinder (USA) or Operation Toby (Australia). They will have dogs and puppies that need loving homes, and while puppies are cute, sometimes you might want to go for a dog who's old enough to know the difference between shoes and chewtoys.
If you aren't fussed, or want a mix, check out your local pound or, again, an online pet rescue. There is a dog for everyone out there, just waiting for a home.
Never buy from pet stores, newspaper ads, markets, or signs stuck up around the place.
But working dogs?
Working dogs are working dogs, and are their own issue. Most people will never own a dog from working lines. "Being a companion" is not a job for your dog, nor an excuse to breed. All dogs are good companions, including the ones that end up in the bins because people think that "they're so good with people!" is a good enough reason to breed them.
Back this up!
Say No To Animals In Pet Stores is a good site, if a little close at times to unhelpfully sappy hippiness.
Canine Foster Care is mainly for Aussies who want to get into fostering (taking dogs off of death row and relieving pressure on pounds), but helps to explain why dogs end up in pounds and a little more about that side of things.
Concise little articles: Responsible Breeders Versus Pet Stores, Breeder Red Flags, and Finding a Responsible Dog Breeder.
And somewhat more direct, the Pet Island FAQ. PI is a subforum on SomethingAwful, and is a wonderful resource of really dog-smart people who won't hesistate to call bullshit on puppy mills and bad breeders.
And for comparison- this is a good breeder. You can see that the dogs are good examples of the breed (as evidenced by the championship titles), that there are good pedigrees on show, there are notes about health testing, there are links to the local breed clubs and other good breeders, and there is obviously a lot of hard work and effort put into the dogs (everyone can put in love, but love by itself is useless; with breeding good dogs, as with everything, hard work will get you the results).
Now take a look at these guys, because I'm sure as hell not. ...Oh fine, the things I do for you people. A quick look shows CROSSBREEDS CROSSBREEDS CROSSBREEDS YOU WANT MUTTS WE GOT MUTTS WE PUMP THEM OUT FOR CASH CASH CASH. Think I'm being unfair? Look at how many times they mention price right out of the gate. Then try and see any mention of why they're breeding those dogs. None of them shows, so why? "Because they make good family dogs" is not a reason, just an excuse to make money by producing dogs that have nothing else going for them.
FFFFFFUCK! I cannot even look any further without spitting poison. Fuck that mill Max Hardcore style, fuck it for bringing hundreds and thousands of dogs into the world for no reason other than quick cash, and for sending them out to whoever has the dosh. Fuck them and all their greasy inbred ilk, and I hope that the public gets educated to a point where these cretins and their puppy mills fall from fashion and all of them end up sucking trucker cock in rest-stop bathrooms.
And their wages are paid for by everyone who buys that adorable pet store puppy without bothering enough to find out where it came from, so fuck them too.
Okay, I can't think of anything else at the moment. I am tired, and the flood of calls for fosters from the local pounds right now is numbing. If anyone thinks they have a reason why buying pet store puppies or breeding non-show dogs is okay, raise them.
Just so you know, I am not a sappy heart-on-sleeve animal rights fruitloop. I want to work with animals all my life, raise them, help develop legislation that further protects them, but I also support farming them, eating them, shooting/trapping/poisoning ferals, and animal research and testing. When there are more puppies than homes, it is the right thing to do to kill them, and the only people to blame are the people who keep churning them out. That doesn't make breeding heaps of them any more excusable, though, and the more that the public becomes educated on where to get their dogs from, the less work that pound incinerator will have to do.
Wonderful and informative article on Backyard Breeders (BYBs) vs. Responsible Breeders
Let's talk about pets, shall we?
When I was working at the (relatively small) pound, over the holidays each vet put down usually over a hundred puppies and kittens a day. There were more to do, but they just couldn't take doing more than that.
The puppies and kittens were perfectly adoptable, lovely, lively little things. Each and every one of them would have made a great pet. They ran the gamut from generic mutts to purebreds to the latest trendy "designer dog". Some were strays with little human interaction, but they licked our faces anyway. Some had been starved, or beaten, or abused; they begged us for pats. At the end of the day I helped empty them out of the freezer bins in the euthanasia room and pushed them in wheelbarrows across the car park to the incinerator.
HOW NOT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS PROBLEM:
(I am just gonna focus on dogs here, but all of these issues also apply to cats)
The only valid reason to breed more dogs is to improve the breed. Not because you want to experience puppyhood, not because you think your bitch should have just one litter, not because she'd be "such a good mother", not because your friends want one. Along those lines, it is never ethical to breed crossbreeds (this includes "designer dogs").
To improve the breed, responsible breeders:
-show their dogs, to prove that that dog is a good example of the breed.
-test the sire and dam to make sure that they're not carrying genetic disorders, e.g. x-raying hip joints for soundness, scanning retinas for degenerative disorders, testing their DNA to see if they carry neurological disorders.
-usually only breed one or two breeds, because they are personally involved with that breed/s, and because breeding is an involved, lengthy process that extends beyond just throwing two dogs together, and few people have enough resources and energy to contribute enough to several breeds at once.
-make sure that the puppies go to good homes that what the breed will be like, what they will have to do to keep it happy, and that it's the right sort of dog for their lifestyle. They do this by everything from interviews to lengthy correspondence to home inspections.
-makes sure that puppies that aren't breeding quality are desexed, so as to not produce even more dogs with health or confirmation problems.
Puppy mills and backyard breeders breed by:
-putting any two dogs together
-accepting paypal, credit cards, postal orders, and cash.
Can you see the difference? So, of course you never want to support unethical breeders! Easy, huh? You can do this by:
-When getting a puppy, making sure that you go to a responsible breeder (remember: shows, tests, checks you out)!
-Never EVER EVER buy from a pet store. No responsible breeder will ever sell to a pet store. Ever. Pet store puppies are usually farmed. By buying from them you are supporting a practice that pumps out puppy after puppy, without health checking them, without giving their new owners any information on how to best care for them. This is where pound dogs come from. Pet stores, puppy mills, and backyard breeders are the reason that those freezer bins were so full at the end of the day.
-Steering puppy-searching friends and family away from pet stores.
But Khukuri! I don't want a show dog, I just want a pet!
Even puppies from a Grand Champion x Grand Champion mating will not necessarily be show quality. Genetics are funny things! You can get a lovely pet dog from most litters; the breeder will pick out the ones that are pet quality and will just make sure that you get them desexed.
People who breed just for pet quality dogs are not trying to improve the breed. They have no reason to breed other than their own want to see puppies (irresponsible, and with the numbers of puppies being put down, vile), or to turn a quick buck. People breeding for pet quality are only contributing to the overpopulation problem.
Crossbreds are healthier than those inbred purebreds! Hybrid vigour yeeeeah!
If anyone tries to sell you a dog by mentioning hybrid vigour, punch them in the teeth. Hybrid vigour is the theory that crossing two species will result in a healthier animal. What these pseudo-science shilling fuckwits don't seem to realise, however, is that dogs are all one species and that the offspring between a lab and a poodle is not any healthier than one that's pure lab. In fact, your shiny new puppy is now able to develop disorders common to both those breeds, doubling the vet bills you'll have to pay.
Not to mention that dogs being crossbred are never health tested- it would cost too much, and their Malticockershitzapoos are healthy-looking enough! "Healthy-looking" or "never had health problems" don't mean jack. Just look at hip dysplasia, a common disorder that leaves your dog in pain and unable to walk properly. This is easily preventable by testing dogs and not breeding from any that carry it. But it usually shows up between 2-4 years of age, after BYBs have already cranked out some litters. If the breeders don't bother testing before breeding, the only cure for it is hip replacement surgery- with the surgery racking in at between $3000-$5000 for each hip, your wallet better believe in the myth of hybrid vigour as much as you do.
But this puppy farm offers health guarantees!
A puppy farm/pet store health guarantee says that your new dog will be healthy for a certain period of time, usually between one to three months. That's all.
A responsible breeder's health guarantee says "I have done everything possible to make sure that this dog will live a long, healthy life. I have tested the parents for all genetic disorders that the breed is prone to, and have made sure that the dog's confirmation has not left it susceptible to extra problems. I want this dog to be healthy."
But Groodles and Labradoodles and Otherdoodles are hypoallergenic, that's awesome!
No, they're not.
Let's look at it this way- by crossing two dogs of different breeds, the puppies will have some of the characteristics of the mum, and some from the dad. No-one can say what they'll get from who. Some traits, like coat quality, will be a mix from both parents. Each puppy will have a different mix, so the whole litter will be variable. This is not a replicatable and controlled thing (like a breed), this is just the random smashing of genes.
So you only have a small chance of your puppy being anything close to hypoallergenic, but you've doubled the chance that it might have hip dysplasia, common to all of those breeds. Well done!
I want a puppy! Where do I start?
If you want a specific breed, head online and check out the club for that breed in your state. They should have links to reputable, ethical, and just plain good kennels in your area. Wander through them, do your research, see who has dogs that you like the look of, then fire off some emails. Also, the breed club should have someone to ring who can tell you what breeders have or are expecting a litter, and should be able to give you their numbers.
Alternatively, search for a breed-specific rescue, or an online pet rescue, like Petfinder (USA) or Operation Toby (Australia). They will have dogs and puppies that need loving homes, and while puppies are cute, sometimes you might want to go for a dog who's old enough to know the difference between shoes and chewtoys.
If you aren't fussed, or want a mix, check out your local pound or, again, an online pet rescue. There is a dog for everyone out there, just waiting for a home.
Never buy from pet stores, newspaper ads, markets, or signs stuck up around the place.
But working dogs?
Working dogs are working dogs, and are their own issue. Most people will never own a dog from working lines. "Being a companion" is not a job for your dog, nor an excuse to breed. All dogs are good companions, including the ones that end up in the bins because people think that "they're so good with people!" is a good enough reason to breed them.
Back this up!
Say No To Animals In Pet Stores is a good site, if a little close at times to unhelpfully sappy hippiness.
Canine Foster Care is mainly for Aussies who want to get into fostering (taking dogs off of death row and relieving pressure on pounds), but helps to explain why dogs end up in pounds and a little more about that side of things.
Concise little articles: Responsible Breeders Versus Pet Stores, Breeder Red Flags, and Finding a Responsible Dog Breeder.
And somewhat more direct, the Pet Island FAQ. PI is a subforum on SomethingAwful, and is a wonderful resource of really dog-smart people who won't hesistate to call bullshit on puppy mills and bad breeders.
And for comparison- this is a good breeder. You can see that the dogs are good examples of the breed (as evidenced by the championship titles), that there are good pedigrees on show, there are notes about health testing, there are links to the local breed clubs and other good breeders, and there is obviously a lot of hard work and effort put into the dogs (everyone can put in love, but love by itself is useless; with breeding good dogs, as with everything, hard work will get you the results).
Now take a look at these guys, because I'm sure as hell not. ...Oh fine, the things I do for you people. A quick look shows CROSSBREEDS CROSSBREEDS CROSSBREEDS YOU WANT MUTTS WE GOT MUTTS WE PUMP THEM OUT FOR CASH CASH CASH. Think I'm being unfair? Look at how many times they mention price right out of the gate. Then try and see any mention of why they're breeding those dogs. None of them shows, so why? "Because they make good family dogs" is not a reason, just an excuse to make money by producing dogs that have nothing else going for them.
FFFFFFUCK! I cannot even look any further without spitting poison. Fuck that mill Max Hardcore style, fuck it for bringing hundreds and thousands of dogs into the world for no reason other than quick cash, and for sending them out to whoever has the dosh. Fuck them and all their greasy inbred ilk, and I hope that the public gets educated to a point where these cretins and their puppy mills fall from fashion and all of them end up sucking trucker cock in rest-stop bathrooms.
And their wages are paid for by everyone who buys that adorable pet store puppy without bothering enough to find out where it came from, so fuck them too.
Okay, I can't think of anything else at the moment. I am tired, and the flood of calls for fosters from the local pounds right now is numbing. If anyone thinks they have a reason why buying pet store puppies or breeding non-show dogs is okay, raise them.
Just so you know, I am not a sappy heart-on-sleeve animal rights fruitloop. I want to work with animals all my life, raise them, help develop legislation that further protects them, but I also support farming them, eating them, shooting/trapping/poisoning ferals, and animal research and testing. When there are more puppies than homes, it is the right thing to do to kill them, and the only people to blame are the people who keep churning them out. That doesn't make breeding heaps of them any more excusable, though, and the more that the public becomes educated on where to get their dogs from, the less work that pound incinerator will have to do.