I don’t like people who keep dogs like this:
People who mass produce dogs for the pet market are scum.
One can mass produce eggs, dairy, or meat, but one cannot mass produce quality pets or working dogs.
You just can’t.
To produce quality puppies of any sort, one must slow down. One must be selective in planning breeding and careful in rearing puppies.
You cannot do this at the volume that many mass producers breed.
I hope everyone understands these simple facts.
If you truly want a dog, don’t buy from a pet store or an online broker. Those entities prop up the mass production industry.
The mass production industry would die if people just stop buying puppies from pet stores and online dealers.
That would solve the problem.
However, whenever authorities raid particularly egregiously cruel mass production facilities, there are always calls to “end puppy mills.”
And the way they intend to do it is through law. Various states, including my own, are considering legislation that strictly limits the number of intact dogs a breeders has. These laws have regulations about puppy rearing that are not based upon any careful consideration about socialization. They almost always require that puppies be kept separate from other dogs, which is not wise.
Breeders with established breeding programs are punished. People who actually have well-thought out breeding plans are penalized.
Penalized because we simply want to stop cruel breeding practices.
I would be the first to tell you that domestic dogs, from a population genetics perspective, are very much in trouble. We need more dogs breeders, and more dogs being bred.
These laws are a direct affront to this necessity.
For that reason, we should oppose the mass puppy production industry, but we should do it by drying up the demand for these dogs.
Don’t be a stupid dog buyer.
How many times have you heard or read that dogs that come from pet stores or online brokers have health problems? How many times have you heard that dogs kept in these facilities are not treated well?
I have heard these claims hundreds of times.
I’m sure you have, too.
But we should not cut off our nose to spite our face.
We should simply our powers as consumers to put an end to puppy mills.
We don’t need to punish thoughtful breeders. We don’t need more stumbling blocks that prevent more people from getting in the game.
It is easy to say “There oughta be a law.”
But laws often have unintended consequences.
And sometimes, when we consider the total ramifications of a bill in question, we come to the conclusion that maybe there oughtn’t be law after all.
I think that this is the case with many of the HSUS-backed puppy mill laws.
We should enforce laws against animal cruelty to stop the bad guys.
But we also have responsibility in this matter, and that responsibility is that we must carefully consider the sources we use to procure dogs.
It’s just that simple.
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This post was inspired by this wonderful piece at DesertWindHounds. This is an example of an ethical, well-informed, conscientious breeder whose program will be ended if HSUS-backed legislation is passed in Texas.
