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A blog Carrie found a few months ago and I lost it, so I am posting because I think its a great link to refer back to. I do not support Back yard Breeders. I understand everyone has a different definition but I refuse to buy into all breeders are bad the same way I refuse to buy into all pit bulls are bad.
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It's become fashionable to hate dog breeders
In yet another example of an emotionally-charged solution completely missing the mark on the actual cause of an important problem, hating dog breeders has become the hottest social trend.
An example of a facebook MEME
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Let's start with the legitimate problem: each year, somewhere between 6 and 8 million unwanted, stray or otherwise neglected animals are taken in by local animal shelters, and sadly, nearly half of them must be euthanized for lack of an appropriate home. As an animal lover in general and as a guy who lives with two amazing dogs, these shocking stats break my heart.
Since most of us can agree that euthanizing some 3.7 million companion animals each year is morally unacceptable, the question naturally becomes "what do we do about it." To answer that question, of course, we have to understand the root causes of pet "overpopulation." (For reference, unless otherwise cited, my stats are probably provided by the American Humane Association, though the more controversial animal rights group The Humane Society of the United States offers essentially the same sobering stats.)
For the purposes of our discussion, we'll focus on dogs for two reasons: one, because I'm a dog guy; and two, because I don't actually know a single cat breeder, nor do I know of anyone who has a pet cat - not a stray or barn-dweller, that is - that they've decided to breed recreationally. In other words, dog breeders (put another way, those who have dogs that get bred) are much more prevalent in my social strata.
The obvious answer to an overpopulation of dogs is that breeders breed too many dogs, right? And if so, then dog breeders are obviously the problem, and should be shunned by a responsible society.
Quoting Lee Corso: "Not so fast, pet lovers!" The above answer, though it apparently has become the rallying cry for the anti-puppy mill movement, misses the point on many levels.
Most issues of an imbalance in supply can be evaluated most completely by going back to basic economic principles… sometimes the most elegant solution is indeed the simplest. In this case, we have an imbalance in the supply/demand equation for dogs - too many dogs supplied, apparently, relative to the quantity demanded.
So where do these "extra" dogs come from? If you listen to the "I hate dog breeders" crowd, the oversupply problem is a simple factor of people wanting to buy dogs from breeders rather than simply adopting dogs from shelters.
"For every bred and sold puppy another one will suffer and die at the shelter," the Facebook page of the breeder-hate crowd proclaims. "We have to stop breeding more and more puppies until all homeless dogs have found a home."
Blogger Karen Friesecke takes apart the logic behind this sentiment in a fairly well-thought out post here. Her comments, in fact, got me thinking about the topic at all (oh, the wonders of Facebook - I have no idea which of my friends shared or posted Karen's article, but were it not for social media I'm guessing I'd never have heard of Karen or read her work).
Citing a study published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, the blogger points out that one of the biggest problems with eschewing "bred" dogs entirely is the very issue of where shelter dogs come from in the first place. Remember what I said earlier, that the "oversupply" issue goes back to basic economics, as you read this next part (edited for clarity):
The study determined that 3.9% of surrendered [dogs] came from a pet shop; 10.6% of surrendered animals came from a breeder; 2.9% of surrendered animals were received as a gift; 9.3% of surrendered animals were found by the owner as a stray; 6.0% of surrendered animals were offspring of another pet in possession of the owner; 22.5% of surrendered animals were originally acquired from another shelter; and, 30.8% of surrendered animals were acquired from a friend.
In other words, in a survey of a dozen animal shelters in six states across four different regions of the country, only 2.9% of dogs surrendered to animal shelters came from pet shops and only 10.6% came from breeders… The vast majority came from much more logical sources, if you think about it (again, edited for clarity):
These are the statistics that cause more concern: 6% of dogs surrendered were from offspring of another pet in possession of the relinquisher, otherwise know as I-didn't-know-that-animals-can-have-babies-before-their-first-birthday-itis.
Some 30.8% of dogs surrendered were obtained from a friend, otherwise know as my-female-dog-got-knocked-up-by-the-male-dog-that-lives-next-door-and-can-you-take-a-puppy disease, but sometimes known as the I'm-moving/have-a new-baby/just-got-a-new-job-and-I-need-to-get-rid-of my-pet-can-you-take-it syndrome.
Another 22.5% of dogs were obtained from another shelter, also known as I-knew-this-pet-had-behavioral-problems-when-I-adopted-it-thought-I-could-handle-it-but now-I-can't disorder.
Dogs most at risk for relinquishment were of mixed breed heritage, intact, young, owned for less than a year and purchased for less than $100.
Apparently it's my fault these dogs will die because I bought a dog from a breeder instead of adopting from a shelter...
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Now back to Econ 101: producers respond to incentives. If you think of puppies as livestock or widgets for a minute, it is easy to understand why some animal lovers get riled up about puppy mills and pet stores who sell cute little doggies to turn a profit. I've been to these pet stores - we often visit the puppies in these stores to give them some much-needed socialization… The last time we did so, I was stunned to see what I can only assume was an average- to poorly-bred Siberian Husky pup retailing for nearly $1,500.
The problem here, however, is not a question of supply, but rather of demand. Because the store in question obviously believes it can sell said pup at said price, there is, in theory, a demand out there for that pup. In other words, because some number of consumers has acquired a pup for a similar price, there is a demand that must be met.
Again, we seem to come back to the animal rights argument against pet shop puppies and the infamous puppy mill. People should just stop buying dogs from these outlets, and there will cease to be a demand for those pups, and the pet overpopulation problem will be miraculously solved (we'll get back to more about how I feel about pet store puppies in a minute).
So what did the data tell us? Less than 14% of dogs surrendered come from dog breeders and pet stores! By even the high end of that estimate, magically wiping away those dogs from the marketplace, we still see nearly 7 million unwanted pets surrendered at shelters, and still see nearly 3 million shelter animals euthanized each year.
The far bigger problem, even bigger than Bob Barker's rallying cry of everyone having their pets summarily spayed or neutered (a really good idea for a very high percentage of the companion animal population, I'll submit), is the basic reality that more than 85% of dogs surrendered to shelters find themselves up for adoption through what can largely - and bluntly - be described as the basic irresponsibility of their owners.
Let me admit up front that I have been one of these irresponsible owners. When I first moved to rural Logan County after college, I wanted a dog, badly. The problem was that I had given very little thought to why I wanted a dog, and how a dog really fit my lifestyle. For one thing, and this is a mistake I'll never make again, my ex and I had no interest in an "inside" dog. I was raised on the farm, and dogs lived outside, plain and simple. Further, the ex had a cat, and while it was a lovely creature, there was no question of kitty cohabitation with a canine.
So I did what all too many people do: I bought a puppy from the kid down the road. Yep, you guessed it: neighbor kid had a bitch that he probably got from somebody else's neighbor, and knew a guy who had a "stud" dog and… well, magically he had puppies for sale one day. Oh and boy were they cute! Hard to say no.
Our Labrador Tucker was (and is) a wonderful dog, and she lives happily on the farm out in Logan County to this day. I miss her, because she really was a good dog, although I had very little to do with that. Looking back on it now, though, I was compounding one dog owner's irresponsibility by providing an economic incentive to engage in bad behavior - by buying a puppy from someone who had ZERO clue what it means to be a "responsible breeder," I was saying to him "Hey, it's okay that you breed your bitch to whichever dog tickles your fancy, whenever you like, and idiots like me will gladly pay you $300 for the badly-bred offspring."
Then I added to that irresponsibility by not getting my puppy spayed right away, and that magical occurrence of nature happened: the other neighbor's intact male came a-callin' and did his thing… And then we were the irresponsible types trying to place puppies in good homes. Our one saving grace, I think, is that we really did put the effort into placing those puppies in homes where they were well-cared for, and to a one I can tell you where they are today, and they're all in good shape.
Sadly, you and I both know that's the exception rather than the rule.
More than 8 years have passed since my first adult dog ownership folly, and because I've been there myself, I can completely understand why people do dumb things with dogs, and why so many dogs end up in shelters. Furthermore, it is intuitively obvious why the overwhelming majority of dogs in shelters aren't "puppy mill" puppies or pet store dandies, but cast-offs from idiots like me or the neighbor kid who have no business in the world breeding doggies.
Educating both buyers and "breeders" is going to take quite an effort. Now that we've identified the problems - economic incentives and irresponsible owners - I want you to meet Amy. My wife Miranda is a helluva dog trainer. She and our Norwegian Elkhound Dash have competed very respectably in AKC Obedience Trials across the country, and they've earned both his CDX (Companion Dog Excellent) and RAE (Rally Advanced Excellent) titles.
Dash is an amazing dog, and it is precisely because when Miranda adopted him 8 years ago (long before we met), she did everything I didn't do when I was looking for a dog. She researched what breed fit her lifestyle, a process that she spent two years working through. Because she had a very specific set of needs, desires and circumstances, she read, she talked to breeders of many different breeds, she attended dog shows and above all she had a realistic expectation of what a dog meant to her life.
People most often overlook this last piece of the puzzle. One example is the holidays; for each of us, Columbus isn't "home," so we have to travel 2 hours in either direction to visit our families. What this means for Thanksgiving, for example, is that we either have to plan to take the dogs with us, including their crates, food, treats, toys, bedding, etc.; we have to board them; or, we have to be gone only as long as they can reasonably stay in the crate.
We never leave Dash, our 8-year-old, in the crate for longer than 10 hours; 8 hours is usually the max (because I work from home, he gets to spend most of his days in my office near my desk, which we both love). For Thanksgiving at my Dad's, that means we can spend no more than 6 hours with the family, allowing for 2 hours of transit coming and going. This year that wouldn't work, because a couple of weeks ago we adopted Roadie, who is now 12 weeks old. Roadie can't stay in the crate more than a few hours at a time, so the dogs went with us to Thanksgiving (which was perfect, because it was a great chance for socializing Roadie with lots of new people, including kids, which are in short supply in our neighborhood).
This is a pretty basic example, but most people who don't already have a dog simply don't do a good enough job of taking the lifestyle changes inherent to dog companionship seriously.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It's become fashionable to hate dog breeders
In yet another example of an emotionally-charged solution completely missing the mark on the actual cause of an important problem, hating dog breeders has become the hottest social trend.
An example of a facebook MEME
Let's start with the legitimate problem: each year, somewhere between 6 and 8 million unwanted, stray or otherwise neglected animals are taken in by local animal shelters, and sadly, nearly half of them must be euthanized for lack of an appropriate home. As an animal lover in general and as a guy who lives with two amazing dogs, these shocking stats break my heart.
Since most of us can agree that euthanizing some 3.7 million companion animals each year is morally unacceptable, the question naturally becomes "what do we do about it." To answer that question, of course, we have to understand the root causes of pet "overpopulation." (For reference, unless otherwise cited, my stats are probably provided by the American Humane Association, though the more controversial animal rights group The Humane Society of the United States offers essentially the same sobering stats.)
For the purposes of our discussion, we'll focus on dogs for two reasons: one, because I'm a dog guy; and two, because I don't actually know a single cat breeder, nor do I know of anyone who has a pet cat - not a stray or barn-dweller, that is - that they've decided to breed recreationally. In other words, dog breeders (put another way, those who have dogs that get bred) are much more prevalent in my social strata.
The obvious answer to an overpopulation of dogs is that breeders breed too many dogs, right? And if so, then dog breeders are obviously the problem, and should be shunned by a responsible society.
Quoting Lee Corso: "Not so fast, pet lovers!" The above answer, though it apparently has become the rallying cry for the anti-puppy mill movement, misses the point on many levels.
Most issues of an imbalance in supply can be evaluated most completely by going back to basic economic principles… sometimes the most elegant solution is indeed the simplest. In this case, we have an imbalance in the supply/demand equation for dogs - too many dogs supplied, apparently, relative to the quantity demanded.
So where do these "extra" dogs come from? If you listen to the "I hate dog breeders" crowd, the oversupply problem is a simple factor of people wanting to buy dogs from breeders rather than simply adopting dogs from shelters.
"For every bred and sold puppy another one will suffer and die at the shelter," the Facebook page of the breeder-hate crowd proclaims. "We have to stop breeding more and more puppies until all homeless dogs have found a home."
Blogger Karen Friesecke takes apart the logic behind this sentiment in a fairly well-thought out post here. Her comments, in fact, got me thinking about the topic at all (oh, the wonders of Facebook - I have no idea which of my friends shared or posted Karen's article, but were it not for social media I'm guessing I'd never have heard of Karen or read her work).
Citing a study published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, the blogger points out that one of the biggest problems with eschewing "bred" dogs entirely is the very issue of where shelter dogs come from in the first place. Remember what I said earlier, that the "oversupply" issue goes back to basic economics, as you read this next part (edited for clarity):
The study determined that 3.9% of surrendered [dogs] came from a pet shop; 10.6% of surrendered animals came from a breeder; 2.9% of surrendered animals were received as a gift; 9.3% of surrendered animals were found by the owner as a stray; 6.0% of surrendered animals were offspring of another pet in possession of the owner; 22.5% of surrendered animals were originally acquired from another shelter; and, 30.8% of surrendered animals were acquired from a friend.
In other words, in a survey of a dozen animal shelters in six states across four different regions of the country, only 2.9% of dogs surrendered to animal shelters came from pet shops and only 10.6% came from breeders… The vast majority came from much more logical sources, if you think about it (again, edited for clarity):
These are the statistics that cause more concern: 6% of dogs surrendered were from offspring of another pet in possession of the relinquisher, otherwise know as I-didn't-know-that-animals-can-have-babies-before-their-first-birthday-itis.
Some 30.8% of dogs surrendered were obtained from a friend, otherwise know as my-female-dog-got-knocked-up-by-the-male-dog-that-lives-next-door-and-can-you-take-a-puppy disease, but sometimes known as the I'm-moving/have-a new-baby/just-got-a-new-job-and-I-need-to-get-rid-of my-pet-can-you-take-it syndrome.
Another 22.5% of dogs were obtained from another shelter, also known as I-knew-this-pet-had-behavioral-problems-when-I-adopted-it-thought-I-could-handle-it-but now-I-can't disorder.
Dogs most at risk for relinquishment were of mixed breed heritage, intact, young, owned for less than a year and purchased for less than $100.
Apparently it's my fault these dogs will die because I bought a dog from a breeder instead of adopting from a shelter...
Now back to Econ 101: producers respond to incentives. If you think of puppies as livestock or widgets for a minute, it is easy to understand why some animal lovers get riled up about puppy mills and pet stores who sell cute little doggies to turn a profit. I've been to these pet stores - we often visit the puppies in these stores to give them some much-needed socialization… The last time we did so, I was stunned to see what I can only assume was an average- to poorly-bred Siberian Husky pup retailing for nearly $1,500.
The problem here, however, is not a question of supply, but rather of demand. Because the store in question obviously believes it can sell said pup at said price, there is, in theory, a demand out there for that pup. In other words, because some number of consumers has acquired a pup for a similar price, there is a demand that must be met.
Again, we seem to come back to the animal rights argument against pet shop puppies and the infamous puppy mill. People should just stop buying dogs from these outlets, and there will cease to be a demand for those pups, and the pet overpopulation problem will be miraculously solved (we'll get back to more about how I feel about pet store puppies in a minute).
So what did the data tell us? Less than 14% of dogs surrendered come from dog breeders and pet stores! By even the high end of that estimate, magically wiping away those dogs from the marketplace, we still see nearly 7 million unwanted pets surrendered at shelters, and still see nearly 3 million shelter animals euthanized each year.
The far bigger problem, even bigger than Bob Barker's rallying cry of everyone having their pets summarily spayed or neutered (a really good idea for a very high percentage of the companion animal population, I'll submit), is the basic reality that more than 85% of dogs surrendered to shelters find themselves up for adoption through what can largely - and bluntly - be described as the basic irresponsibility of their owners.
Let me admit up front that I have been one of these irresponsible owners. When I first moved to rural Logan County after college, I wanted a dog, badly. The problem was that I had given very little thought to why I wanted a dog, and how a dog really fit my lifestyle. For one thing, and this is a mistake I'll never make again, my ex and I had no interest in an "inside" dog. I was raised on the farm, and dogs lived outside, plain and simple. Further, the ex had a cat, and while it was a lovely creature, there was no question of kitty cohabitation with a canine.
So I did what all too many people do: I bought a puppy from the kid down the road. Yep, you guessed it: neighbor kid had a bitch that he probably got from somebody else's neighbor, and knew a guy who had a "stud" dog and… well, magically he had puppies for sale one day. Oh and boy were they cute! Hard to say no.
Our Labrador Tucker was (and is) a wonderful dog, and she lives happily on the farm out in Logan County to this day. I miss her, because she really was a good dog, although I had very little to do with that. Looking back on it now, though, I was compounding one dog owner's irresponsibility by providing an economic incentive to engage in bad behavior - by buying a puppy from someone who had ZERO clue what it means to be a "responsible breeder," I was saying to him "Hey, it's okay that you breed your bitch to whichever dog tickles your fancy, whenever you like, and idiots like me will gladly pay you $300 for the badly-bred offspring."
Then I added to that irresponsibility by not getting my puppy spayed right away, and that magical occurrence of nature happened: the other neighbor's intact male came a-callin' and did his thing… And then we were the irresponsible types trying to place puppies in good homes. Our one saving grace, I think, is that we really did put the effort into placing those puppies in homes where they were well-cared for, and to a one I can tell you where they are today, and they're all in good shape.
Sadly, you and I both know that's the exception rather than the rule.
More than 8 years have passed since my first adult dog ownership folly, and because I've been there myself, I can completely understand why people do dumb things with dogs, and why so many dogs end up in shelters. Furthermore, it is intuitively obvious why the overwhelming majority of dogs in shelters aren't "puppy mill" puppies or pet store dandies, but cast-offs from idiots like me or the neighbor kid who have no business in the world breeding doggies.
Educating both buyers and "breeders" is going to take quite an effort. Now that we've identified the problems - economic incentives and irresponsible owners - I want you to meet Amy. My wife Miranda is a helluva dog trainer. She and our Norwegian Elkhound Dash have competed very respectably in AKC Obedience Trials across the country, and they've earned both his CDX (Companion Dog Excellent) and RAE (Rally Advanced Excellent) titles.
Dash is an amazing dog, and it is precisely because when Miranda adopted him 8 years ago (long before we met), she did everything I didn't do when I was looking for a dog. She researched what breed fit her lifestyle, a process that she spent two years working through. Because she had a very specific set of needs, desires and circumstances, she read, she talked to breeders of many different breeds, she attended dog shows and above all she had a realistic expectation of what a dog meant to her life.
People most often overlook this last piece of the puzzle. One example is the holidays; for each of us, Columbus isn't "home," so we have to travel 2 hours in either direction to visit our families. What this means for Thanksgiving, for example, is that we either have to plan to take the dogs with us, including their crates, food, treats, toys, bedding, etc.; we have to board them; or, we have to be gone only as long as they can reasonably stay in the crate.
We never leave Dash, our 8-year-old, in the crate for longer than 10 hours; 8 hours is usually the max (because I work from home, he gets to spend most of his days in my office near my desk, which we both love). For Thanksgiving at my Dad's, that means we can spend no more than 6 hours with the family, allowing for 2 hours of transit coming and going. This year that wouldn't work, because a couple of weeks ago we adopted Roadie, who is now 12 weeks old. Roadie can't stay in the crate more than a few hours at a time, so the dogs went with us to Thanksgiving (which was perfect, because it was a great chance for socializing Roadie with lots of new people, including kids, which are in short supply in our neighborhood).
This is a pretty basic example, but most people who don't already have a dog simply don't do a good enough job of taking the lifestyle changes inherent to dog companionship seriously.
I totally agree. I made a mistake too and got Xena off of craigslist after my friend told me about her. One of the best dogs I've ever had but stubborn as all hell and sickly. A lot of people would have left her at the shelter she had been through 3 homes before 14 weeks old, people STILL tell me to take her to the pound. She's not going anywhere 
