Responsible Breeders are picky about who they’ll place puppies with in order to maximize the chances of it being a lifetime home. They provide ongoing education and support in helping new puppy owners over the unanticipated hurdles inherent in “Bringing up Puppy”. And in the event something goes wrong, Responsible Breeders will take that animal back - at any time during its life. Animals produced by Responsible Breeders do not (knowingly) end up in shelter or rescue.

Progressive shelters are learning these lessons as well. They’re providing more upfront education, as well as offering training classes for new pet owners. And many of them staff “Hotlines” for panicky owners to call if something comes up that they think they just can’t deal with. In general, if you can keep puppy and owner together past the “Terrible Twos”, the chance of it being a “forever home” goes way up.

This is the food for thought engendered by the information on petpopulation.org.

In an ideal world, there would be no randomly-bred dogs or cats. The available puppies and kittens would come only from Responsible Breeders who place them in carefully screened homes, and ensure that they never find themselves homeless if circumstances change. Consequently, in an ideal world, there would be virtually no need for shelters or rescues, and virtually no adoptable dogs or cats being euthanized.

But we’re not in that ideal world yet. And chances are we never will be. So while that “ideal world” model is a wonderful image to keep in mind, reality says that we deal with the situation that faces us today - a situation that includes significant shelter populations all around this country. Hopefully, more and more of these municipalities will adopt a shelter model that conscientiously examines what it means to be “no kill”. Sally and others have posted real-life examples of not only how well such a model can work, but how quickly, as well.

I guess I just wouldn’t be ashamed to ask for $600-1,000 for a puppy (this is on the high end for a border collie) I produced if I have the pedigree research, DNA tests, health certifications and documented ability behind it. I’d put that right up front next to the cute picture to ward off people who don’t understand that the purchase price of a puppy is nearly insignificant to the cost of the dog over its lifetime and that you need to pay for basic assurances.

The one thing that really scares me is you hear how some people are very good at misrepresenting themselves to breeders. A high price tag lessens that to a degree.

Speaking of statistics, this little pamphlet is very interesting. “Exploring the Surplus Cat and Dog Problem”
http://www.petpopulation.org/exploring.pdf

Here are the Top 10 reasons people ditch dogs at shelters:

1. Moving
2. Landlord issues
3. Cost of pet maintenance
4. No time for pet
5. Inadequate facilities
6. Too many pets in home
7. Pet illness
8. Personal problems
9. Biting
10. No homes for littermates

WOW. That really shines the light on things, doesn’t it. It’s not about the dogs, it’s about PEOPLE. And the only one on that list that is a breeder problem is 10, and my guess is that it’s accidental breeders, more mix breed than purebred, and people who would otherwise give the animals away.

On a simple “more/less” likely to be relinguished, dogs are more likely to be relinquished if they are…

- sexually intact
- obtained at little or no cost
- over 6 mo. when obtained
- were more work than expected.

less likely if….
- dog had regular vet care
- dog had participated in obedience training

Certainly food for thought.

The last set of APPMA stats I have (2005-2006, show, as of 2004, that for dogs, 16% came from an animal shelter.

About half of all animals entering shelters are euthanized. Pets in rescue are rarely euthanized. If you doubled the shelter proportion for dogs, which is the portion that we talk about when we discuss euthanasias, you would completely cover all dogs entering shelters at about 32%.

For cats, APPMA stats do not include ferals never in the shelter system, which is a big issue for cats and the reason TNR is so important for cats.

That being said, the philosophical underpinnings of the “no animal sales” rule relates to the philosophical underpinnings of Responsible Breeding practices - i.e. that puppies are not “produced” to “generate $$”. Rather, that breeders produce animals to perpetuate and improve upon the characteristics of the breed, eternally striving towards that elusive “ideal dog” (or cat) with every succeeding generation.

It’s why even bringing up the question “How much are your puppies?” with a Responsible Breeder can be so tricky - because none of them want there to be even the HINT of a suggestion that that’s what motivates them. So the “etiquette” almost demands that talk of “purchase price” be almost more of an afterthought than anything else.

I agree that this is one more thing that makes it difficult for new buyers to know how to interact in their initial inquiries. Often, “How much are your puppies?” is almost the first question they ask, and then the breeder gets put off because they wonder whether someone who appears to think of money first will always put the dog’s best interests first.

And so the dance goes on.

Still - though - I prefer it to the alternative of “If you’ve got the plastic, you’ve got a puppy!”.

But passionate people get it wrong sometimes. They think that if you don’t buy into their dogma/religion/politics, that you’re evil. Well, televangelists see Satan all over the place. Why? Because that drums up money. People don’t buy umbrellas if it isn’t raining.

Responsible breeders aren’t the problem. People who buy from them are not the problem. But they are easy targets because they are not anonymous.

For instance, why in the hell does Craigslist have a “no selling animals” policy? The stupid idea that selling animals is bad. I’m sorry, but the market economy works and quality goods should be sold for a quality price. The no selling policy doesn’t harm puppy mills. True puppy mills already have distribution networks.

It doesn’t stop accidental breeders. They park in front of Walmart with a sign.

But it does stop hobby breeders and people who are smart enough to put in just a little bit of time looking for a pet from meeting on a community site.

I just love how you can sell sex, but not sell a dog. Amazing.

I do breed rescue and am fully aware of just how awful, shallow, neglectful and abusive some people can be.

I also get to see how generous folks can be to help out with dogs, to provide homes for dogs with significant medical issues and a loving home for elderly dogs who need somewhere to sleep and rest in the sun for their last days. Most dog and cat owners do care for and love their pets.

We had our first litter in 1994. We have a litter about once each 18 months. I must say that I have met some wonderful people by placing puppies with them. we stay in touch for the dogs lifetime and they are always welcomed back if need be. Four have returned over the last decade, three due to circumstances beyond the families’ control, one was due to negligence and neglect. The people involved misrepresented themselves in virtually everyway. It was heartbreaking, but at least we got him back. He needed us for a while, then he needed to be the only dog. His new Mom sends pictures regularly.

When we moved to the county we currently reside in, the public shelter was a horror show. Pets checked in, but they didn’t check out. The mobile spay neuter van sat unused for several years. Now it’s clean, inviting. Lots of volunteers, neonates are fostered, pets are released to rescues as appropriate, adoptions are up and killing is down. It has taken several changes in management for this to occur. The new director is now agressively pursuing feral cat programs which will hopeful slash the euthanasia numbers 50-60% over the next two years. And the mobile clinic is back in business.

Until this happened, no one with pets at home or not, would adopt because the conditions at the shelter bred disease. Who wants to bring home a new dog or cat and watch it suffer or die? Rescues had to be quarrantined. Not against kennel cough but against parvo!

Now I happily refer people to the shelter if they wish to adopt. It is now actually a shelter not a death trap. It didn’t happen because of money or new laws etc… It has all been due to better management

I’m coming not to agree with that, although I used to.

I think that pointing the finger endlessly at the amorphous irrespsonsible pet owner takes the heat off of those people who are maintaining and defending entrenched bad management in shelters. They just wriggle off the hook by saying, “It’s not us, it’s the bad irresponsible pet owners!”

Well, some of it is. But it’s also the pet owners who blew the top off this blog during the pet food recall. Pet owners who maintain feral colonies. Pet owners who do cross-country transport for rescue dogs. Pet owners who volunteered at the animal shelters for Katrina animals. Pet owners who fight over who is going to adopt the blind, three-legged dog featured on the news the night before.

The country is full of wonderful people who love animals. And a few jerks. I think our system should be designed to minimize the damage done by the jerks, and if the people holding animal control contracts for our towns, cities, counties, and states can’t do that without running a slaughterhouse, find someone who can and will.