Comment by YouCantBeSerious — June 22, 2009

“Stupid”? “tard”? Great start to getting people over to your self-righteous, my-way-or-the-highway point of view. I doubt anyone here with a purpose-bred dog hates mixes the way you hate purebreds. How nice for a “rescue volunteer” to hate some pets simply because of a background they didn’t choose.

And we DO have people in rescue here. Lots of them. For, example, I ran a Sheltie rescue for three years, fostering and placing more than 100 dogs. And yes, I am a breeder, too, one litter, recent, for whom I’ll be responsible all their lives.

I’ll tell you something I learned when I ran a rescue, which you apparently have missed: Ethical, responsible, compassionate breeders aren’t contributing to the problem. Because when we got one of their dogs (usually because the owner had broken the agreement to let the breeder know FIRST) they couldn’t get to us fast enough to help that dog.

It isn’t true that a breeder is a breeder is a breeder and all are the same.

But hey, let your hate continue to drive you, instead of enlisting people who care about pets as much as you do to be stake-holders and problem-solvers to get to a no-kill nation.

Or just keep doing what you’re doing harder. It doesn’t work now, so if you keep it up, it should work better … not.

“Tards”? Are you TRYING to be offensive?

Because yes, I work for a rescue group in Northern California. We get SF SPCA DUMPS because guess what—the SF SPCA is no longer a no-kill shelter under that new head (she is a NIGHTMARE). The SF SPCA gives them to us because otherwise they would be euthanized. We got PUPPIES from the SF SPCA last month. It’s sickening. And yes, I’ve been to the SF SPCA when their kitten cages were empty like Winograd complains about other shelters, but that does not mean that there weren’t kittens to fill the cages; there are a number of reasons why the cages could be empty on any particular day.

What Winograd and you people also don’t seem to account for is that the numbers lie. Do Winograd’s numbers include the dogs and cats that my rescue have seen come and go? No, they don’t, because we get owner surrenders that aren’t reported, we get the SF SPCA’s rejects and we get random people dumping cats with litters of kittens to us (not to mention the many thousands upon thousands of abandoned animals that people DUMP at PetCo/PetSMART—that’s how we got our second bunny, she was DUMPED in front of a PetCo in a box and they gave her to us for free; technically an “adoption”, but there was nothing but a short receipt to sign saying that PetCo wasn’t liable for any vet costs since she was a dump/of questionable origin). The number of homeless pets that Winograd yammers on about? Most likely a LOW GUESSTIMATE. The numbers of homes that have pets/”need pets”? Yet more guesstimates. Some homes just don’t give a crap about animals and don’t want a pet. It’s all fuzzy math, just like the fuzzy logic that Winograd and people who don’t believe in companion animal overpopulation use.

And because the SF SPCA dumps their rejects with us, they aren’t recorded. What we get as their intake papers are merely vet papers, no any kind of official papers from the SF SPCA saying that these pups/kittens are FROM the SF SPCA. It’s all an under-the-table operation of sorts, so that the SF SPCA can’t be accused of dumping pets. It’s disgusting.

Where else do we get our dogs? Shelters from around the county and even other counties give us their “unadoptable” dogs that have run out of time/are about to be euthanized. Why are they “unadoptable”? Because they don’t pass the “adoptable” test—which a lot of the time includes ridiculous stuff like “too shy” or “bit handler” (particularly if it’s been a family pet/owner surrender). Well hello—the dog has been dumped in an unfamiliar environment. These shelters will just find any damn reason to kill a dog and why? Because there is no space, no time, no manpower and no money to take care of these animals the way they need to be taken care of.

I just…can’t understand the breeders and the breedists. There are TOO MANY ANIMALS (NOT too many people not willing to adopt a mutt OR not too many rescues UNwilling to adopt out [we rarely reject a potential adopter who has filled out an application and even with that loose way of adopting out we STILL can’t keep up with all the dogs that need homes]; if someone REALLY wants a dog or cat, they will find one from some place, and breeders only contribute to the problem) and we see it every damned day. Where’s your logic?

As Gina said, I wasn’t sure how to start.

I asked my 10 and 5 year olds where China was located. Both said Asia, yay for charter school and Carmen San Diego DVDs….

“many European countries EAT dog and cat meat. It’s a fact. In Guangdong China, they eat 10,000 cats a day.”

Oh - so China is a European country now?

Really?

Explain that to me, then, because there are THREE TIMES AS MANY pets bred as there are shelter dogs and cats killed in shelters every year. If EVERY TIME a puppy or kitten was bred a shelter pet died, the kill rate would be four times what it is.

That’s not the only math problem you seem to have. You say there are “millions” of homeless cats in Chicago? Really?

There are around 700,000 OWNED cats, nearly all of them spayed/neutered already, and around half a million homeless/feral cats. The total cat population is barely over a million. [Citation]

Geography is also not your strong point; China and Korea aren’t in Europe, so you can’t use them to prove something about pets in Europe.

I’m just saying.

Many Europeans don’t neuter their dogs, and their dogs manage to stay out of traffic and stay unbred.

There’s a miraculous invention, and perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s called a “leash.”

Your other comment is so full of ignorance fed to you by others I hardly know where to begin.

What is so hard about it? The RABIES vaccination is not enforceable-but most people do it–because IT IS THE LAW. With something on the books people can report others who let their cats and dogs breed like crazy–hello folks-feeding is not enough to care for cats and dogs. We ALL know some person who does this. It will also cut down on the “free to good home” ads-which people adopt these pets so they can feed their pet snake or sell them for hideous experiments.

Requirement for license for animals not spay/neutered is smart-we DO have a fishing license. So why not this. In addition, be aware CATS CAN CATCH AND TRANSMIT BIRD FLU TO OTHER ANIMALS-now how many homeless cats in Chicago? MILLIONS. USA never had bird flu but we are not immune to to; in addition, two flocks of ducks tested positive for Bird Flu in February 2009–so bird flu is just right around the corner. Have a nice Jesus filled day.

Maybe many European countries are not too keen about mandatory spay/neuter laws because they don’t have an epidemic of homeless dogs and cats—many European countries EAT dog and cat meat. It’s a fact. In Guangdong China, they eat 10,000 cats a day. Read the news. Google it. Confirm it. In South Korea, they are trying to legalize dog meat as a legal produce (I think they succeeded).