pet connection

I’ll put up our syndicated newspaper page with the story of these two in the next day or so, since we have to wait for our client newspapers to run them first.

But I’ve made “live” the transcripts of the interviews behind the story: Christie’s QandA sessions with Richard Avanzino of Maddie’s Fund and Nathan Winograd, author of “Redemption.”

You can find both interviews here.

There has never been a better time to read what these two activists have to say. That’s because while nanny-state mandatory pet extinctionneutering legislation advances, city by city, state by state, there’s no evidence that punishing responsible owners and reputable, ethical breeders with laws the irresponsible will simply ignore helps at all.

Taking a system that doesn’t work and working harder at it doesn’t make it work any better. Blaming a broken system on “bad people” and “greedy breeders” isn’t going to change a sheltering paradigm that has long accepted that killing is the only way to deal with what appears to be a pet overpopulation problem — but is really a lack of vision and leadership by the shelter system. (Read our past posts on mandatory spay-neuter laws here. Past posts on no-kill are here. )

Animal-lovers have a hard time believing there’s another way, in part because they have been misled by the disingenuous leadership of animal-rights extremists who believe that the only eventual end to the exploitation of domestic animals is through extinction. Beaten-down shelter workers who are understandably tired of the killing have a hard time believing there’s another way, and it’s natural for them to blame the people who put the animals in their care to be killed because that’s the way it has always been.

But there is another way. And as the saying goes, you can either lead, follow or get out of the way.

For those who criticize us here at Pet Connection — or in the other places our writing appears, such as Christie’s Your Whole Pet column on the San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site, SFGate.com — as “greedy breeders” (as California breeding-ban proponent Lloyd Levine does in dismissing all who dare criticize the draconian plan of a man isn’t even a pet-owner — and who give puppy mills a free pass!), here are the facts:

– I have never bred a litter, and I have run a breed rescue. My pets are both purchased and rescued, purebred and not, and I compete in dog sports with my retrievers. I may well breed a litter one day, but if you count me as a “greedy breeder” for doing so, you ought to consider I have cared for my own pets and rescued, fostered and placed dozens of others for 30 years, spending thousands of dollars a year to do so. If I’m in it for the money, I’m sure doing things wrong.

The “profit” on a properly-bred litter rarely exceeds the costs that go into to it, and never does if you consider the costs not just of screening parents for congenital defects, but also showing and competing or otherwise proving the worthiness of your dogs to be bred, as well as the countless hours spent properly socializing puppies in your home to be good family companions. And like all responsible, ethical breeders, I will be responsible for those puppies for life, no matter when, no matter what.

If I breed a litter, which I may never.

I absolutely and unequivocally support those who do breed ethically and responsibly, include the breeder who co-owns all my flat-coated retrievers, a rare heritage breed I love and believe in preserving.

– Christie is a well-respected member and two-term director of the Scottish Deerhound Club of America, and has shown and bred this elegant, rare heritage breed. She hasn’t bred a litter in years, and may never again. Like me, she has owned mixed-breeds and purebreds, and loved neither any less for their paperwork or lack thereof. If you want to find out how reputable and ethical a breeder Christie is, ask anyone who has been lucky enough to get one of her Deerhounds. They are mostly all lifelong friends now, united in the care of these great hounds and in the fight for the breed’s survival.

We are proud to count reputable, ethical breeders among our friends, and we support their efforts to maintain both our heritage breeds and physically and temperamentally sound representatives of the less-rare breeds, as well as working dogs such as stock dogs and police dogs.

We despair of the multitudes of clueless, careless and ignorant quick-buck backyard breeders, and we actively loathe the evil slime known as puppy-millers. Both are responsible for millions of sick and neurotic dogs that live miserable lives even in the most caring of homes. (As well as lives of unspeakable cruelty for “breeding stock” in hideous mass-production facilities.) I can’t speak for Christie, but I firmly believe hell cannot be hot enough for puppy-millers, and I also wish the backyard folks could catch a clue.

Unlike what animal-rights extremists tell you, it is NOT true that a breeder is a breeder is a breeder. Learn the difference, and shun the bad ones. (You can read my “No Christmas Puppies” posts from a couple years ago to find out more.)

Christie and I believe in the vision of the no-kill nation not because we make a living selling animals — the very idea of us “profiting” from our animals made me laugh as I typed it. Rather, it’s because we love and respect pets, and we believe that others are the same as we are and will open their hearts if respected and encouraged — not dismissed by the shelter industry.

We believe that a no-kill nation is not some fuzzy, can’t-work, pie-in-the sky idea, but is truly the only true way home for millions of pets who die because of entrenched thinking that cannot get out of the “we must kill them to save them” rut.

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Update: More reading. Christopher on Border Wars appears to have spent the entire holiday weekend writing. “Sheeple” beware. … I write about a French proposal to replace greenhouse gas with horse poop (complete with own of my own pictures of French draft horses!) on one of my other blogs. Black Beauty alert. … BAD RAP reminds us that any dog can bite, even Snoopy. … Terrierman plays with a new camera. … LassieGetHelp plays with numbers . … and Willie Nelson reminds us all that it’s better to smoke dope than fight dogs, or something like that. Luv ya, Willie.

Finally, a milestone reached: My 500th anti-pet hate-mailer programmed into the “auto-delete” e-mail filter! Keep writing, you anal-retentive freaks (why are they so obsessed with pet poop?), because I never seen your e-mails, not at all. I’m really sorry your mommies never loved so you have to hate people who love pets and imagine they don’t love people, too, but honestly, get a therapist. Have a nice d-d-d-a-a-a-a-y-y-y.

I hate puppy millers.

Hate.

Yes, that’s uncharitable of me. I admit it. But knowing that there are people who profit from letting sick animals live in filth, exposed to the elements and producing puppies from their starved, sick bodies until they can produce no more (at which point they have been shot and fed back to the others) just makes me wonder about the ability of our kind to care about anything more than the almighty buck.

I wish these people an afterlife as miserable as the one their dogs live in now. Knowing that’s possible is one thing that gets me through this, the puppy-mill season.

See, all year long as a pet-care columnist I hear from people who cannot house-train their pet-store puppy (because the animal grew up in filth, and thinks it’s normal) or who cannot afford vet bills to fix congental defects (caused by careless, clueless greed-head puppy-millers) or who cannot deal with the temperamental nightmares these animals can be (because of more clueless, careless greed-head puppy millers and lack of proper socialization). I have no answers for these people because there are none. They were doomed from the minute they pulled out their credit card at the pet store.

Those puppies were doomed from birth. And their parents are doomed for life.

A couple years ago I wrote a reason for every day in the month leading up to Christmas why it’s important to not not not support this sick, sick industry with the purchase of a Christmas puppy. By Christmas I was feeling so little goodwill to all that it was scary. Not a good way to start the year, and I cannot repeat this particular endeavor because I have a gun and might use it.  Lucky for puppy-millers, it’s really, really hard these days to fly with a gun to Pennsylvania (where the Amish, of all people, run puppy mills) or Kansas/Missouri (where the state governments encourage farmers to get into puppy farming.)

No, No. No. Instead, I will just say this: Don’t buy a pet-store puppy. Heck, don’t buy a Christmas puppy at all. Read the series, and find out more than 30 reasons why.

This morning, USA Today (geez, they do nice work, don’t they?) has a great feature on the misery these puppy-millers cause (thanks, Pat!):

The Humane Society estimates that at least 10,000 U.S. puppy mills, most of them unlicensed and unmonitored, are producing up to 4 million puppies a year. “That’s about twice as many as in the mid-’90s,” says the ASPCA’s Bob Baker, who has investigated such mills since 1980.

The spike, experts say, is the result of a confluence of factors: sales over the Internet, where some fictional Web pages emphasize home breeding and country surroundings; a major drift toward breeding by many in Amish and Mennonite families, who sell puppies at flea markets or to brokers who supply pet stores; and a recent surge of factory-style breeding in Maine, Ohio and other states previously not regarded as puppy-mill areas.

Often, Baker says, “they’re keeping breeding stock in squalid, horrible conditions for their entire short lives and producing unhealthy, substandard puppies with genetic, behavior and psychological issues.” And that, he says, makes this not only an issue of “inhumane care” but also of consumer fraud.

Some puppy mills are small operations: 20 or so breeding dogs live in basements, garages or sheds “in cages stacked to the roof,” and remain there, without exercise or sunlight, having two litters a year until they “wear out” at about age 5, Shain says. Others are huge. Hundreds of dogs producing thousands of puppies live in relative darkness and without stimulation so they rarely bark and attract attention.

In either case, the breeder dogs get little or no medical care, experts say. Most of the females are dissipated from the endless cycle of producing and nursing litters; many have chronic ailments, rotten teeth, and ear, eye and skin infections.

“You can just imagine how healthy and well-adjusted puppies born of these animals are,” [Stephanie] Shain [of the Humane Society of the United States] says. They have a high incidence of genetic disorders and diseases, and problems that emerge months or years after purchase, she says.

Females that no longer produce large litters are “let loose in the fields,” killed or starved to death or sold at auctions where for $20 to $200 other millers buy them to get one more litter, or research facilities take them, Shain says.

Here’s the rest.

Bob Baker, by the way, is an incredible man. He is the man who single-handedly brought the issue of puppy-mills into the public view in the ’80s, when he was working for the HSUS.

No laws will ever end puppy mills. After more than 20 years of covering this issue, I know that industry forces will water down anything that starts up to the point where even if it’s passed, it’s pointless.

The only thing that will stop this cruelty is for people to stop buying pet-store puppies.

So don’t. Please … don’t.

A couple years ago I spent the month of December pointing out how many truly heartless and greedy people crank out sick and neurotic puppies in deplorable conditions for Christmas sales. It used to be that these puppy-millers had to go through brokers to get their “livestock” into pet stores, but with the popularity of the Internet, many are now able to sell direct to an unsuspecting public.

Of course, dirtbags like this one are still out there, but at least they’re not on Craig’s List anymore. Craig Newmark, who was kind enough to respond to every one of my e-mails asking him to quit being an accomplice to animal cruelty, has made it very difficult for puppy-millers and high-volume back yard breeders to sell on his site. (And lest you think back-yard breeders are just nice people trying to make a buck, consider that they usually pay no taxes on their nice little business. I tracked one Labrador breeder in the San Jose area who was making about $30K a year, tax-free. As a person who pays her taxes — income, property, sales — I resent someone who adds to the problem of pet overpopulation and doesn’t contribute with taxes for municipal services to clean up the mess they cause. And that doesn’t begin to take into account the heartbreak involved in selling Labradors without genetic screening to families with children who will be heartbroken when their dog develops hip dysplasia and has to be euthanized because the surgery costs more than the family can afford.)

The most clueless, careless, greedy and just plain cruel of breeders are still selling on the Internet, and let the buyer beware. But at least Craig’s List (and eBay) have a heart and have opted out of this sick industry.

Looking for a pet this Christmas? You might consider that another time of year might offer your family better options. If you still want a dog now, consider adopting a homeless one through Petfinder. And if you must have a purebred puppy, check out these guidelines for some help in figuring out the breeders to avoid.

Yeah, I’m going to rip off that credit card ad. Why not? Everyone else does.

Training fees, land-use fees, equipment and gas, one year’s worth: At least $2,000

For the weekend:

Three days away from home (and 14 hours of driving): How does one value laundry undone?

Gas: $100

Crappy road food: $50

Entry fees: $110

Add it all up:

Finishing your first field title: Priceless, plus you get a $2 ribbon!

My dog Woody is now a Junior Hunter. Which means now we get to spend more time, more gas money and lots and lots more training time working towards Senior Hunter (plus training younger dog McKenzie for Junior). Woody’s is my first field title ever, although I’ve competed in many other dog sports over the years. Field training is completely different from anything I’ve ever done, that’s for sure.

We crazy dedicated dog people do this all the time. It’s not so much about competition, but about testing your dog and improving (or at least preserving) the breed. Canine competitions are one reason why reputable breeders don’t make money selling dogs (top-quality care and expensive screening for congenital defects is another). But then, reputable breeders aren’t in for the money. You might want to think about that as you’re considering a Christmas puppy from all the clueless and careless breeders who are happy to sell in the weeks to come, no questions asked.

Pictured: Woody, left, and McKenzie, at the hunt test site in Southern California. They’re in this week’s test Dogmobile, a Toyota FJ Cruiser, which I’ll be reviewing later today.

Administrative note: The Black Dog guys say all the gliches are fixed and we’re completely OK on WordPress now. Let me know if you find any problems, can’t post a comment, etc.

The HSUS is asking people to ask pet stores where their puppies come from, in an effort to educate people about puppy mills and large-scale commercial breeding operations. Here’s a piece on one reporter who took the challenge, and found the pet-store manager less than fully cooperative. Big surprise, no?

Listen, they can say "reputable breeder" all they want, but the fact is no reputable breeder would sell a puppy to a pet store. That’s because they want to make sure themselves that the puppy is placed in a proper home. And because they want to be in touch with the puppy buyers for life.

People who breed for pet stores — even the "good" ones who run clean, humane operations — are breeding "livestock" for sale, no strings attached. That’s not the best way to breed a family pet. As for puppy-millers … hell isn’t hot enough. (Many of them now sell direct to the public through Craig’s List and other online outlets.)

Educate yourself, and go to a shelter, rescue group or reputable breeder for a dog.

And check out my "No Christmas Puppies" blog series from a couple years ago.