For many years, the author and broadcaster Roger Caras was the oh-so-serious baritone voice of the best known of American dog shows, the Westminster Kennel Club’s, which is arguably the only show most people have heard of or much care about, at least in passing.
Year after year, a huge round of applause would sweep Madison Square Garden following a single statement from Mr. Caras:
“Not one of these dogs of these dogs,” Roger Caras would intone,”came from a pet store.”
These days, a sizable contingent of the dog-show world wouldn’t be cheering; they’d be booing him as an “animal-rights dupe” — or worse. That is, if he were even allowed to say anything negative at all about pet stores.
After all, the American Kennel Club — which sanctions dog shows, including Westminster — has repeatedly tried to get the ethical breeders that make up its member clubs to accept that they need to embrace the easy registration dollars of puppy-milling scum to underwrite the costs of putting on dog shows and other competitive events. Their efforts have been largely unsuccessful, which is one reason why puppy-millers made up their own registries — and why they have jumped on the mixed-breed bandwagon, pumping Puggles galore into pet stores.
Which is not to say that all otherwise good breeders hate it when the AKC runs after the puppy-mill money. Bolstered by anger and mostly, by fear, these breeders have convinced themselves that defending high-volume breeders is the only way to protect their own dogs in the long run. And they’re so deep into their own paranoia they even deny that puppy-mills exist at all.
I knew this, of course, but I didn’t know quite how angry the spittle-spewing defenders of keeping dogs as factory-farmed livestock were until I did something pretty normal for me: I mentioned a week ago (on Twitter) that I was going to a puppy-mill protest.
Now, I knew that this would generate a fair amount of outrage, since the monthly picketing is organized by Jennifer Fearing of the Humane Society of the United States. And immediately, the Tweets jumped back at me, mostly bashing the “H$U$” (as the folks who always write “H$U$ and PETA” together as if they were one) always type it. One of the Tweeters even cautioned me to look both ways crossing the street.
But, hey, I expected that (well, aside from the death threat — that was just a bonus). After all, there are people who get a vein throbbing on their forehead when any number of groups are mentioned, from the HSUS to the NRA to the Sierra Club to Ducks Unlimited. (You might be surprised to know which two of the four I am a member of, although those who know I take my working retrievers out to actually work now and then will probably guess right.)
But after the first round of knee-jerk reactions, I was moderately surprised to see people tweeting that:
- The term “puppy-mill” was made up by PETA (nope, it pre-dated the founding of that group, and has been around for almost as long as I have, in the neighborhood of half a century).
- The HSUS makes up all the things it says about puppy mills, and stages the pictures. (Um, no, I can in half a day find former legislative investigators and independent journalists who have seen the worst, on site, and reported on it for more than 40 years.)
- Some breeds would rather live in kennels. (Even if you grant that’s true — a stretch for the most social of domestic animals — why are they then being bred in high volume for pets, knowing that most people keep their dogs in the house?)
And most egregrious:
- A puppy raised in a high-volume commercial kennel is as good a pet prospect as one raised in a home that provides genetic screening, proper socialization (both intentional through handling and visits and environmental through taking in the sights, sounds and smells of living with people), early training and a mother unstressed by the din and smell of spending an entire life in a cage.
- Dogs from high-volume operations are “necessary” because everyone doesn’t want a “show dog.” (I hardly know where to start: While commercial kennels are all about the profit — and nothing else — almost all ethical breeders work from the idea that every puppy born will need to be a healthy family pet before that dog will be anything else, be it an agility champion, a show champion or a companion hunting dog. Breeding dogs for dough only works if you’re cutting out everything that defines a good breeder, including serving as a lifelong reference for your puppy-buyers and always being there to take a dog you bred back, no matter what. Good breeders don’t cut corners; commercial ones must to make a buck.
I agree with the HSUS — and indeed any person with a heart — that filthy, high-volume breeding operations are inhumane. And I believe strongly that even cleaned-up high-volume operations are not conducive to everything we know about how a dog becomes a healthy, well-adjusted pet. As long as an industry for the “manufacture” of family pets is overseen by the U.S. Department of AGRICULTURE, that’s pretty much all you need to know about why high-volume kennels and their retailing and Internet fronts are not a good choice when you’re looking for a puppy. (Not to mention: What about dogs used as breeding stock for life? Don’t they deserve the life of a family pet?)
That said, I would actually prefer that we end high-volume breeding operations by starving them of business, because legislative answers too often seem to aim at the wrong targets. Not to mention legislators are often misguided by those people who hate breeders so much that they don’t see a difference between ethical ones and puppy-millers, or by those who are so deep in animal-rights philosophy that they are really pushing the PETA agenda of no domesticated animals at all.
By the way, there IS a difference between HSUS and PETA, and that agenda is it.
With puppy-mills, real change will come only when everyone knows what’s behind those cute puppies in the pet-store window or on the pictures on an Internet site.
Laws don’t work as well as changing attitudes do.
We need to help people realize that the only sensible and ethical options are to get a pet from a shelter or rescue group, or from a breeder who raises puppies in the home with all the proven advantages of constant socialization and early training.
As Christie says, “Get a family pet from a family home,” and that pretty much rules out any commercial operation, even the cleaned up high-volume production facilities that get pointed out as “models” from time to time. It even points out the importance of shelters developing strong foster programs to get their animals the socialization and training they need to improve their chances of making it into a forever home.
The day high-volume commercial breeding ends is the day when every pet lover is to ashamed to admit a puppy came from a pet store. And judging from the honks of support vs. rude gestures I saw at the picketing (a couple dozen honks in support vs. one “Get a life!”), that day isn’t too far off.
As for why I’m standing with the HSUS — a group I have sharply disagreed with on other issues — it’s simple: I need to stand up against everything that’s wrong about puppy mills, and everything that’s right about good breeders.
I refuse to sell out animals who need me, and potential pet-owners who deserve better than the sick, unsocialized and difficult to train animals who come from high-volume operations. I also refuse to sell out good breeders, which is why I politely turned down a sign that read, “Adopt, don’t buy” because I think buying a puppy from a reputable, compassionate breeder is an ethical, intelligent option.
It’s long past time to find the common ground and work together. A first step would be for animal advocates to understand that all breeders aren’t the same, and for breeders to drop the “with us or agin’ us” attitude that makes it easy for the breeding ban people to lump the ethical in with the cruel.
And if your HSUS hate is so strong that you would rather be on the wrong side of this issue, well, shame on you.
Now, here’s the picture. I’m on the left, with Jennifer Fearing of the HSUS. I may well be the first puppy-mill protester who has also been to Crufts and Westminster, but I shouldn’t be the last:
Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly has had it with puppy-milling scum and their retail sales outlets. And she wants you to know what veterinarians see when people bring in those sick dogs:
Bridget Pilloud is an “animal communicator,” and in her case, that seems to be code for “dog trainer.” Maybe you can make more money as an “animal communicator” ?