Shop or Adopt it is your choice

I posted the following on Facebook back in June and it got a lot of response.  I am reposting it here to a wider audience than just my like-minded friends.

FACEBOOK – June 23, 2017

There is so much going on in the dog world and it is time for those of us who love dogs and adore our pets need to start paying attention.

How did you find your pet? Did you buy one? Did you rescue one? Do you know the difference?

In reality if you paid money for a dog then you bought a dog it is just a matter of what source you bought your dog from and what was the motivation of the seller?

If you bought a purebred dog then you probably had a type of dog you were looking for. Size, temperament, coat type, etc. If you bought a mixed breed dog you were looking for something that struck your fancy but you didn’t have any particular expectation of conformity. If you bought a designer dog then you were looking for a something cute and fashionable with some type of expectation of similarity to others with the same name.

You might think it doesn’t matter where you got your dog but it really does matter and here is why.

1. If you buy a purebred dog then make sure you know where it comes from, is the breeder breeding for the preservation of the breed or is it a business venture? If you want to make sure your dog matches the look and temperament of your chosen breed a preservation breeder is the way to go as they are trying to create a beautiful, healthy dog that looks and acts like you expect. They offer lifetime support and health guarantees. If you chose to buy a purebred dog from someone who is in the business of selling dogs, you might or might not get what you expect and you might pay a heftier price than if you had worked with a preservation breeder. If you are buying a purebred dog then make sure you know what to expect. My 2 minimal requirements are A. The breeder is doing appropriate breed health testing and B. They will take the dog back for any reason at any time during the dog’s lifetime. There should not be any type of rehoming fee from the breeder.

2. Did you buy a poo or a doodle? Just remember you bought a mix breed dog. There are no poo or doodle breeds, they are given their cute names as a marketing technique. Each dog brings their set of genes and genetic material to the party and you might get a dog you expect or you might not depending on which genes dominate. A labradoodle is a cross between a Lab and a Poodle so you might get Lab hair or Poodle hair, but what you will get is a good sized energetic dog with a bird dog temperament. Again, most of the designer breeds are mixed breeds with clever marketing trying to separate you from your money. Can they be great dogs and just want you wanted and expected, OF COURSE! Just be mindful of the motivation behind the breeder.

3. If you rescue a dog, make sure you working with a legitimate rescue organization and not a retail rescue whose sole purpose is to sell pets for a profit. Rescues do great work, they make people feel good about helping unfortunate animals, the problem is that greedy/lazy people have discovered that they can make money by marketing sad stories and becoming “rescues” who are in reality nothing but a money making scheme, they are the new pet stores aka retail rescue.

So what is a retail rescue? These are the groups that go around and “buy” dogs from shelters, unscrupulous breeders, craigslist “opps” litters and the worst case they import dogs either from out of state shelters or from 3rd world countries. They market them with a sad story and inflate the cost of their care and then charge the “adopter” a ridiculous adoption fee which goes straight into their pockets.

You may ask “what is so bad about that? It is still helping dogs in need?” So here is why it is a bad thing. First of all it is creating an industry for rescue dogs. People are breeding mix breeds and then selling them to retail rescues which squeezes out real dogs in need. It cause lost dogs to never find their owners as shelters let retail rescues rush in and “save” the dogs in the shelter sometimes within hours of a dog going missing. The worst case is the importation of dogs from 3rd world countries. These rescue dogs do not have to pass the same strict requirements that importation of breeding animals have to pass before they are brought into the USA. This is bring in disease that was previously unknown in the USA. Example the H3N2 Canine Flu that is now being call an epidemic. This was brought in from China and other Asian countries and has now exposes our dogs to this dangerous and sometimes deadly virus.

Wake up People! It is a scam to get your money! I live in Atlanta and I know of at least two groups of rescue Golden retrievers have been imported from Turkey, really…… There are packs of purebred Goldens running around the streets of Istanbul? That is just bull! They have good thing going in Turkey, breed them, import them as rescue with no oversight and then market them as poor street dogs and sell them to kindhearted, gullible American buyers. The same with the Chinese meat dogs. Those meat dog breeders are now breeding for the US rescue market, I’m sure they make more money on rescue than the meat market.

We love our pets in the good old USA and we love a good rags to riches story and greedy, lazy people love to exploit our kindhearted nature but it is time to wake up. There are forces at work that are trying to make sure that we don’t have pets and one of them is the “adopt don’t shop: mentality. It is putting all our pets at risk.

Think about this: There are cities/counties that are trying to pass laws that say you can only adopt aka buy a rescue dog. You can’t pick the size/coat/temperament but you can go to an unregulated “rescue” and pay an adoption fee and get a dog that is available and you get what you get. Now if they are the only game in town what do you think the “adoption fees” are going to be? Stay with me for a bit, now rescue dogs are normally required to be altered aka spayed or neutered so there are not any unwanted puppies. So where are the dogs going to come from? Yep, importation! So now you can’t buy a puppy from a breeder but if you want a Great Dane or Chihuahua then you have to hope something comes into a rescue and then you can get a dog with no history of health or temperament and hope everything is OK. Is that what you want your choice to be?

It’s not “adopt don’t shop” it is about choice, it doesn’t matter where your dog comes from except that you need to be aware of the source and support those who want to preserve their beloved breeds or who are doing their best to find homes from dogs who don’t have one. Don’t help greedy/lazy people keep taking your money and perpetuating their scam. Don’t let groups like HSUS or PETA be the spokespeople for animals since they are the ones who want to do away with our rights to have pets, don’t let the animal rights people write the legislation that regulates how and where your can find your next best friend.

Take a stand, you get to choose where your pet comes from, be proud of you dog but don’t be a bully about it. Don’t act superior or holier than thou about how you got your dog. “My dog is a champion of champions”, “my dog was pulled from a dark hole and I gave her a home” NOBODY really cares! You have a great dog, love that dog, show off that dog and stand up for your rights as a dog owner. Time is running out, PAY ATTENTION (yes I am shouting)! I want to keep enjoying my dogs, do you?

Because I was asked – Yes permission to share