The links you posted don't speak to the number of dogs entering shelters and/or being euthanized. The HSUS link that Nancy posted shows that 25% of dogs in shelters are pure bred. This means that 75% of dogs in shelters are not pure bred. I know that in my local shelter the kill rate is about 40+% for dogs and much higher for cats. If that is a typical ratio, you could take that to mean that, if the number of shelter dogs could be halved, then you are left with not an ideal situation but at least a manageable problem. So, if only 25% of dogs in shelters are pure bred, how can they be the biggest source of the problem whether they come from mills, BYBs or even reputable breeders? It seems to me that the numbers point to mixed breeds being the biggest problem and that goes directly back to irresponsible pet owners, not breeders of any stripe. Again, I'm not being argumentative, only trying to make some sense of these statistics. Bringing up puppy mills and BYBs is fine when talking about breeder ethics, but the numbers suggest they are much less of a problem in terms of pet over-population than careless and irresponsible pet owners are. |