[gemy]

In another thread, Woogie Man posted some stats about the number of dogs owned in the US, died, and number of purchases, number of euthansias etc.

There is somewhere around according to those stats 7+ million dogs purchased/acquire each year, and somewhere around 6+ million deaths.

Imagine if you would that we outlawed and enforced no puppy mills, no USDA licensed dog breeders. How would the hobby/show breeders supply that market? For at some point fairly early the shelters would be cleared of all pets resident there, if buyers couldn't buy from USDA licensed breeders, or pet stores. What then, how would the market be supplied?

Let me say that like the US, Canada also has under the purview of the Dept of Agriculture, the responsibility over commercial dog breeding. Does this NOT strike folks as the wrong dept to put this under??? Dogs are not livestock, destined for our food table, or plants or legumes, again destined for our food table. Dogs and cats are PETS, destined to live happily, in a family home (for the most part). Here-in is a dilemma inborn with commercial breeders, who raise dogs, in sheds/barns, with little human interaction, and certainly no training appropriate to the future environment that puppy will eventually live in. And then what commercial breeder does all the health and genetic tests prior to breeding that pair. What commercial breeder follows their progeny to see if health problems crop up in those puppies? The dept of Agriculture is ill suited to oversee, the breeding of a living animal, that is not destined to be consumed in the next 2-3 yrs, but is meant to be a healthy and loving companion for many years. That is the INNATE problem we have with dog breeding. Where it is overseen from!

If the Dept of Agriculture wants to keep the overseeing of dog breeding on a commercial basis. Then here is what they should do: demand purebred breed appropriate health tests prior to breeding dam n sire; mandatory puppy testing and follow up. The automatic retirement of breeding dams/sires with genetic problems or a history of same in their litters.

All puppies must be socialized to a home environment. This includes human socialization, sounds and smells of a home, including washing machine noise, vacuuming etc.

Sound radical? Huh well that is the minimum of what reputable breeders do, who are NOT USDA licensed.

Food for thought....that our dogs are being governed under The Dept of Food and Agriculture.