What an impossible dilemna... you take the dog, and the puppy mill prospers and you suffer.... you don't take the dog, and it is sold to someone else, and the puppy mill prospers and you suffer. I even struggle with rescue... aren't we teaching owners that it's ok to surrender your dog because there are loving rescue homes who will care for them and find them good homes? So, what is different about promoting rescue and promoting puppy mills.? I struggle with allocating a million dollars to a humane society shelter, but not passing laws to mandate spay/neuter. In the BEST shelters, there's an 85% kill rate. That fact escapes us Yorkie owners because an adorable Yorkie is adopted immediately after the waiting period. That doesn't mean the baby gets a good home... just that he gets another chance to be recycled. There is no one who would advocate we not rescue Yorkies... but what if we didn't?... What if youtube showed euthanizing babies who pee on the carpet...? What if there was no one to take those puppy mill babies who manage to make it thru their first year, but have behavior and health problems that lead their owners to abandon them.
If I were younger, I would take up the cause. I get ill when people jump on breeders like rightous evangelists, and then beg for help for the pup when it hits the pound. It's the same baby... why is it so noble to get medical care and a good family for the dog AFTER it leaves it's puppy mill home and first family... but absolutely demonic to take a puppy immediately out of puppy mill hell?
Take the baby... you've already touched her... her life may be short and painful, but at least maybe she won't have to pass thru the pound before she dies.
I don't know what the answer is... but the question is much deeper than most are asking. |