Congrats michele, according to the ASPCA you're a backyard breeder!
BACKYARD BREEDERS ARE -
**Anyone who has a litter for fun, profit or by ‘accident’.
**Anyone who is so uninformed that they think having AKC papers means that their pet is breeding quality. RIDICULOUS!!
**Anyone who advertises their litters in the local paper for sale. (respected breeders only advertise in trade magazines)
**Anyone who thinks that by finding their puppies good homes that they somehow don’t have to play by the rules or take responsibility. MANY WILL STILL ULTIMATELY END UP IN THE POUND AFTER YEARS OF ABUSE OR NEGLECT!!!
**Anyone who thinks they found their litter good homes, simply because everyone that took one, smiled honestly and ‘promised’ to treat them well.. Thus insisting on no background check, no enforceable contract or any type of follow up. A PERFECT RECIPE FOR A SAD LIFE FOR THE POOR PUPPY.
**People will provide erroneous information to the potential adopters regarding the required care and treatment necessary for the pet - simply for their own personal gains and claim to know much more than they really do for ego boosts.
**Respectable breeders will have walls adorned with trophies and certificates which represent the numerous championships they’ve acquired over the years.
Up to 8 million healthy animals are killed in U.S. pounds and shelters every year. The majority of killing could easily be prevented by spaying OR neutering. Euthanasia is the single largest cause of death for dogs in the U.S. Each year 27 million DOGS are born. 8 or more million we classify as "surplus" ARE killed. That's about ¾ million per month. These numbers do not include the millions of dead dogs whose bodies we scrape off the streets, the growing number that are put to sleep at vets’ offices or the hundreds of thousands THAT ARE abandoned.
LET'S NOT FORGET THE severely neglected or abused ones who never make it to our shelters to be counted and OR EUTHANIZED. The ten million figure represents those we "MUST" kill because they are unwanted!!! Most of these animals are young and healthy; in fact, it is estimated that a majority are less than one year of age. The problem is simple: we have too many dogs...Too many for the too few homes available TO THEM. The solution we have opted for is to kill the extras. This solution has been considered acceptable by default, as though there were no other way to control the crisis. And we spend over $11 billion every year destroying "man's best friend."
A common sense look that you cannot deny or argue with: If you were part of a company who made ‘pets’ and every year for the past 20 years, you had been overstocked to the point of having to dispose of the overstocked inventory, what would you suggest they do this year to improve? So, if you KNOW we are killing this vast number of innocent, loving animals each year, why in the world would you think that having a litter of puppies or kittens is OK?
An accidental breeding can be easily fixed by having your dog immediately spayed and having the other dog in your home fixed as well. Most people that allow their dogs to have the puppies honestly have no idea of the pet overpopulation and how many dogs and cats that actually get euthanized in shelters. If you want to continue and allow your dog to have the pups, the most humane thing you can do is to get all of the pups microchipped so that if they end up in a shelter, they can call you to come pick up the dogs that you allowed to be brought into this world so they don't die in a shelter.