My comments did not say reputable breeders breed to meet the demand in fact contrary to your statement. I simply said we can not meet the demand for puppies if (inference here0 there is a large decrease in puppies. I was musing upon the *law of unintended conseqences*.
Sure get rid of puppy mills but surely it is best to do that at the source of the problem. Sic the puppy mill itself. Instead we have these laws coming into effect at the retail level not the producer level....
Owners who surrender dogs willy nilly really are not only coming from commercial USDA licensed facilities and or puppy mills - they do also come very sadly from responsible breeders.
I am simply saying the answer to the problem is much more complex than a black n white solution. Block retail sales at pet stores - and if there is as much profit in it as you think the commercial breeders will find another outlet..... So that outlet will be something we have not thought of - the darkweb - back to newspaper adverts - pet expo sales - gosh I donot know - but anything underground is defacto harder to regulate.
I have posted some numbers before and of course they are all soft numbers! But there is anywhere from 75million to 80 million dogs in the USA in homes. Baring surrenders to shelters et al a very conservative number of say 5% of dogs will die from disease or old age. THat is anywhere from 3.75 million to 4 million dogs a year that consumers might want to replace. This of course ignores the new entrants to the field of dog ownership and or those older folks that say this is my last pooch. I have yet to see any stats on those percentages.
In home responsible breeders can not just based on their numbers of same possibly fulfill that new demand. So the demand is there and anyone in business knows market forces will move to fullfill that demand.
IMO there needs to be a grass root sea change of potential and current dog owners to actually sign up for ownership of their dog for that dogs lifetime. And yes sometimes there will be regrettable circumstances that occasion the need for a dog surrender to a shelter but if we stop before it starts irresponsible dog ownership then a whole lot fewer folks will purchase a dog be it through a rescue or a dog breeder or a puppy mill or a USDA licensed commercial breeder.
Surely as I have read that a significant proportion of dogs surrendered are from actual owners and not from breeders dumping a litter at a shelter that would go a hell of a long way to reducing dogs in shelters...