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Originally Posted by Cares4Dogs I have a friend who lives in San Antonio and she fosters dogs for the humane society...she said a large number of the dogs she gets are from breeders. She said after what she has witnessed, she'll never purchase a purebred.
Me, on the other hand, there are a few purebred dogs that I love and cant resist...but I wouldn't get mine from a large scale breeding operation.
But I promise, Im not attacking anyone here. If the breeders arent making any money and cant keep the retirees....and try to convince those interested in thinking twice about breeding--then why do it?
Is it possible to keep a retiree and just purchase a pup from someone else's breeding program to introduce fresh blood?? |
The kind of breeders who would allow their dogs to wind up in rescue are the very ones we get slapped at for referring to as backyard breeders. This exemplifies the point made in the article I posted.
Why do it? I can only answer for myself. 'For love of the breed' encompasses a wide range of motivations. I find a well-bred dog a joy to behold on many levels, I am fascinated with the history and tradition behind it, I respect the effort and knowledge and dedication that was involved in producing it, I find the study of genetics endlessly absorbing and I am grateful for the day to day interaction I have with my crew of critters. There is also satisfaction in being able to provide a deserving family with a healthy, quality dog to bring the kind of joy to their lives that mine bring to me...and the bonus is being allowed to consider many of those people friends that I was fortunate to meet.
Most hobbies do not provide income and do cost money, but provide personal satifaction that doesn't need to be explained to people that have them..
If I kept all the retirees for the average lifespan of 14 yrs and continued purchasing pups from someone else's breeding program to introduce 'fresh' blood, I would very quickly become a Large scale breeding operation. I can only provide the proper care and interaction with about 12 dogs in my home, if the numbers increase far past that point, someone is not going to get the proper amount of attention since there are still only 24 hrs in a day, and I only sleep about 4 now. So what you are saying is that I should just quit my hobby when my dogs all reach retirement age....instead of placing them in a home where they will get the devoted one on one care that they would enjoy and leave me able to continue doing something that I have dedicated a large part of my life to and have a sincere commitment to doing well.