“Rescue dog groups may be exacerbating the very problem they claim to address”1
I think this is going to be a very controversial post for me, but I think it is important and I am going to address the elephant in the room.
Rescue groups.
Here in CA. a law was passed a few years ago making it illegal to sell puppies in pet stores unless they came from a “rescue”. Most, if not all, of the puppies in pet stores
come from “puppy mills”. These are horrible places that breed unhealthy puppies from unhealthy parents. Outlawing that sounds good, right? Until you find out that those same mill dogs are still being sold in pet stores, but they are being run through rescue groups first. A little bit like money laundering.
These same puppy mill owners are sending their pups to one of two dog auction houses in the country and rescue groups are buying them and reselling them at a profit.
All this does is keep up the demand (or even increase it) for the puppy mills to put out unhealthy puppies. All the while these same rescue groups are vilifying and demanding the shut down of good preservation breeders who give us healthy well bred puppies.
Most people don’t even realize that rescue originated with breeders. Also preservation breeders put it in their contracts that they will take back any dog at any time in it’s life if the owner can no longer keep it.
I will save for another post the groups that bring in sick and dangerous dogs from other countries.
I have never hidden the fact that Harriet and Dottie are not rescue dogs. My reasons for that are my own just as anyone else’s reasons for choosing a dog are their own, rescue or not. Both of my dogs were sired by Champions with Dottie’s Father competing at Westminster.
I wear that as a badge of honor just as many people wear their badge for their rescue dog.
Am I against rescuing? Absolutely not. I am all for legitimate. non-profit, good rescue groups.
Read this post very carefully before you decide on where your next dog comes from.
1.Aaron Kaufman
