Puppy Mills:
Description :
The dilemma
Twenty years ago, people knew that a "puppy mill" was a substandard kennel where unhealthy, overbred dogs were kept in horrendous conditions.
Today it's not so easy. In the last decade of the 20th Century, activist groups began to broaden the term to cover just about any kennel that they didn't like. As a result, commercial kennels and hobby breeders with more than an arbitrary number of dogs or litters have become targets for anti-breeding groups that lobby for laws to restrict these law-abiding operations. These organizations stir up public support for breeding restrictions and high license fees by deliberately blurring the lines between responsible breeding operations and real puppy mills. They use emotional rhetoric and pictures of dirty kennels and sickly dogs to imply that most or all breeders will subject their dogs to abusive lives unless they are regulated.
Shelter and rescue workers who receive dogs from raids on squalid kennels often lead the fight for laws restricting or regulating breeding in an effort to close kennels they label as puppy mills. Some responsible breeders are so incensed at the existence of substandard kennels that they are willing to accept these punitive licensing schemes even though the costs may limit or destroy their breeding programs.
Lawmakers who write bills aimed at preventing puppy mills leave the definitions up to those who lobby for the laws. As a result, publicity campaigns highlight kennels where dozens or hundreds of dogs are kept in poor conditions, but the bills themselves often target responsible hobby and commercial breeders with far fewer breeding dogs.
So, how do we evaluate those bills and make sure that substandard kennels are cleaned up? First we have to define "puppy mill." Is it . . .
- A dirty, trashy place where one or several breeds of dogs are kept in deplorable conditions with little or no medical care and puppies are always available?
- Any high-volume kennel?
- A clean place where several breeds of dogs are raised in adequate conditions and the breeder usually or always has puppies for sale?
- A place where a single breed of dog is raised in acceptable conditions and puppies are usually or often available?
- A place where lots of dogs are raised, where breeding is done solely for financial gain rather than protection of breed integrity, and where puppies are sold to brokers or to pet stores?
The answer depends on who you ask. . . .
Dogs Should Not Be Used for Service
Description :
"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals never shies away from publicity-seeking provocation (and media, including this blog, often cover it). This week, the group is starting an advertising campaign in New York and other cities that advocates dog population control, including one commercial that likens dog breeders to the Ku Klux Klan. In New York, like many other places, about half the dogs and cats taken into animal shelters are euthanized.
One of the commercials shows a hooded Ku Klux Klan member walking into a meeting of the purebreds-only American Kennel Club, where the members eye him suspiciously. He gets the group to concede that they both believe in the “sanctity of pure bloodlines” and a master race. He sits down, saying, “I’ll fit right in here.” Then the message “All dogs are created equal” flashes on the screen.
The second ad shows a dog in a body bag being plopped on the table in front of a family that just bought a dog from a breeder. The implication is that for every purebred dog that is bought, a dog in a shelter somewhere else is euthanized.
The third ad shows parents talking to their daughter, encouraging her to have as many babies as she wants because they can be dumped on the street or left in shelters. PETA supports spay-and-neutering campaigns for animals, but others opposed it.
PETA spent $100,000 in advertisements on cable stations in New York and four other major cities, timed with the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, which ended on Tuesday night. PETA criticizes the show for promoting dog breeding and spurring interest in “purebreds” while animal shelters overflow with unwanted dogs in need of homes (perhaps like this one). The three commercials, which cost $30,000 to make, will be rolled out more broadly in the spring. " (article from http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/peta-vs-the-dog-show/)
