Just a warning, this article has some unpleasant parts to read
A friendly reminder to “adopt don’t shop!” My wife and I just adopted a dog a few weeks ago (sadly, we had to put down one of our dogs a few months back)
I agree with you 100% but even adoption has been corrupted. Go to petfinder.com and search for a doodle. You will instantly see a bunch of puppies that are clearly from the same litter with an “adoption fee” of $800. I recently learned it’s called “retail rescue”.
We need to start heavily regulating breeders and educating the public.
Most people really need to stop getting their hearts set on a specific breed when adopting. I constantly see posts of people rehoming dogs because they can’t keep up with them or meet their needs. Like, yeah, maybe instead of adopting a 1 year old Aussie, you should’ve gotten a 5 year old chihuahua if you’re not the kind of person who runs and does agility and shit.
Also, I had a labradoodle who was rescued (as a 7 year old) from a puppy mill, which is where pretty much all doodles come from now. He shed like a motherfucker, was absolutely not hypoallergenic, and cost a ton of time and money in grooming bills. He was also the single most anxious dog I’ve ever had. We adored him but they’re not some magical perfect breed. (We didn’t seek one out, my parents just fell in love when I was fostering him.)
You kind of made your own point against your argument in the first paragraph. There are different traits to different breeds, and that is a fact. I would never get an Australian Shepherd (or any shepherd) because they simply have higher energy and exercise needs than most other dogs do. So I insist on getting a breed with lower exercise requirements.
The point is: breed matters. Environment and training matter, but so does the breed. Get one that suits your lifestyle.
You’re making circular arguments to your own first point there. You said don’t pick a specific breed in the first sentence but then go on to lecture how people should pick a specific breed that suit needs. this is the very definition of posting nonsense.
That’s why you go to a local shelter or through a legit nonprofit. My poor guy was a stray abandoned in a park and cops took him to the SPCA :(
But yeah, that just sounds like backyard breeding with extra step
The only dog we got from a rescue instead of a shelter (back when petfinder wasn’t shit) was a dog which we believed was a basenji-chihuahua mix that was found abandoned in a junkyard in Mexico when he was still a puppy. He had terrible anxiety, but he was a wonderful dog and I’m glad we gave him a good life considering how it started.
Definitely adopt and do it from your shelter. And get a mutt because they tend to be smarter and healthier. Don’t go to a shelter looking for a breed, go to a shelter looking for a dog that you make a personal connection with. That is how I have always done it (with one exception that we got from a rescue instead) and I have not regretted it with the four dogs I have had in my life.
I am sorry you had to lose one of your dogs. It’s always so hard because to a loving pet owner, they are family.
Thanks, they really are family members! It was hard because we only had him about 4 years. It’s hard no matter how old they are but we had to put him down when he was only 10. In those last few days his quality of life totally changed though. Luckily we had like 6 months warning and he lived towards the long end of the vet’s expectations given the size of the mass they had found.
We had a similar situation with the last dog we lost. It was very clear it was coming long before the end. We knew it had to happen when we woke up to find that he had pooped all over his dog bed and the floor. He was so ready that he was gone within seconds of the injection. I’m just glad we gave him a good life and I’m glad you did with yours.
Well put, but I’d say include your lifestyle to help in selecting that mutt’s breeds.
As in, don’t get a working dog breed if you can’t be there to give them something to do all day.
But it’s really best to meet mutts to see if you gel together.
Definitely type is important, but I would say that much more so than breed. And you can tell pretty easily if it’s the type of dog that needs constant stimulation if you just spend a few minutes with the dog. The first dog I got right after I moved out of my parents’ house was not only the first dog I saw, but the only dog the shelter told me about on the phone. And it was love at first sight. But I forced myself to look at every other dog in the shelter just to make sure she was the one for me. And she was.
I don’t expect this to be a popular opinion, but by all means, adopt the pets created by unethical breeders instead of buying ones from breeders who are ethical, cautious, involved, and caring.
All these people who are vehemently “adopt, don’t shop” never like to have it pointed out that they are adopting puppy mill dogs who need to be rescued. Those dogs do need to be rescued, but we should support good breeding practices at the same time. Responsible breeders should not be lumped in with the puppy mill trash. They should be what we aspire the future of dog breeding (and buying/adopting) to be.
This argument pretends that you can’t support shutting down the mills while adopting. It also ignores the stray population and revoking of adult dogs, which is the biggest burden on shelters.
I think a lot of people got pets during covid and are now dumping them.
I see this is a symptom of the larger problem of the unaffordability of life we face today due to low wages and inflation. People being unable to afford simple life necessities can certainly not afford to keep the pets they once cared for. It’s horribly tragic, and pets are now suffering the consequences.
Actually, the number of euthanized animals annually has plummeted from like 20+ million a year 50 years ago to close to the 1-3 million iirc. The problem has gone down despite increasing inequity
It’s also due to increased efforts to get people to spay and neuter their pets, including reduced cost and free sterilization programs.
I don’t think that’s it actually. There are fewer animals abandoned because of greater awareness of spaying and neutering and also more charities dedicated to moving pets around the USA. Traditionally, a lot of animals were killed down south, where strays are more of an issue. Now people pay to ship the animals up north where there’s demand.
And the time commitment. I have been having to work more time than ever before just to maintain. I would love to have a dog but I know I don’t have the time to properly care for one
I have always had a cat for my entire life. I can’t imagine not having a cat. I just can’t. But I have to admit, it’s getting a lot more expensive to have a cat, wtf. Between cat litter and food, my expenses have exploded, but my pay hasn’t. That’s a problem.
Next cat, I definitely will train to use the toilet due to obscene litter prices
When can we euthanize pet breeders?
My equivalent of doomscrolling is going to animal shelter websites in the region and looking at all the doggies I can’t adopt (we already have two).
Thankfully, the shelter in this county is a no-kill shelter. But they are definitely overwhelmed.
