Regulate "Rescuers" Too
Regulation of dog breeders is essential to ensure that breeders keep their dogs in humane conditions. It is also essential to determine whether someone is a "responsible breeder", or whether they are an uncaring, high volume breeder, or, at worst, a puppy mill.
Many dog breeders do a lot of unscrupulous things. Many breeders abuse and neglect dogs, most use dogs for their own gain, whether financial or personal.
What may surprise some though, is that there are "rescuers" in this world equally as guilty of causing suffering and neglect, equally as guilty of using animals for their own benefit. The more years one spends in the rescue world, the more one meets people who abuse, shuffle, resell, and exploit dogs in the name of "rescue". Hard to believe? Not really, it's only human nature.
Backyard breeding, puppy milling, and home retailing of dogs has become a cottage industry in the last 20 years. "Rescuing" has become a cottage industry too. The only difference is that it has a more "feelgood" name, and , one would hope, better intentions behind it. But good intentions don't always result in good deeds. Just like no one needs a license to breed dogs, no one needs a license to "rescue" them either.
A truly "responsible" breeder only keeps as many dogs as they can humanely care for. This does not mean keeping 60 dogs in kennels with a full time staff to groom them and hose out their runs. This means treating each dog as a family member, including each dog consistently in daily routines, housing each dog inside the house as any loved family dog would be. And this means EVERY day, not rotating kennel dogs as house dogs.
A truly "responsible" breeder thoroughly screens every prospective home and will likely reject more than accept.
A truly "responsible" breeder will follow up to make sure the pup thay have sold is spayed or neutered by the time it is six months old.
A truly "responsible" breeder will never lose track of a pup. They will always take back their pups if the purchasing home fails that pup, no matter how old, or ugly, or expensive, or inconvenient that pup (now dog) may have become.
A truly "responsible" breeder understands and accepts that they alone are responsible for bringing that doggy life into the world, and they alone are responsible for seeing that doggy life be a happy one, to the very end. It's hard work being a responsible breeder. And not too many do it. This is why we need to regulate breeding.
Breeders breed for money, or ribbons, or titles, oh yes, and of course, for "the betterment of their breed". Why do rescuers rescue?
Well, responsible rescuers do it because they can't stand suffering and because they respect the right for all creatures not to suffer. But what about the shufflers, the resellers, the collectors and hoarders? What motivates them? Money and titles, of course.
How many of us have met rescuers who boast of "placing" over 100 dogs in a single year? Well, I have. And I have done "rescue" long enough to know that one rescuer cannot possibly responsibly rehome over 100 dogs in a single year. That is far too much screening and far too much followup for one person to physically do. But more importantly, there simply aren't that many wonderful homes in one town in one year for unwanted dogs.
Which brings us to the next point. How many of us know "rescuers" who ship dogs all over North America, from one city to another, without ever actually physically meeting either the dog or the adopter? This isn't much different from what a lot of "responsible" breeders do, is it?
These "rescuers", these people who orchestrate hundreds of "adoptions" a year, are really just shufflers. Moving 100 dogs a year from home A to home B, transporting, driving, shipping, flying, "rescue" dogs passing each other in the middle of the night, on planes, in cars, none of them knowing what is happening to them, most of them falling through the cracks and being lost track of by their "rescuers" because it would either cost hundreds of dollars or be strategically difficult and annoying to take them back should they not work out in their new "forever homes".......
Ahhh. The "Forever Home". What a lovely sentiment. Reality check. There is no such thing as a "forever home".
Human lives are far too unstable to support the myth of the "forever home". The only way a rescuer can guarantee a "forever home" to a dog is for the rescuer to keep the dog with them, and not die before the dog does. Anything less is a well-intentioned crapshoot. It doesn't matter how much screening is done. People get divorced. People move. People have kids. People get bored. People lie. People die.Dog goes back into "rescue". Efforts well intentioned, but doomed by a lack of understanding of basic human nature.
Besides the well- intentioned, but uncomprehending dog shufflers in rescue, we also have the resellers. These are the people who take a dog into "rescue" who is either a purebred, or unneutered, or both, then turn around and sell the dog, unneutered, thus making a profit. Often these people either breed dogs themselves, or are acquainted with breeders.
In this category are also resellers of mixed breed dogs, people who take in cast off pets and "rehome" them for an adoption fee, often charging a finder's fee to the surrendering owner, and never paying to have the dog altered before rehoming. I know people like this. They often marvel at how I can spay and neuter all my dogs before they go up for adoption. They question the logic behind this. They say things to me like "If I have to be out of pocket for these dogs then I"m just not doing this anymore".
What's my point? Well, that breeders aren't the only unscrupulous users and abusers of dogs. Some rescuers are equally as bad. Therefore, both need to be regulated.
Breeders breed for ego (boasting of a record number of champions, or a record number of specialty dogs, or the only dog of their breed to win best in show and have a utilility dog title blah blah blah....yes, all hard to do I can appreciate, but the poor dog doesn't care how many letters it has after its name, or how many names it has, or how many ribbons it's won).
And of course, many, well likely most, breeders do it to make money.
Rescuers? Well, rescuers often rescue for ego. They want to earn the title "Rescue Angel" for shuffling more dogs than anyone else into "Forever Homes" for that particular year. And yes, some "rescuers" do it to make money.
This long diatribe has two purposes. One is to invite animal lovers to think about what true "rescue" really means, about what it entails with regards to responsibilty for the life that is being "rescued". "Rescue" is a huge word with noble connotations. It is a term too often abused.
The second purpose is to create an understanding as to why "rescuers" and "shelters" must be subject to the same regulations and inspections as we are asking to be enforced upon breeders. Anyone who harbours large numbers of animals at any one time, be they a breeder or a shelter, must be open to legal inspection.
Still don't think that there is a need to license, inspect, and regulate "rescuers"? Well, look at what happens when people who aren't licensed, aren't regulated, and in this case, aren't capable, responsible, or answerable to any authority, take in unwanted animals:
http://www2.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x35582&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154
I do rescue. Where I live, there is no limit as to how many dogs I can have. This is not a good thing. I could be a puppy mill. I could be this woman.
Jennifer Dickson
President, Okanagan Animal Welfare Foundation