I have been grooming dogs since the late 1960s. Our industry is the pet industry. There are several trade publications that anyone can receive for free. You just have to sign up to get them.
One of these magazines is Pet Age. Clearly, they aren’t about making policy. All they do is report the facts. The facts are, as reported in Pet Age, December 2009, on page 8 in the ‘Briefs’ section : The Hunte Corp. (Goodman, Mo.) in conjunction with the American Kennel Club (New York…actually—Raleigh, NC, but I’m quibbling) hosted a free health clinic for professional dog breeders Sept.3—4. Nearly 100 adult breeding dogs received heart and joint exams as well as grooming services during the clinic.
This is the same American Kennel Club that publishes the Gazette for the hobbyists/fanciers, and which regulates dog shows & trials, maintains our studbooks, and has a huge marketing campaign trying to get people to insist on AKC papers.
Since they are really the ‘only game in town’ (nobody really trusts the United Kennel Club for their studbooks, & the Continental Kennel Club—which has a post office box for an address—that the puppy mill breeders use when their records are so bad even the AKC won’t take their money? Puh-lease…), the hobby breeders have to hold their noses & continue to register with AKC…but the way it works is that hobby breeders are members of kennel clubs. Kennel Clubs MAY become members of the AKC, and they then elect delegates to the AKC to represent their interests at monthly meetings…& no delegate has brought this up at a meeting! At least not yet.
The excuse (I mean the explanation) the AKC gives for allowing the professional breeder to mass produce puppies & not keep them in stress free surroundings? Hobby breeders can’t keep up with demand for puppies.
If there is anything that would make you address your own sanity, it’s the idea that both the ASPCA & HSUS (NOT a humane society, but a lobbying organization) do more to try to warn the public about puppy mills than the AKC. The AKC is not going to bite the hand that feeds it—& currently, the hands are puppy mills, providing way more food than the hobby breeders.
Notice, the demand is not for adult dogs—but puppies. We know for certain that in some breeds: Basenjis, Shiba Inus, Jack or Parson Russell Terriers, that for every puppy sold, one ends up in rescue. The rescues tend to keep statistics. There are several reasons for this. One reason is that the types of people who are attracted to certain dogs are not honest with themselves. They are not introspective, and are attracted to the dogs ‘ conformation—its looks— & don’t really understand the temperament or personality of the breeds. But another reason is that hobby breeders are not only not screening their potential buyers carefully enough, they are selling intact puppies that can be easily bred when mature. Go back & read my blog on Integrity & being a purebred dog fancier & humane activist. Naive hobby breeders who think that everyone has the same level of integrity as they do have just assumed that puppy buyers really love the breed so much that they would never jeopardise it. They might not even know they are jeopardizing it if the hobby breeders don’t address what they are doing to ensure the future of the breed, genetic testing, etc.
Unfortunately—what is happening is that—to stop mandatory spay/neuter legislation, hobby breeders will have to join up with lobbyists for puppy mills (who have so much more money), in many states—-to be able to continue maintaining the integrity of their breeds. Most are libertarian in their political dealings: that is, they don’t want to become involved. What will happen is that they will be restricted and stop breeding. The fact is, in many places—the legislation is really fair: they limit breeders to keeping no more than 20 breedable dogs. What kind of hobby breeder would need more dogs than that?
In the meantime, if we fanciers don’t address what the AKC is allowing, none of us will be able to afford genetically sound purebred dogs. We either have to ask the AKC to come up with a registry class for the poorly bred puppy mill purebreds, or accept the idea that many breeds will not have viable gene pools due to so many dogs being carriers or genetic defects. It may be happening to Bedlington Terriers, due to copper retention in their livers—but the puppy mills won’t bother with Bedlingtons. All you Shih Tzu, Yorkshire Terrier, & Chihuahua fanciers—are you going to ignore this?
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