So you want to make some easy cash? Why not breed some dogs? You can make hundreds or thousands of dollars for the pick of the litter! STOP! Before you start breeding dogs, go to your local pet shelter and count how many there are. While you're there, make note of the price they charge for these dogs. The price is much lower than you'd think, and it covers spaying/neutering, shots, and health care.
Too many shelters are over-loaded with dogs already, and the reason isn't an accident. The reason isn't that people don't want dogs. The reason is over-breeding. Over-breeding is when people who call themselves breeders, but only care about profit, breed several litters of puppies just to get a few highly desirable puppies they can charge extra for. The rest of the litter is common, or undesirable, and wont yield a large profit. Therefore, rather than paying a lot of overhead to take care of these "extra puppies," they give them away to a shelter.
What's the shelter going to do with all of these extra puppies? If the shelter receives nearly an entire litter of "extra puppies" every week from self-proclaimed breeders, how can they have enough room for them? How can they afford to feed and care for them? How are they going to find homes for all of them? They aren't.
According to the American Humane Association, "In 1997, roughly 64 percent of the total number of animals that entered shelters were euthanized -- approximately 2.7 million animals in just 1,000 shelters. These animals may have been euthanized due to overcrowding, but may also have been sick, aggressive, injured or suffering from something else." If that's the statistic for just 1,000 shelters surveyed, imagine the total number when including the hundreds of thousands of other shelters that did not to respond to their survey request. It's estimated that roughly 3-4 million pets (tossed aside by breeders, neglected to become stray, or given up by their families) are euthanized (killed) and thrown away every year.
According to the American Humane Association, "56 percent of dogs and 71 percent of cats that enter animal shelters are euthanized. More cats are euthanized than dogs because they are more likely to enter a shelter without any owner identification. Only 15 percent of dogs and 2 percent of cats that enter animal shelters are reunited with their owners. Only 25 percent of dogs and 24 percent of cats that enter animal shelters are adopted. 75 percent of dogs and 76 percent of cats (3/4 of the pets entering shelters) are euthanized.
Who's to blame? Most shelters do what they can to help these animals, and they only euthanize them because they run out of space and funding to care for them. Shelters don't have the same luxury of being able to just "give the dog up." The blame needs to be put on breeders who care about nothing more than the profit, and owners who can't take responsibility for their pets. There are so many people who see dogs and cats as commodities rather than lives. These animals have feelings, emotions, thoughts, and memories.
When you breed a litter of puppies, sell the most desirable one, and give the rest away to a shelter, you're simply torturing and killing dogs for a living. When you give your dog to a shelter because you don't feel that you have the time or patience to take care of it, that dog feels abandoned and betrayed, they miss their family, they become scared and confused. Then, when nobody adopts the dog you gave away, because the dog is "too old," the dog is euthanized (killed for being an undesirable waste of space). The dog that was once a part of your family is killed because you couldn't take a few short moments out of your day to feed and walk them.
These pets rely upon us to care for them, they see us as family, and when we choose to purchase or adopt an animal, we have a social responsibility to provide for them. Stop over-breeding. Take responsibility.
