Tag Archives: responsibility

01/14/12

The Sin of Breeding Dogs

I’m in the process of socialising my puppy.  We’ve attended various places and am asked a number of questions. But the question I dread is, “When did you get her?”

My reply is, “I actually bred her litter.”

I’ve seen a number of faces go hard and critical when I make this declaration.  You can see their brains turning… They think about RSPCA ads about puppy factories, they think about shelter ads telling them animals are dying in pounds, they think about how irresponsible I am to own entire dogs.

When did dog breeding become such a sin? Continue reading →

08/31/11

Pitbull Hysteria, Australia

Recently, a girl in Victoria was killed by a dog identified as a pitbull cross.  A terribly tragic event, which has ramifications that are simply frightening for the dog community.

The Victorian premier has begun implementing legislative changes, which ultimately put all ‘pit bull type’ dogs at risk of being destroyed. (Another news article describing these changes available here.)

I do not want to waste time describing all the reasons these changes are misguided. I am writing this post to motivate action. Please, dog owners, do something!!  If this is implemented in Victoria, many dogs are at risk of euthanasia.  This also sets a precedent for other states.

I have included below a number of letters I have sent to parliamentary figures. Feel free to modify these letters and make them your own, or even send them as they are. Continue reading →

01/21/11

Understanding Anti-Dog

I had an interesting phone call from a gentleman from an action group designed to put more accountability on dog owners. Without being said explicitly, the group was overall ‘anti dog’. Though there may be some cultural reasons for this I think, overwhelmingly, this group was formed as the individuals are in some way annoyed by dogs in their lives and feel the need to do something about it.

Though the gentleman and I definitely did not agree on many things, it was at the very least an interesting conversation. Below are some of the parts that I recall the most strongly and I believe could be of the most interest.

Please note that I live in the state of South Australia, and my comments are particularly in regard to my state. I do, however, welcome you to comment on any of your own legislation in your country or state, and how you feel it is working, or not. Continue reading →

01/16/11

Kenneling Rescue Dogs

Please note that this is an old post and some of my ideas have changed since it was originally published. I leave it up for historical purposes.

Recently, I came across “Minimum Health Requirements for Shelters”. I had the pleasure of working in an animal shelter that did meet most of these standards, and were close to meeting the remaining. This was a big shelter and had many resources, both financially and in terms of staff and volunteers.

However, I believe that my shelter was exception in this regard – many shelters do not provide an enriched and healthy kennel environment. The Animal Welfare Act calls for food, water, and shelter, and all kennels I know meet these standards, but we all know that animal welfare is a lot more than these essentials. Because of the complexity of animal welfare, the practice of kenneling dogs has been brought into dispute.

This post looks to examine how the lack of resources often means that rescues cannot meet these minimum health requirements, and that they ultimately have to make difficult decisions regarding the fate of their animals due to their lack of resources. Additionally, it will look at why many rescues kennel dogs, and the problems associated with long term kenneling. Alternatives to kenneling will also be considered. Continue reading →

12/27/10

The Fallacy of Mandatory Desexing

There seems to be an illusion that desexing dogs is the best way to stop the dog overpopulation problem. I object to this suggestion. Surely the problem is dogs being bred, not dogs being entire.

That is: There are numerous dogs that are not desexed but never contribute to the dog population.  Just because a dog has testicles or ovaries doesn’t mean they are necessarily going to be used to produce puppies.

As such, I think any suggestions that ‘responsible ownership’ is desexing is misguided.

Furthermore, I have become alarmed with proposals of mandatory desexing.  I am also disturbed with the amount of support these proposals bring from the dog community.

Mandatory desexing poses some pretty serious questions… Firstly, if we assume that only breeders can keep their dogs entire…

  1. What determines a breeder?
  2. What determines a non-breeder?
  3. What about the people who might like to be a breeder but are in the process of deciding?
  4. If you decide to define a breeder as someone working towards a breed standard, then who decides which breed standards are okay and which are not? Who decides if it’s okay to create a new breed or not?
  5. If you decide to define a breeder on welfare standards, then these are already in place and already, arguable, unenforced.

 
Then you get into the logistics…

  1. Who makes someone desex a pet? (i.e. which body?)
  2. What are the penalties for not desexing?
  3. Are non surgical means (e.g. implants etc) permissible?
  4. What about animals that are deemed unfit for anaesthetic?
  5. How would any body keep track of all dogs that are desexed/undesexed? (Considering that registration is currently compulsory but many dogs exist unregistered…)
  6. How do we prevent people bypassing the system, especially with undesexed bitches?

 
And this doesn’t even go into rights…

  1. What right does anyone have to tell me what is right for my animal? I should have the right to do with my property as ever I please, as long as it does not harm anyone or thing (including harm the animal).

 
Any restrictions on breeding, I think, are quite misdirected.  There are too many big questions that are too difficult to answer, and even more difficult to police. It also ignores the fact that it is breeding animals that are the problem, and not just animals that are undesexed.

If we are serious about trying to reduce the dog population, I think puppy sales are a more conceivable area to work with (see my last post “What is the answer? (to puppy farms”), and I think most trading legislation could be tweaked a lot easier than creating legislation that impedes upon individuals’ rights to own an animal in a manner they see fit.