{"id":820,"date":"2012-01-14T07:42:36","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T21:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=820"},"modified":"2021-08-02T14:53:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T04:23:12","slug":"the-sin-of-breeding-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/dogs-and-politics\/the-sin-of-breeding-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sin of Breeding Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m in the process of socialising my puppy. \u00a0We&#8217;ve attended various places and am asked a number of questions. But the question I dread is, &#8220;When did you get her?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My reply is, &#8220;I actually bred her litter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve seen a number of faces go hard and critical when I make this declaration. \u00a0You can see their brains turning&#8230; They think about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.closepuppyfactories.org\/\">RSPCA ads about puppy factories<\/a>, they think about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6LCFEaaVUYQ&amp;feature=related\">shelter ads telling them animals are dying in pounds<\/a>, they think about how <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=W1WA717RmwQ&amp;feature=related\">irresponsible I am to own entire dogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When did dog breeding become such a sin?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The media attention on puppy farms (as bad) and shelter systems (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savingpets.com.au\/2011\/11\/a-lack-of-collaboration-its-still-your-fault-we-kill\/\">perpetuating &#8220;adopt or we&#8217;ll kill them&#8221; ideas<\/a>) has seen dog breeders, responsible and otherwise, get a bad wrap.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, I haven&#8217;t found a socially acceptable response to the stern faces I encounter when socialising Myrtle. \u00a0Ocassionally I blurt out something about showing my dogs, or that I am a registered breeder, but it&#8217;s never quite what I want to say&#8230;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_849\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/100_2592.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-849\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-849\" title=\"Myrtle, &quot;Leema Myrtle N Clover&quot;, border terrier puppy at 10 weeks\" alt=\"Myrtle, &quot;Leema Myrtle N Clover&quot;, border terrier puppy at 10 weeks\" src=\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/100_2592-300x224.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/100_2592-300x224.jpg 300w, http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/100_2592.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-849\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I want to say: Yes, I bred this, and I&#8217;m proud of it! She&#8217;s hopefully my next champion!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I want to say:<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I&#8217;m a dog breeder.\u00a0And by dog breeder I mean ethical and responsible dog breeder, concerned about the health of my breeding animals and the long term welfare of my puppies.<\/p>\n<p>No, I am not a puppy farmer. Puppy farmers are concerned about profits, and so far I&#8217;m very much in the red.<\/p>\n<p>No, my dogs do not contribute to the shelter dog problem. Border terriers don&#8217;t generally enter pounds and, if they did, I&#8217;d be the first to bust them out.<\/p>\n<p>No, I don&#8217;t think testicles and ovaries define responsible pet ownership. Responsible pet owners keep their animals contained to their property, ethically treat all medical problems, and only breed healthy dogs that are good\u00a0representatives\u00a0of their breed.<\/p>\n<p>I want to say\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/time4dogs.blogspot.com\/2010\/09\/in-defense-of-dog-breeders.html?spref=tw\">the entire spill from John Yates on defending dog breeders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps I am missing out on a huge educational opportunity, but I feel that I can&#8217;t rationally address the concern on their faces. I am very much aware of irresponsible breeding (including puppy farms) and dogs being destroyed in pounds, but how I can convey that <em>despite this<\/em>\u00a0I still breed, I don&#8217;t know.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www.linkytools.com\/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=125235\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking about the public&#8217;s reaction to me identifying myself as a &#8216;dog breeder&#8217;&#8230; When did dog breeding become such a sin?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231,54],"tags":[12,328,233,11,329,21,327,64,70,71,57],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dog-breeding","category-dogs-and-politics","tag-dog","tag-dog-breeders","tag-dog-breeding-2","tag-dogs","tag-ethical","tag-puppies-2","tag-puppy-farming","tag-puppy-farms","tag-responsibility","tag-responsible","tag-welfare"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4901,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/4901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}