the RANT Redux: The Snooze Alarm is Broken. Reveille is Calling. Can You Finally Hear It??

Like the first Rant, this piece is very long. I make no apologies for that. This is a convoluted issue that spans decades of time. Difficult issues are not outlined in sound bytes, and bumper sticker logic and drive by one liners will only get you so far. But it is an issue of critical importance, if you love animals or own animals, and consider this an important aspect of your life. So spend the time to find out why this Rant is so important, and how you can protect the animals you love, and yourself.


Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. Some of you already know me (fondly, I am told, although I take leave to doubt that) as the Wicked Witch of the MidWest. Others of you know me (less fondly) as Cheval du Battaille. I ride a very old Warhorse, and I have been tilting at windmills now since about 1979. One of the most resistant, so far, is the long standing War I have been fighting, first on a more limited front when it was the Pit Bull Wars in the early 80's. Then, when it expanded to take on the entire Fancy, the Warhorse reared and screamed a challenge, and so it has remained until today.


That was back in 1984. As you can imagine, my Charger is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the armor is dented and rusty. But though the ravages of time are evident, it has not dampened our spirit at all. I will still couch lance, and enter the fray, in defense of our way of life, and that will continue until someone else is forced to take up my shield and my cause when I am finally felled. That this will happen, I have no doubt. Because finally, finally the long awaited Time of Awakening has come: the Enemy has mis-stepped, and the sleeping Beast that is the Fancy has been aroused. Oh, it is not fully awake yet, but the long dream-time has been dispelled. The sleep now is fitful, and filled with savage nightmares. The Fancy rouses, slowly and reluctantly, but inevitable now as a glacier, terrible in its ponderous majesty. It will arise, there is no longer any doubt. And when it does, the Charger and I will greet it with a ferocious grin and a bow to acknowledge our drowsy ally, and then we will continue what we have been doing for the past 30 years: forging to battle, only this time secure that there is finally someone on the flank.


This is a battle for the heart and soul of our way of life; our mutual love of animals, and everything that goes with it. It affects all of us; not just breeders, in fact not just dog owners, but farmers, and fishermen, and hunters, and pet owners or animal husbandists of every flavor and type. If you own cats, or rabbits, or cage birds, or cattle; or enjoy going to the zoo, or the circus, or the dog show, then this concerns you, and you need to understand that, and take a stand. We are ALL being targeted, divided and assaulted on all sides, and it is time that the curtain was pulled back and the larger Plan was shown, in all its ugliness. When the smoke screen is dissipated, those who have been working on the wrong side of the line out of ignorance, thinking they were doing a Good Thing, can begin to see how they have been duped. It is not too late to see the Enemy for what it is and change sides, but it soon will be.


And so, my doggie/kittie/farmer/pet owning Facebook friends, now that the battle is about to be irrevocably joined, I am going to say some things that will either piss you off to the point of unfriending me, or galvanize you into action. To be honest with you, I really do not care which, as long as you DO SOMETHING. Even if it is wrong, even if it is helpful to the Enemy in some way, I don't care, because at least then you will have declared yourself Friend or Foe, and the rest of us can plan accordingly. For those of you coming late to the fray, a little background should help to delineate which side of the aisle you want to be standing on.


It is not surprising that so many people are confused or maybe even oblivious to what has been going on. This War has been long forming, the battle lines have been continuously moving, since the late 70's, and even before. In the beginning, it was difficult to even see that it WAS the beginning of a conflict that would span decades. In the very beginning, it was just one breed under the gun, and it seemed like just a random string of sad events that was taken out of context, and given legs by the media: The creation of the mighty cartoon character, the Pit Bull of Doom; stronger than a freight train and more ravenous than a tiger shark. At first, I, like many others, thought it was just bad luck or bad timing, this horrendous, incessant assault on a breed that had always been well liked. After all, there was historic precedent; at one time, the lens of the media had been trained on the German Shepherd (which for years was said to be 'mean and unpredictable;') and then the Chow (declared to be a surly 'one man's dog', and vicious to all else, especially children;) and later the Doberman (which labored under the myth that 'they turn on their owners, you know;') and that last particular lie still echoes today. It seemed, at first, that the Pit Bull was just joining that unlucky group of dogs, where a few individuals were involved in biting incidents that blew their reputation completely out of proportion to the truth. Sad, and wrong, but not insurmountable. All of the previous breeds had taken their licks, but had eventually arisen from the cloud of suspicion and calumny, if not unscathed, then at least returned to the mainstream with a few scuffs here and there.


But this time, it was different. It was hard to see, at first. I still do not know if the original assault on the unlucky breed was a planned action, or simply the Enemy taking advantage of a lucky break. What I *do* know is that it was a very short time before we began to see a pattern to these events. Every time there was a biting incident that could even remotely be blamed on a 'Pit Bull,' it was, whether the dog even LOOKED like a Pit or not, and it was clear that Someone was pushing an agenda, and trying to keep the public focused on this myth of the Vicious Dog, keep it firmly in the forefront of their minds. We began to see 'Pit Bull attacks' taking up larger and larger copy space, and gracing the front page more often than not. It did not matter if it really was a Pit Bull or not; any slick coated mixed breed that bit someone was immediately declared to be a 'Pit Bull.' In one notable example, a woman came back to her car in New York, and promptly called Animal Control and shrieked that there was a "huge Pit Bull!" menacing her. Animal Control and police rushed to the scene, to discover that a stray Golden Retriever had delivered a litter of puppies in the back seat of her open car. It was CLEARLY not a Pit Bull. When the dumbfounded Animal Control officer asked her why she thought it was a Pit Bull, she answered matter of factly "Because it growled at me!" The fact that it looked NOTHING like a Pit Bull meant nothing; the fact that it was growling to defend its newborn litter was key. It GROWLED, therefore it was a Pit Bull. It must be said that there was a certain cachet to declaring you had been attacked by a ravening "Pit Bull;" it sounds much more dramatic than to admit you were nipped by a Cocker whose food dish you had ill-advisedly disturbed. Similar stories, dozens over the years, created a pattern, and the public was duly convinced: Pit Bulls were 'different' than other dogs. Born vicious, they just could not help themselves when they saw bare human flesh, and the demon that slept inside them WOULD come out, it was just a matter of time.


And then I saw it. This was the 'hook,' the thing that made this case different from all the other breeds that had been subjected to this kind of selective bigotry in the past: The noble German Shepherd had Rin Tin Tin as an avatar. The regal Doberman, sleek and beautiful, also happened to be highly popular. Even the Chow, which was fluffy and cute, had a large following itself. Unlike these, the Pit Bull had no such respectable icon to draw upon for a buffer. People had long forgotten Pete the Pup, of the Our Gangs comedies, and the breed was just... not popular. Couple this to the fact that the muscular physique of a Pit Bull is a very special kind of 'beauty' that many do not see, and you have a perfect storm: a dog that can be the ugly butt of everyone's scorn, without any adequate defense. Not to mention, at that particular point in time, the breed's numbers were very low, overall. The story went that the only kind of people who would want to own 'one of those dogs' were criminals, drug dealers, bikers, and dog fighters. In short, people whose rights could be safely marginalized because they were 'not nice people.' It is easy to deny the same Constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure, or removal of private property without due process, when it is someone you don't like. It is easier still when you are *afraid* of them. This is an ugly side of human nature, but it is highly predictable. Not to mention, politicians with aspirations realized that if they could get their mugs in the paper, riding on the back of the hysteria fomented by inflammatory media hype, they could be seen as a Protector of the Populace by suggesting some legal assault on the breed or the other, for the Good of Society. And the Enemy was watching, and taking notes... Do you see it yet, do you understand? Well, bear with me, because in a very short while all will be clearer.


By the mid 1980's, we were seeing community after community adopting Breed Specific legislation, mostly aimed at the Pit Bull, but occasionally drifting off to some other breed temporarily caught in the spotlight after a particularly grisly attack. Sometimes, it was due to the new breed being involved in a high profile biting incident, but more and more often, other breeds got added to the 'list' of proscribed dogs for frivolous reasons. City counselors, ignorant of dog breeds but eager to get their names in the press, went through books to find all the breeds that were simply somewhat related to a Pit Bull, or somewhat looked like a Pit Bull. Other breeds got added due to specific grudges that some of these city leaders held against them, such as the aforementioned German Shepherd, Chow, and Doberman, along with a host of others.


By the year 1984, the year of the great AKC Centennial Show, the number of breeds on the firing line in various communities had risen to 37, and showed no signs of abating. By that time, I had already stood in several court rooms as an expert, refuting the lies about these breeds, speaking the truth to ignorance and prejudice, and getting several of the more high profile ordinances shot down. I spoke before the Houston City Council, and a few weeks later at Galveston, where Sara Nugent and I got a standing ovation from the gallery when I threw my (white) Western hat in the middle of the city council floor and challenged their Mayor to tell us again, in front of the gallery and the seated City Council, that she, as an elected official, didn't care what the Constitution said. Both of those ordinances were sidelined.


Oh, there were consequences. You see, some of these ordinances were being championed by influential people who had hoped to use the media attention to further their political aspirations. After speaking in front of the Houston city council, I had Animal Control on my porch two days later with a stack of bogus complaints. Oddly enough, every other person who spoke on the floor that day got a similar visit within days after the hearing. Worse, after the Galveston ordinance was sidelined, my home was targeted by... I will leave you to figure out who it was that 'coincidentally' shot and killed all but two of the dogs on my property in Oklahoma, three days later. They ran down the gates with a heavy truck, incidentally running over two of our dogs on the way to the kennels, where they killed everything in sight, including a litter of 10 week old puppies. Did you think I was kidding, people? This is a WAR. And in war there are always casualties.


This was when the Pit Bull War was still in its infancy, and we were only just trying to fight containment skirmishes. We had no organized plan, and many of our fellow breeders were still trying to hide behind our breed (American Staffordshire Terriers) insisting that this was a Pit Bull problem, not ours. By this time, of course, the AmStaff had been added to the infamous 'List' just as the Staffordshire Bull and the Bull Terrier had been, so this was no longer any protection. Still, many hesitated, refusing to join the fray, refusing to pull their heads out of the sand, insisting we were 'not Pits' and did not deserve what was happening. As if the Pit Bulls did. As if there was a meaningful difference between us. Even there, even in a breed that was and still is highly populated with 'dual registered' dogs that showed both in the AKC as AmStaffs and at UKC shows as Pit Bulls, there was strong pressure to 'make it go away' and pretend it was a Pit Bull problem, not an AmStaff issue. Outside of our 'house,' reaction was even worse: the rest of the dog community made it deadly clear that they intended to throw us under the bus and let the BSL people have us, as long as THEIR precious breed was not on the firing line. It wasn't their problem.


I stood on the floor of one of the bigger meeting rooms at the AKC Centennial in 1984 (and yes, the year was prophetic) and I spoke to a large gathering of my fellow breeders. It was the best place I could think of to beard the dragon; there were more dog people at that event than at any other at the time in history. Not even Westchester or Westminster could boast such an entry. I knew that what had happened so far was only the beginning, only the barest hint of what was to come, and I *knew* I had to make an impression. So, I spoke, as carefully and thoughtfully as I could, and I tried so hard to reach them. I raised the specter of Reverend Niemoller, who had famously said during the Holocaust,


"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

I pointed out that this could no longer be dismissed as a "Pit Bull" problem, that there were already over 30 breeds being targeted, and the list was growing weekly. And, Breed Specific Legislation was no longer the only threat. By this time, the Enemy had casually reached out and started suggesting Mandatory Spay and Neuter, initially aimed at the 'problem' breeds (Pit Bulls et al) but later snaking out to ensnare others. In one community, they were talking about declaring any dog over 30 lbs to be illegal. I made my case: This thing is no longer just a 'Pit Bull' issue; this was becoming more than a breed thing, and was beginning to threaten all dogs, and all breeders. There was already talk of trying to establish a 'threshold number' of litters, after which a breeder was to be denounced as a 'puppy mill.' The risks were obvious: If we did not hang together, we would surely hang separately.


I tried to make them see the nature of the Enemy, how it was eroding our support base, and coming after us one by one, counting on us insulating ourselves from our fellow's misery until it was too late. By this time, PeTA had already outed itself as being one of the Enemy, and was clearly reveling in our misery and adding to it. I tried, I tried so hard to show cause and effect; to make them see that this was not a *breed* issue, that the real target was DOGS, *all* dogs, and that our carefully managed, carefully bred dogs were no less in the crosshairs than any others. I was thanked for my efforts with a smattering of polite clapping, and several titters. Comments obviously meant to be overheard, as I dejectedly made my way through the crowd, made it crystal clear: None of this was serious, I could be safely dismissed as some kind of crank, because no WAY would there ever be legislation making it illegal to breed dogs, not if you were being RESPONSIBLE about it!

It was apparent to me then: We were not ready. No one wanted to give up their comfortable fantasies that this did not concern them. It was too much work, and it cut into their fun too much. The Fancy was fully invested in ignoring the Enemy at their gates, sure that if they just buried their heads deep enough in the pillows, eventually the Enemy would get tired of storming the gates and go away. But it was even uglier than that. Our own brethren, the people who had rubbed shoulders with us at the Group rings for years, turned cold shoulders to us instead and decided that, perhaps we can let the Enemy have a breed or two, no one *important* will miss the AmStaffs or the Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and maybe if we toss them a sacrifice they will go away and chew on that. And they had cause to be worried, and to start thinking about who they could afford to throw under the bus, because by now, the Enemy had moved the goalposts again.



This was about the time we began to really see a lot of investment in propaganda about the Big Lie: the story about 'pet overpopulation' that was filling our shelters and causing millions of dogs to be killed every year. Nevermind that shelter intake, not to mention kill rates, had been steadily DROPPING since the 1960's; they had been reduced, largely through pressure to spay and neuter pets, from a high of 20 million killed yearly in the 1960's, to 6 million by 1984. (It is now down to between 2 and 4 million.) There was no celebration that we were on the right track, and making good progress, no. We were told, and sold the Lie, that shelter intake was a crisis, it was worse than it had ever been, and more dogs were dying than ever before. And the Big Lie laid this problem squarely on breeders, although in the beginning, they opined that it was the 'puppy mills' who were to blame.


Well, who could get mad at that! No one likes puppy mills, squalid filthy places where the dear l'il doggies suffer. And so, as easy as that, with a minimum of fuss and no objections, we have designated our new Demon and put a target on it. And just like the Pit Bull Wars, breeders were far more anxious to divorce themselves from 'puppy mills,' and draw big fat lines showing how We were so much different from THEM, that no one bothered to see the imminent danger, or stand up for their rights. They don't HAVE rights; they are Not Nice People. (Just like those drug running bikers who are the only ones who like Pits, right? Remember?) We were all exhorted that we needed to 'do something' about this terrible scourge. What to do?


Well, first of all, we have to make sure we show how WE are Not Like Them. Numbers were floated around that purported to state how many dogs was 'too many' and at what point someone became the dreaded 'puppy mill.' Worse, many in the Fancy were HAPPY to be complicit in deciding how many litters was 'too many' and that anyone who had more than that was a 'puppy mill.' Of course, we all know how many litters is 'too many,' right? And that would be: More than YOU have. And if you are a Sporting dog breeder, with a Pointer bitch who throws 10 pups at a crack, you might be excused for thinking 2 litters a year is PLENTY for any breeder to have, and more than that is just not reputable... but, while making that the law might not bother YOU too much, it is certainly going to be a problem for the Toy breeder who is often lucky to get 2 or 3 viable pups in a litter, and often as not gets only 1. Tempers were heated; arguments at kennel clubs over how to address this 'terrible problem' were rampant. Fingers were pointed, enemies were made, targets were assigned.


It was at this time that the two-pronged attack of the Enemy began to be more evident: They had learned, you see, in the early years of the Pit Bull Wars. They had learned some very important lessons: First, if you can make a group of people into Bad Guys, then you can do pretty much anything to them, legal or not, moral or not, and no one will raise too big a fuss. Especially if they are a small group to begin with. Second, once you define who the Bad Guys are, by propaganda and trash talking, then instead of sticking up for their friends, others who used to be proud of their association are suddenly nowhere to be found when the shooting starts. Nobody wants to champion a scummy 'puppy mill.' Ohhh, it was so slick! I watched it happen, along with a lot of other people who saw the clear and present danger, and I wept for the cluelessness of my fellow fanciers. I tried, over and over, to get them to SEE that there was never going to be an adequately low number until you got to NONE. "No, that isn't true, that's just silly; they will NEVER come after meeeeee because MYYYYY dogs are Important to the Future of the Breed, and WEEEEE produce Quality Offspring. Not like that scuzzy Miss Highpockets over there who has FIVE LITTERS A YEAR!"


And again, it was about this time (the mid 90's) that we started to see breeder bashing openly among fellow fanciers, and it became the new Reputable to have as FEW litters as possible. In fact, the fewer litters you had, the more quality you had as a breeder. Tell me ANY other endeavor where having LESS experience is somehow laudable! But in this upside down Brave New World, that is exactly what was happening. Breeders no longer touted upcoming breedings proudly, afraid of backchat in the kennel club and dark whispers at the show sites. And social media was really beginning to take off then too, providing the ever-present gossip mongers with a new vehicle to torment their adversaries. In an incredibly short time, we breeders were no longer responsible people who loved dogs, creating healthy, beautiful, loving pets for worthy families, and creating some of the finest to hold back for the future to create even better ones. No, now we were pariahs even among our fellow breeders for breeding 'too many.' How many is 'too many?' As a single example, I know a breeder who was decried and labeled a 'puppy mill!' for having five litters in 12 years. This, in a very small breed where every drop of blood is precious. This is less than a litter every 2 years, and yet there are still those who are convinced this breeder is a puppy mill, because someone told them so, after someone else told THEM so, after one of their competitors made it up and told it to THEM. And not a one of them ever bothered to follow the rumor back to its origins; why bother? Once the label of 'puppy mill' has been tossed out there, it can never be redeemed.


Why does this matter? Well, remember what I said about people distancing themselves from others over perceived differences, trying to keep themselves safe and out of the firing line at all costs? THIS is what I was talking about. Remember how human nature works. Once you have identified the Bad Guy, *nothing they say in their own defense is true.* NOTHING. And it does not matter if you have known them for 40 years and you KNOW the allegations are false from personal experience. NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO YOU, EITHER if you speak up in their defense. In fact, they will insist that YOU are a Bad Guy too. You must be, otherwise why would you take their side? Truth does not matter. Only the assault matters, and no one will thank you for telling them that their anger and their vindictiveness is misplaced.


The sad truth is, people, the vast majority of them anyway, are hopelessly shallow and cruel. They LIKE hurting others. Of course, our society prevents this most of the time because of laws and social mores. So, when there is a flaw that can be exploited, and someone is declared 'fair game' due to being determined to be a Bad Guy by currently popular propaganda, there are literal howls of glee. These are shriveled, shitty little souls who live to tear down others to their pitiful level, and just don't get the opportunity often enough. They revel in it, and they feel holy and noble for engaging in it because it is Publicly Sanctioned cruelty. And they will NOT thank you for taking their shiny, bloody toy away from them. No, they will not. Do you think I am being unfair to our fellow humans? Here is an example of what I am talking about:


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=574320019247104&set=a.219802384698871.70289.218524331493343&type=1&theater


No, it's not just me. That is human nature, gritty and nasty as it is at the core. Yes, even the people you care about, maybe some you care the most about, will gladly engage in slamming someone they have never met, if someone tells them they are a Bad Guy. How many people do you know who mindlessly pass on those 'Share as widely as possible!' hysterical posts about Sleazy Suzy who collects dogs for bunchers, or for fighting, or hell any damn thing, to EAT them maybe. Nobody bothers to find out if it is true or not, they just mindlessly pass it on. And so it goes. And yet another breeder is put out of business, their animals STOLEN under color of law, their breeding programs laid waste, their animals neutered and scattered to the four winds. Even if they are later exonerated of any wrongdoing, their breeding program is OVER, programs that maybe spanned several patient, careful decades. Nobody bothers to discover if the allegations are true before reacting, it does not matter. It isn't just dogs, by the way. This is happening all over the country, to rabbit breeders, and horse breeders, and cat breeders, and cattlemen... NO ONE is safe.



Do you think you are? You are only deluding yourself. Trust me, I do not care if your place is so immaculate that you can EAT off the floor of your exercise areas, YOU TOO can be a target, and be brought down. A single pile of poop, when they show up at your house before 7 am, before you have had a chance to do the yard that morning, can be photoshopped into a hundred. I sure hope your dogs didn't pick up any parasites at the last show or field trial you attended, because if they did, that too is evidence of your 'neglect,' not a normal part of animal husbandry. Do your dogs hunt? Better hope they have no scratches or broken toenails; any visible 'wounds' will be blown up and exploited as 'evidence' of your unfitness to own an animal. Got any litters? Your poor bitch will be paraded on the internet with her titties sagging, and the story will be that she is being 'exploited' by you for filthy money. The implication is that her dugs look like that ALL the time because you have worn her out breeding her near to death. Doesn't matter if this is her first litter. Anybody down on their weight? Those will be touted as 'emaciated,' even if it is a sighthound breed that is normally very spare and athletic. You let your dogs play outside? Better hope it is 70 degrees out, because if there is visible snow or it's too hot, you will be accused of 'neglect' for not keeping them comfortable. Nevermind if this is a breed designed to work sheep outdoors in all kinds of weather; letting them BE outside is ABUSE. What the hell is wrong with you? It's COLD out there! Oh, the poor, poor babies, their poor frostbitten feet! Nevermind that many dogs have thick coats and are DESIGNED to handle cold terrain, that their paw pads and the fur between their toes are Nature's creation, sufficient to keep them comfortable in a full array of climates. YOU are negligent for keeping them outside, you cruel person you! Your carefully cleaned areas will have trash cans tipped (supposedly looking for 'evidence') and that strewed trash will ALSO be photographed as 'evidence' of the 'squalor' your animals live in. For heaven's sake, don't let anyone see that you have DOG HOUSES that the poor animals are expected to huddle in, frozen near to death in this terrible weather! Let's carefully NOT notice that these 'suffering!' animals are not even USING the shelters, they are running, barking and playing outside because they are quite COMFORTABLE in that weather! You are just making excuses for your cruelty. You have no business owning a STUFFED animal. Let's put YOU out there and make YOU live in those dog houses... carefully ignoring the fact that humans are an originally tropic species and do not have *thick fur coats and tough paw pads to protect them from the elements.* You DESERVE to suffer like that because you did that to your poor dogs! That is the kind of logic you will get from these so concerned citizens, any of which have no clue what proper husbandry really looks like... they just know YOU are not providing it. Because the Interwebs said so. So there.


And the moment, the very INSTANT that a 'hit' is put out on someone by the Rabid Animal Rights Activists, a breeder's life as they knew it ENDS. Thousands of emails, texts, faxes and phone calls from 'concerned citizens' who know NOTHING about this person except what the hysterical emails said, but will move Heaven and Earth to see them 'brought to justice' and all their animals taken. The hype continues to ramp, especially if someone with authority goes to look and sees nothing wrong in the beginning. Oh, s/he was bought off, or just incompetent; look at the PICTURES! Those poor animals are in dire need of intervention! Now it is a CAUSE. new Facebook pages are created, and shared, to get as many people to overreact as possible. Overburdened law enforcement will finally act on it just to stop the NOISE, and it will not satisfy the howling mob if they go out and find nothing wrong. No, it will not stop until someone is arrested and ALL the animals are 'safe' (read: taken by rescues who will then sell excuse me, "adopt' them out. For money.) There is also, once again, the specter of the cagey politician, riding this circus and making full use of the full court press that the humaniacs always bring along on these little junkets. This is NOT justice. This is trying people in the press, and in the court of public opinion; a very slanted and biased public at that. It is STEALING valuable property under color of law. It is a violation of our most precious, our most basic rights: Rights against unreasonable search and seizure, of removal of private property without due process, hell even the right to FACE your accuser in court. But hey, does that matter? Remember, we have decided this is a Bad Guy, so it is perfectly OK to dispense with their rights. They don't HAVE any. And Ingrid Newkirk, Killer Klown Kapitan of PeTA, laughs in delight. Wayne Pacelle, head of H$U$, strokes his ego and sees the fruition of his dream within his lifetime: "One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding."


So, what do we do about this? What can we do? The bad news is, it is very, very bad. The original Rant was written in 1998. It is now 2014, and things are FAR worse in many ways. Many people have already been 'made examples' of. Others are afraid to move, to speak, to try to protect themselves or stand up for others, for fear of reprisal. Even my flying monkeys are not up to managing this. But, the good news, as I said, is that we are finally, incrementally but absolutely, starting to wake up as a group. This is a sea change, long in the coming but inexorable once it has now begun. It will take time to become a tsunami that will slap the RARAs silly. In the meantime, they are a clear and present danger. What do we do?


Here is where the screaming starts. Because as I said in the first Rant, we do not have the time, nor the numbers, to refuse to join hands with others who can help us. We are all in this together. You think you are 'too good' to speak up when your fellow American's rights are being trampled, because you have decided they are not 'nice enough people?' Fine. If you want to be an asswad, and insist that no one who fails to live up to YOUR standards is worthy of your assistance, then you have NO right to squeal when it is YOU under the fence, and the rest of US stand by. Yes, that means you too, Prissy Sissy. Don't come boohooing to US about how they misrepresented all your hard work and your pristine home, and made you out to be some scummy ANIMAL ABUSER, and then expect us to give a damn, when YOU were the one helping them to draft the laws that hurt us all. STOP buying into anti-breeder propaganda. STOP thinking you can find a number that is 'enough' and that anything more than that is 'too many.' STOP thinking that we can 'compromise' with terrorists, and that is precisely what the RARAs are. STOP thinking this will all blow over and leave you and your animals alone, because you are a nice person. Believing that the RARAs will leave you alone because you are 'good' is like a vegetarian believing the bull won't charge because they don't eat meat. It is going to take some time for our side of this story to trickle into mainstream consciousness, and until then we are very vulnerable. Because WE, the dog breeders out here, are WAY in the minority, and the propaganda from the RARAs is decades in the making, and the general public is not going to listen to US at first. Until they have heard us, until we can speak truth to the propaganda, we need each other. The arguments between commercial breeder vs show breeder vs farmer vs pet owner has to STOP until we get more traction. Right now, the enemy of our Enemy is our friend.


Furthermore, STOP REACTING TO HYSTERICAL ACCOUNTS ABOUT OTHER BREEDERS. I do not care if the Interwebs says they are a heartless bastard. Start paying attention to WHO is saying this, and try to find out WHY. I don't care if you don't like rabbits, or cats, or cows, or Whangdoodles. I don't even care if you think Mr. Jones could do a better job of caring for his. And let me make this distinction, although really it should not be necessary, but sadly I know it is for a prissy bunch of you. We are not talking about genuine abuse here, where animals are dead, dying, ill, and obviously GENUINELY abused. Obviously no one wants to defend that, but stop quibbling about what kind of care is 'enough,' and no, you do NOT get to interject 'enrichment' into the conversation. If they are fed, watered and reasonably healthy (this does NOT mean flawless show condition BTW) then this is a bogus call for 'rescue' and YOU need not to join in the catcalls. In fact, it would behoove you to SPEAK UP for Mr. Jones' rights. Yes, he still has them, even IF you don't like the way he cares for his animals. Trust me, for all that you look down your nose at others who do not do things the way YOU think is proper, somewhere there is someone looking sadly at YOU and thinking the exact same thoughts. So get over yourself. Remember Rev Neimoller. Yes, that applies to you too. Yes, you need to step up and speak for the rights of Cassie the Commercial Breeder too. Most commercial facilities are clean and the animals are well cared for, despite what 'common knowledge' (otherwise known as widespread propaganda slandering breeders) says it is. Often their pups grow up playing with their kids and grandkids. So what if your dogs are nicer than Suzy's? Isn't that why you get to charge more? Suzy still has RIGHTS. This is still America, yes even for Suzy. And Mr. Jones. You know why this is important? Because if EVERY time the RARAs started in on another one of us, if we all stood UP for them, instead of joining in the rock throwing, it might give them pause. If we start throwing rocks BACK it will definitely make them back up, and give us some room to work. Stop worrying about whether you are helping an 'animal abuser.' Chances are VERY good that you are not, no matter how hysterical the interweb accounts of their perfidy are. And here's a news flash: even genuinely BAD people, real criminals, HAVE RIGHTS. So even when you see someone you think is a Bad Guy, but his rights are being trampled, you STAND UP if you are a good American and you demand his rights too. Because as a society, we are only as good as the least of us.


Give other people permission to be ignorant. That's right. We are all on a learning curve here. And give them permission to be human, and flawed. They still have rights. The guy with the Flat Creek Border Collies is a prime current example of a witch hunt. Would I keep animals the way he did? No, I don't. But, local breeders were working with the man, trying to help him, and making progress. HE HAS RIGHTS and they are being trampled. I do not CARE if you like him or not, I really do not give a fat huzzah if you think he is a scumball of the first water HE STILL HAS RIGHTS. And you, as an American citizen have a DUTY to stand up when other American's rights are being threatened. If you do not, then as bad as he is? You are WORSE. Because you are letting us ALL down, and all of our animals too, right along with yours.


The Enemy is at the gates. They have stated their position clearly: "One generation and out." Personally, I have no problem with that. I'd like to see RARAs be discredited as a group and lose their precarious hold on our society in this generation. It can be done. The Beast is restless. Even pet people are beginning to wake up and see the danger. What will you do? Will you continue to preen and posture about how much loftier you are than the herd? Or will you put down your mirror, pick up your sword, and join us? That trumpet is getting really strident. Can you hear it yet? Will you answer?


WHAT WILL YOU DO??

I Am a Breeder

Discussion in the new mentor's group got me to thinking about something. Many of my closest friends are dog breeders, and they all work very hard to provide the very best care, vetting, and socialization of their pups so that they will grow up to be someone's Best Friend Ever. They spend every spare nickel they have either in health testing to make sure their dogs are fit and ready to reproduce and not carrying some horrible health issue, or in other forms of competition to prove their abilities. Yet the current atmosphere has been aggressively anti-breeder for a very long time now. The social stigma aimed at dog breeders has never been so negative; it is as if none of us are stewards of valuable lines, or working to produce healthy, happy babies for loving homes. No, the public assumption is that we are all sitting out here raising pups in filthy squalid conditions just to make a buck, prostituting our poor animals for personal gain and to gratify our egos. It has reached a point where breeders are afraid to mention in public that they raise pups, because the immediate backlash at the grocery store, or the pet park, or the vet office, is so hateful.

This is WRONG. Breeders are NOT sitting out here cranking out pups in filthy conditions without a care for their eventual lives. I have been breeding dogs for almost 40 years. I can tell you where almost every puppy I ever bred is *right now.* Most of my friends can do the same. And I am tired of people being made to feel guilty and accused of being a 'puppy mill' for the heinous crime of loving dogs and wanting to share that love with others in a positive way. No, MOST breeders do not raise pups in filthy conditions. There are no more abusive, neglectful dog breeders out there than there are abusive, neglectful human parents. We all know child abuse exists, but it is not our *default* assumption for all people who have children. And 'puppy mill' can no longer be the acceptable 'default' for society to view dog breeders. It has to stop.

Part of the problem is that we have been under attack for so long that most of us walk around with our shoulders bunched up, expecting the next assault. That needs to stop too. Yes, I know it is frightening. Yes, I know that admitting publicly that you breed dogs makes you a target to the nasty little ARAs, but the alternative is living in fear and watching everything we have worked so hard for crumble into dust. I am not up for that. How about you guys?

I am a dog breeder. I do it on PURPOSE, not by accident. My dogs are tested for most of the major illnesses that beset their breeds, and are removed from our breeding program if they fail to measure up to our standards in every way. My dogs compete nationally both at bench shows and performance events, and we have dogs working in Search and Rescue, as cadaver dogs for law enforcement, and as service dogs for the handicapped, as well as working livestock on ranches across the country. I am very proud of our dogs, and how much we have accomplished. I refuse to pretend that this is somehow bad and wrong. I refuse to be held accountable for other people's failures. And the idea that it is 'wrong' to produce puppies when there are dogs in the shelter is basically like saying that women should be prevented from having children because the prisons aren't empty yet. How stupid is that!!

I am a dog breeder. Let me repeat that: I AM A BREEDER. I spend days, weeks, sometimes months, looking over pedigrees and making certain that our choices are going to be the best possible to bring healthy, happy puppies into the world for people to love. I spend sleepless nights, on the floor on a pallet next to my girls, when they are close to whelping, and for several days afterwards. The pups get my undivided attention for the entire time they are with us, and when they leave they will have been exposed to every kind of positive stimuli they can be. And I cry, yes this curmudgeonly Wicked ol' Witch cries every time I surrender a puppy to a new home, because I know I may never see it again. And even though I know that is a joyful day, at the same time I will miss each and every one of them. And I will follow up, after they leave, to make *sure* this is a good fit for all concerned. I get calls in the dark of the night about random vomit. I get calls while I am at dinner with friends by hysterical first time breeders whose dog is in whelp, what do I do what do I do!! I get calls from people who bought pups from us over a decade before, and I help soothe their misery because their Best Friend Ever just crossed the Bridge. I get calls from people excited because their pup just won its first point at its first show, or it passed its herding certification. This is my life, my passion, my calling. It is what I do, it is who I am.

I am a Breeder. I will not apologize for that. I will not hang my head, or feel badly about it. Nor will I put up with people who want to give me crap about how thoughtless and selfish I am for bringing more pups into the world when the shelters still have dogs in them. It is a stupid, completely false argument, false premise, logical fallacy and I will not be held accountable to it. I will not allow others to denigrate me for my choices. I will not put up with scathing remarks or judgmental glances from others who have no *clue* about the depth of my devotion, or the work I put into each and every baby that leaves our home. I will not be shamed, I will not be silenced, I will not be bullied.

This is my fervent wish for 2014: Let this be the *last* year that people use the word 'breeder' as a pejorative, without challenge. Let this be the last year that my breeder friends are forced to live under the gun, and hide who they are, and feel embarrassed when they admit that yes, they *gasp!* have intact dogs, and worse, *breed them.* Let this be the year when the battle is joined, and breeders finally stand up, and challenge this ugly stereotype, and reject it, and say, with PRIDE:

I am a Breeder.

*I* am a Breeder.

I AM a BREEDER.

Those of you who feel the same: Join me. Speak your truth to the world. Stop letting those who want to see an end to the companion animal bond, set the stage and shape the conversation. It is time we all stood up, as one, and said:

I AM A BREEDER.

And that is a GOOD thing.

Dear Prospective Puppy Buyer: Your Reality Check Just Bounced

I read a really great blog post just now, it was at this location: 

http://furbetterfurworse.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/is-buying-from-a-breeder-bad/

And I really liked it, but it got me thinking about a few things. You see, I am one of those evil people: a breeder. That's right, I deliberately and with great forethought, take the boy dog to the girl dog and make puppies. Even worse, I breed OTHER animals too, like chickens, and rabbits, and goats... Yes, I do health checks, I screen prospective buyers, and I have carefully written contracts with carefully thought out consequences and take-back policies, trying my best to protect the little ones I bring into the world. But I also want to expand on a subject that the author of this piece only touched on, and that is: what happens with puppies once they leave us.

I have been breeding dogs under my own kennel name now for almost 40 years. And through that life, I have developed many friendships like the ones this author talks about. I have many people who came to me to buy puppies and became dear friends, who call me in the dark of the night for advice when their dog is throwing up, or send me photos of themselves and their pups, now grown, having all sorts of wonderful adventures. This is why I do this; because I am in the 'business' of creating someone's Best Friend Ever, and when I hit the mark, we all win.  Some of them are my very best friends in this world; people that I know would drop everything and be here if something awful happened, who would take over and take care of my animals in the event I was ever unable to, and for whom I would cheerfully and instantly do the same. We scuzzy, evil breeder types, we tend to stick together.

Over all this time, I have seen puppy buyers and pet owners in general grow steadily more savvy. On the one hand, this is great! It is what I, and my other scummy evil breeder friends, have been working towards all our lives. On the other hand though, there really is such a thing as too much knowledge. Or more often, too much misinformation masquerading as knowledge.


See, today's puppy buyers are more educated than they used to be. Problem is, the majority of them get all their information, or the bulk of it, from the internet. Yes, there is a whole lot of really helpful information out there, but there is also a whole lot of myth and propaganda, and the problem is, for the ignorant (not stupid, just unlearned) puppy buyer, they have no way to really determine which sites are helpful and which are just self aggrandizing piffle. I get so tired of sites that purport to educate you on how to tell a 'good breeder' from a 'bad breeder' using a paint by numbers formula. No person I know has a paint by numbers life, so trying to get breeders to fit in neat little boxes is just wrongheaded. Different breeds have very different needs and considerations in care and management, and a breeder's choices will reflect this. Furthermore, the amount of actually hurtful advice is just amazing.

But worst of all, these sites tell you what 'reputable people' will ask, and expect from their puppy buyers, and while many of them hit the mark, there is a largely unnoticed downside with this information: The buyer who has all the right answers, pat in his head, fresh from that internet site, who will fill the breeder full of absolute HOGWASH about what his intentions and expectations are with the puppy, only to take it home, put it in the back yard, and toss food at it once a day. Hopefully. These people are surly and truculent when the breeder calls back to check and see how they are doing together. They are not interested in a long term relationship with the breeder any more than they are with that nice kid from Target who sold them the toaster. The magazines all say that upwardly mobile couples have 2 dogs and 1.3 cats, and if they could figure out how to keep 1/3 of a cat alive, they would do that... the dog is not a family member, it is window dressing. Sort of living lawn art. 


Two years later, this animal has had NO decent socialization, NO training, and NO enrichment, and it is all grown up and not going to get any cuter. It barks, it digs, it chews, it nips the kids. It has been raised on the cheapest kibble available at the local grocery, supplemented with kitchen scraps, instead of on the quality feed the breeder suggested. Routine wormings and vet care? Are you kidding, that costs MONEY. Consequently, the pup has developed bone growth disorders, endocrine issues and bad skin from the poor quality feed and parasites. None of this is good for the pup, or for its attitude. Think how YOU would feel if you itched and hurt all the time, and lived with chronic diarrhea and stomach cramps, because you were denied the nutrients you needed to grow properly and were full of nasty worms. Think what kind of temperament you might have, if your only interaction with humans was once a day when they came out the back door, and kicked at you to get you to stop jumping on them, and cursed at you for getting them dirty, while they slapped a pan of poor grade kibble with leftover pancakes on the ground and refilled your rancid water dish.  It is not conducive to a loving and outgoing attitude, now is it? All of this will be laid at the breeder's door for selling 'unhealthy puppies' with 'bad genes.' If the breeder is lucky, the buyer will simply return the pup, and the breeder can then begin the grueling process of getting it healthy again and trying to find a DECENT home, winnowing through all the rest of the smiling, LYING people who claim to want a quality pet, but really want a trophy that barks. If the breeder is UNlucky, the poor pup will be dumped at the local shelter or foisted off on some unsuspecting person on Craigslist (in violation of the contract they painstakingly spelled out when the buyer bought the pup.) Good luck getting that contract upheld in court; few courts understand or have any patience with dog contracts. In the world of courts, if you bought it, and paid money for it, then it is yours to do with as you please. They do not understand, nor tend to honor, *conditional* agreements in these documents, no matter how many 'whereas' and 'wherefores' you might insert.


Now that our unlucky pup is in the shelter, it becomes the poster child for poor breeders everywhere. Is any of this the fault of the owner? NO, it is all on that scummy, evil breeder who just shipped that pup off for filthy lucre to the first person to hand them a check! "Look at how awful this pup is, how poorly developed, how crappy the skin and coat is. It has a simply awful temperament too, sitting in the corner shivering. And this horrid breeder foisted this pup off on someone and deemed it healthy and a decent representative of its breed! Just LOOK at the way it moves; I am sure it has HD, hell you can see from here it has rickets." If this pup gets into breed rescue, the unfortunate truth is that those in the kennel club who are gunning for this breeder will be THRILLED to share all this horror with as many people in the breed as they can. With any luck, they can get this scourge kicked out of the club and banned for life. Scummy puppy mill...


As I said, I have been raising dogs for almost 40 years. I have watched this little scenario play itself out many times. I have watched as many good, caring breeders have given up, laid it all to the side and said, "I'm done" (and Ingrid Newkirk laughs in delight.) I have watched as the animal rights nitwits and their sleazy propaganda about breeders has all but destroyed the once-warm connection between puppy buyers and breeders. We are no longer good, knowledgeable people who love and live for our dogs, and who provide a valuable service: that of producing healthy, well bred puppies for people to love. No, we are evil scuzzy breeders, only one step above pond scum, who prostitute our charges for profit, and nothing else.  I have also seen all too many breeders release pups into homes that seemed perfect, but later down the line, they turn out to be not just imperfect, but utterly devoid of humanity. Sometimes this is due to changes in fortunes, such as a death in the family, the loss of a job, a divorce. You do not really know a person, not in the depths of their soul, until they have seen some adversity. Sometimes though, it was simply a liar who knew all the right things to say, all the right buttons to push. Sometimes, they learned it from going through breeder after breeder until they figured out what NOT to say, in order to get the next breeder to let them go home with a pup. Lately, however, there are plenty of websites that tell them straight up what the issues are, what a breeder wants from them... so they say what they have to, and they give the breeder their money, and then they proceed to take the dog home and ignore everything they just said, and signed. "After all, who do they think they are? Stupid breeders, they are only in this for the money anyway. Why should they dictate what I do with my dog? I bought it, it's MINE."


Shelter 'logic' is that bad homes are always the result of a bad breeder, somewhere down the line. Either the breeding should never have happened in the first place, or the dog is in a bad home because the BREEDER failed. Let me ask you something: How many of you reading this, have failed marriages, or friends whose marriages failed when you thought they were the perfect couple? How many of you spent MONTHS courting that spouse, and you *thought* you knew them, and you *thought* that this was someone you wanted to spend a lifetime with. What happened? Are you stupid, for mistaking their careful game face for the reality, when they lied and covered up who they really were? Are you stupid, for loving someone at one point in their life, only to find that both of you grew in different ways and you are just not compatible any more? How many marriages fail, how many divorces rip families apart, devastating not just the couple, but the children and the extended family too? Lots of them, right? And yet, you want to opine that dog breeders, who meet these people and interview them at best a few times on the phone and in person, are not doing enough to make SURE it is a good, forever home. What the heck do you expect of us? Why is ALL of this on us, hey?? Even if it is EXTENSIVE interviewing, it does not rise to going to LIVE with them for years first, and even that is no guarantee... How can you expect us to have these God-like powers of perception, and see through the cock and bull, or precog that job loss in five years, and the resulting alcoholism that will make a previously good home suddenly spiral down and collapse, leaving the dog in the lurch?


People need to be more realistic in their expectations, and that applies across the board. You need to be realistic about what a breeder can, and cannot do, about making sure of a 'good home.' You need to be realistic about what a breeder CAN do, in the event that a home they thought was good, suddenly turns out not to be, or a good situation morphs into a bad one. Sometimes, all the take-back contracts in the world will not suffice, if the breeder is themselves facing a family member in end stage liver disease, or trying to retrieve a few of their things in the aftermath of a natural disaster, or in the midst of some kind of personal crisis. Are they terrible people if they fail to live up to promises made in rosier times, when they thought they would "always" have room, and time, to take back any puppy they ever produced? When it comes down to taking back the puppy, or being there for Grandma as she dies, who wins, and is the breeder a scumball if they choose Grandma? What if the breeder themselves develops health issues, rendering them incapable of living up to that contract? Well, how DARE she have a car accident and end up crippled! Lying scummy BREEDER...

You also need to be more realistic about the reasons dogs come into shelters or rescue; it is NOT all because the breeder failed in their trust. Generally speaking, it is not the BREEDER bringing the dog in, now is it? No, it is usually either the owner, or a family member. In the worst scenarios, it is like the cat I just took in; the treasured pet of an old gentleman who had the misfortune to be related to some really useless people. When he suddenly passed, their answer for what to do with the pets who made his last years worth living were: "Dispose of them." And that is the BREEDER's fault, yeah, for bringing those cats into the world? For sending them to live with an old gent who loved them dearly but then had the bad grace to die and leave them behind? Uh, no.

Dog breeders are not evil, but neither are they omniscient. We are human, and while we care deeply for each and every puppy we produce, and while we cry bitterly once the new family takes it home, there is only so much that we can control. We can only do the best we can, and hope for the best. The only other alternative is no puppies for ANYONE to love, and while I know the animal rights crowd lives for this day, and thinks it's just great, I do not think that MOST of us, the people out here in reality land, would agree with them. At least I hope not. 

Edited to add: I have received an unprecedented amount of appreciation for this piece, and I have been asked if it can be crossposted, so I am including a 'permission to crosspost' for those who found this compelling. Thank you for the kind words.

No, YOU Cannot Afford to Own a Dog

You really shouldn't have a dog, you know.

I bet you think I am kidding. After all, clearly I am a dog breeder, so I love dogs; how can I say you shouldn't have a dog? Who do I think I am, telling you that?!

Well, it's true. And the fact is, I shouldn't have a dog either. Because I can't afford it, and neither can you.

OK, I admit, I don't know you, and it is *possible,* barely, that you can afford to own a dog. You might be a multimillionaire; and if you are then I apologize for my first comment. You can probably afford to own one. But the rest of us, we just should not be allowed to own a dog. Because we can't afford it.

See, this is how it works... Our decisions about whether or not we can afford to have a dog should not be determined by whether we love dogs and can afford to buy and feed and house one; that is the barest edge of what is needful for a dog.  And you really have no idea what all that actually costs, anyway. You can afford dog food? Really. You can afford to spend $30 a pound for dog food, then, OK. What??! Wait a minute. $30 a POUND??! What does that have to do with anything?

Well, you *claim* to be able to afford a dog. But if you cannot afford the very best feed, then you should not have one. Less than this, and the dog will not grow, and live, to its fullest potential, and every dog deserves to live to its fullest potential, right? That is a BASIC right. And some of the best feeds out there cost about that much. Yes, really. So if you thought you could afford a dog because a bag of Ol' Roy every month was within your reach, you are only fooling yourself. No dog should have to live on that garbage; and if that is the best you can do then you should not own a dog. They deserve better. In fact, forcing your dog to subsist on mere kibble, and a low grade kibble at that, is abuse, really. It is beyond benign neglect; you are saying that your dog will never live up to its fullest potential because you just don't care enough, or can't afford enough, to give it what it needs to live and grow. You should be brought up on charges for suggesting that this is an acceptable way to treat any animal, much less a dog.

Well, but wait; you may not be able to afford $30 a pound, but you can afford to pay $50 for 30 lbs; and there are a lot of higher end feeds that fit within that window. *sigh* Well, I guess... if that is the best you can do, then OK, but I shudder to think the Hell your animals must live in, if you think that is sufficient care and feeding. It's bare sustenance, is what it is, but whatever. I guess you can afford to feed a dog, kind of. But you still can't afford to own a dog.

Why not? Well, because you can't provide the kind of enrichment that ALL dogs deserve, and should have. But you have a big back yard, you say? Lots of trees, for shade, and you can afford to buy dog toys? Yeah right. So, where is your dog going to stay? Well, you have a really nice, heavy duty dog house for when you are not at ho-- STOP. No, you should not have a dog. Do you honestly mean to tell me that you think it's OK to leave your dog outside, in a yard, unattended? What is wrong with you??! Do you not understand how many things can go wrong in your absence? Your dog could be bitten by a poisonous snake, poisoned by a neighbor annoyed with the barking, climb the fence or dig its way out of the yard and be hit by a car, be stolen by a theft ring that sells dogs to laboratories for research, or to dog fighters as bait... did you give this any thought, when you decided you were a fit home for a dog? And no, I do not want to hear about how unlikely any of those scenarios are, or that you want your dog to be able to exercise outside in your absence, or what have you. You cannot have a dog, you are an unfit owner.

But wait... what if you keep the dog in the house while you are away from home? Oh, sure. Go off and leave your dog, for hours on end, where he can get into the trash or under the counters and get poisoned, or get hold of electrical wires and either electrocute himself or set the house on fire and die of smoke inhalation or burning... No. You just do not get it; you are clearly an unfit home for a dog. Hey, what about a crate, though? You could get the dog a nice big crate, put toys in it... Oh, please. Lock your dog in a cage all day, away from people and enrichment, stuck in that tiny enclosure looking out the grill at the world... what kind of monster are you??! There your dog is, unable to stretch its legs, or relieve itself, unable to freshen an empty water bucket or food dish, and what happens if it ingests a portion of those toys because it is so frustrated and hungry in your absence, and has an intussusception? Poor dog could die of a ruptured gut, and you would not even know it until you got home. Not to mention, crates fail; dogs escape them and then we are right back to that house fire. Fail.

Wait! I know! We can build an enclosed dog run with a doggie door off the side of the house; if we floor it with concrete the dog can't dig out, and if we top it with wire he can't jump out, and if it is only accessible from inside the house, with no outer door, and privacy fenced so that no one can see him, then theft should  be restricted, and the indoor portion of this doggie kingdom could be completely dog proofed and provided with a gravity fed dog feeder and an automatically refilling water source, and some indestructible toys like a Kong or something... *sigh* Well, I see you have forgotten that the neighbor can still poison it by throwing meat baited with poison or ground glass through the wire top, but I can see you have given this some serious thought, so if you cover that wire with steel roofing to prevent that poison issue, and line the inner walls of this area with a suitable surface (stainless steel would be nice) to prevent your poor, bored, lonely dog from chewing into the drywall and either escaping by continuing to chew through the outer siding, or finding the power lines hidden in the wall, then maybe that would be OK. It isn't ideal, you know, since leaving your dog unattended is still an exercise in neglect, but at least it should be mostly safe. Shouldn't set you back more than $10-15,000 for this little pet-safe kewpie-approved doggie apartment. But you still can't afford a dog.

What now?! Well, you have just not thought this whole thing through, have you? You say you can afford 'routine veterinary care,' but what if the worst happens, are you prepared for that? Shots and neutering are just a scratch at the surface. There are routine health tests that cost money too, and they are necessary to gauge the probabilities of long term health issues. You will need, at the very minimum, eye tests, heart tests, and hip and elbow tests. These will run, collectively, to several hundred dollars. And then there is the Great Unknown, those things you cannot test for. What if? What if your dog is hit by a car, can you afford the vet bill? We could easily be talking about several thousand dollars, depending on the severity of the injuries and whether or not this happens during office hours at your vet. If it happens during emergency clinic hours, the price will more than double. Do you have $10-20,000 laying around the house in the event of this kind of situation? Are you prepared to provide round-the-clock care for a dog that may now be crippled for life, stuck in the dog equivalent of a wheelchair? Are you going to be able to provide a quality of life for this dog that is now a paraplegic, to exercise it, manage to get it to eat, to void, clean up after it? OK then, what if it develops some debilitating illness like cancer? Can you afford chemo for your dog, maybe for months? Expect that vet bill to balloon far past the measly $20,000 we suggested that a car accident might run to. Don't tell me that putting the dog down under those circumstances would even cross your mind; you owe that dog the very finest vet care money can provide. Does not matter if it does not significantly improve the dog's quality of life, or if the dog in question is already in its teens. If you cannot afford to provide proper care under all possible circumstances, then you cannot afford to own a dog.

What If? What If, What If; Whatif Whatif whatifwhatifwhatif...

Then there is the conundrum of breeding a dog. You say you want to be a breeder, but you just really don't get it. There are so many various costs that must be considered, that quite apart from the routine costs of owning a dog, make owning a breeding dog just out of the question unless you are independently wealthy. Remember those health tests we talked about earlier, on hips, and eyes, and hearts? Yeah, you get to do those of course, and if you really want to be thorough and proactive, you will redo these tests every year, especially if you plan to breed your dog. Remember that several hundred dollar price tag? Yeah. Except now, it is every year, for each and every dog you own, mind. Because sometimes those 'certifications' change over time, and a dog who is pronounced 'clear' of heart disease at age 2 might not be at age 6. So if you really care, and are not just pumping out puppies for filthy lucre, you will do what you should and drop the dime for these tests year after year. Because you want to be thorough, if you are serious about this.

But that too is only the beginning. There are all kinds of breed specific tests, some of them genetic, to make certain your dog is not carrying some unknown baggage that might rear its ugly head to cause trouble down the line. Certain health issues that run in all breeds, like epilepsy, thyroid, von Willenbrand's disease, Addison's, Cushing's, diabetes, and so on and so forth. Many more that are breed specific such as Fanconi Syndrome in Basenjis, urinary stone forming in Dalmatians, syringomyelia in Cavaliers, or Legg-Calve-Perthes disease in Westies. Each breed has its own exhaustive laundry list of tests that must be performed, before any dog is considered qualified to enter a whelping box. And considering all the other costs, it is almost anti-climactic to bring up the point that a C-section, should your bitch require one, will frequently set you back a cool $1000. By the time you are finished, each of those puppies has cost you several hundred dollars to bring into being. Forget about a profit; you won't even get close to recouping your investment, but what do you care? You are not doing this for the money, you say. Well good thing, because it's out of your league anyway.

However, you are still not even ready to put two dogs together, not even with all of these tests accomplished and passed. Because you must prove that your dog is worthy of being bred, and that means it must be tested for its fitness to reproduce. There are performance events to prove your dog has the 'stuff' to do what it was bred for, and conformation events to ensure your dog has adequate breed type to be considered for breeding. Show entries are not even the half of it. Earning a conformation Championship will set you back a minimum of $2500, and that is if you do it all your self. Hotel accommodations, food, gasoline, not to mention the cost of a suitable rig to haul those dogs in, all add to the tab. If you hire a handler, expect to at least double that. Field Championships are a mixed bag, depending on your breed, but by the time you factor in gasoline and lodging to drive to these events, be ready to drop at least another $1500-2000. Ditto for obedience titles. Failure at any of these means you get to start all over, with another dog. And trust me, far more will fail at least ONE of those tests or breeding criterion, than will make it through the grueling obstacle course. No, you really cannot afford to do this. NO ONE CAN.

So, what are we to do? We all love dogs, and want to own them, but the simple fact is that the vast majority of us are not doing it right, not caring enough, not providing a proper, safe and enriched atmosphere and adequate food and vetting, not really. Oh, if we piddle along and are mostly lucky, we can squeak by and pretend to be good dog owners for a few years, but inevitably the worst happens; your dog is attacked by a lion who got loose from the zoo, or develops some horrible auto immune disorder that no one has ever heard of, requiring thousands of dollars in investigative care, and the truth comes out: We are not worthy, not really. We are not prepared, we are not capable of properly providing for a dog. The sad truth is that most of us should turn in our dog leads and learn to enjoy dogs in books or movies, preferably rendered by CGI so that real live dogs will not have to be sacrificed, forced into living with flawed, unprepared humans to train and film them. It is time we recognized this, and regretfully but determinedly put this idea of owning pets behind us.




Are you mad yet? Are you angry at my presumption? Oh, yeah. I can hear the sudden intake of breath, I can feel the heat coming off of you in waves. Well, well. So you do have it in you. Can you feel it? The outrage, the indignation, the dawning fury? Damn, it's about time. I was beginning to think none of you were going to figure this out: We are all on a bell curve, here. On one end is the breeder I describe in this article; the one who spares no expense, tests everything incessantly, and believes that those who cannot live up to that standard are unfit to own a pet. On the other end is the hapless jerk who really does lack the wherewithal to provide even the basics, whose dogs live in filth and squalor, subsisting on scraps and garbage, and who does not aspire to do better, feeling they are 'just dogs' and unworthy of more. But the raw truth is, both ends of that spectrum are in the extreme minority of dog owners. As for the rest of us, we live somewhere in the middle of that bell curve, and it is about time we saw the folly of ranting at others for being elsewhere on that curve.

People, the constant harping and chewing on one another for 'not doing it well enough,' for not living up to our exhaustive standards, has got to stop. As I said in another article I once wrote, there are two great truths to animal husbandry. One is that, for people who own dogs, it is very easy to be angry with others for failing to live up to your standards. I see you out there, looking down at others who are lower on that curve than you are, and I see how you glare at these people, feeling they are unworthy to own a dog at all, if they cannot live up to your standards.

And the other great truth? There is always someone further up that curve than you, looking DOWN at YOU, and thinking the exact same thoughts.

It bears thinking about, especially in these times when we breeders are under assault as never before, by people who believe it is their right, and more than that, their holy duty, to end our purposeful breeding of pets. It is time that we examined our motives, and gave some real thought to how our posturing can be used against us by those who want to paint us all as animal abusers. Can you afford to own a dog? Maybe. Can you afford all this preposterous posturing, when you are giving the ARAs the tools to destroy us all? No. None of us can.

Not one of us can afford that, at all.

"Adopt, Don't Shop?" Better Stop, And Think! It's a Life Choice, Not a Policy Position!

There has been much written in the animal rights community, alleging that no one should buy a dog, or any other pet, from any breeder, for any reason. All dogs should come from rescue, or a shelter, never someone who deliberately bred it. The mindset behind this is that if you buy a dog, instead of adopting from the shelter, then some dog in some shelter is going to be put to death because of that decision. Also, that buying from a breeder supports 'an industry founded on abuse!' and other such anti-breeder sentiments. In the world of the animal rights activist, of course, all breeders are evil, money grubbing pariahs who prostitute their poor animals for filthy money. Every last one of us. None of us are stewards of valuable bloodlines, none of us love our dogs and pay for the most up to date and expensive feed and vet care for our pets, none of us spend all our leisure hours playing with those pets or taking them to various performance events so they can play and be dogs and do what they were born to do, none of us live with our beloved dogs on our couches, no. We are all filthy 'puppy mills' who care NOTHING about the dogs and only about money, and living with a breeder is the worst possible life any poor pet can lead. It does not matter how many we breed or how few, or even what kind of facilities or training regimen or lifestyle our dogs lead; if we are breeding at all, we are The Problem. Not only is that a ridiculous position to take, it flies in the face of all logic. However, this is becoming increasingly widespread as bumper sticker philosophy, and a lot of 'animal lovers' who do not really understand the basics of this credo, and who think that rescue is a noble calling, are passing this around as if it were self-evident instead of wrong-headed, feel-good propaganda. Not only is this a blatant attempt to 'guilt' people into going to the shelter rather than to a nasty breeder if they want a pet, it is a vicious slander of people who have spent their lives (and several fortunes) doing their very best to create beautiful, healthy puppies for families to love. It promotes the idea that families are better off to settle for what they can find from other's castoffs at the shelter, rather than finding a breeder who has carefully and meticulously created a perfect puppy to fit their lifestyle. This concept completely overlooks many of the very obvious, and dangerous pitfalls, in making such a decision, and this goes beyond merely being an internet stone throwing contest. I want to talk about many of those pitfalls here, because behind the beautiful idea of "give that poor shelter dog a chance!" lurks the truth that there is a huge difference between deciding to take a shelter dog home while being fully cognizant of the downsides, vs being guilted into going to the shelter because of pressure from friends and the media, when you really want or need something more than a pig in a poke.

One of the arguments to send people to rescue is that breeders over-price puppies, and that it is a lot less expensive to get a dog from the shelter or a rescue. Actually, that is often untrue; I see dogs on shelter and rescue sites daily whose adoption fees are FAR more than I charge for a companion puppy. There is NO difference to the consumer, price wise, 'adopting' vs buying from a reputable breeder, whether that be a high quality commercial producer or a small time specialty breeder like myself. The 'adoption fees' include the required neutering (breeding is evil, exploitative and cruel, you know) shots at outrageous prices, and often various 'health costs' from worming or flea treatment, skin diseases, ear mites, and the list goes on. Depending on the source,  the medical costs can be anywhere from reasonable to high, but are often pretty inflated; and there is a general cost for the fostering written in as well so that by the time you take your new 'adopted' puppy home, you have spent as much as if you came to a top show breeder to buy a pet quality puppy. And the only papers you will get are not ones you want to keep. ;o)

Another argument is that puppies from breeders are all 'unhealthy.' This is actually almost funny, if it were not so sad, and so untrue. The basis of this belief is that there are certain illnesses that seem to plague some breeds more than others, and the story from the AR community is that this is because breeders are just cranking out unhealthy puppies for money. But the real truth of the issue is, the only reason anyone is aware that a certain breed has a health issue is because the breeders and their vets track these things in order to combat them. How do we know the incidence of, say, hip dysplasia in German Shepherd Dogs, and why do we know it is improving? Because the dogs are being screened by caring breeders who want to produce healthier puppies. Without those breeders presenting their prospective parents for testing, no one would know how many in the breed had a problem, or how to go about fixing it. And no one spends the money to track these issues in the mixed breed pet owning community. It is widely believed that mutts are generally healthier, since there are no exhaustive lists of health concerns that follow mixed breeds; but this is a silly myth. Anyone who has spent any time in a vet office can tell you that there are plenty of mixed breeds suffering from the exact same problems as their fancier cousins. Some of these issues are based on general body type, such as hip dysplasia which seems to affect large breeds (and large mutts!) or patellar issues that plague the toy breeds (and small mutts!) Others are based on inheritance, but mixed breeds inherit just as many negative genes as purebreds, it is just that no one tracks them for the incidence the same way that purebreds can be tracked. And sometimes, mixed breeds inherit several different issues from their various ancestors. The truth of the matter is, at least the majority of breeders are aware of potential problems in their breeds and are working diligently to confront and eradicate them. For the buyer, that means a lot.

The pup from the breeder and the pup from the shelter may look alike, on the surface; both are cute and cuddly, both are worthy of a loving home. The difference, though, is pretty telling. At the shelter, you get a dog in a cage, parentage usually unknown, health issues if any of said parents also unknown, health testing at all of those parents pretty unlikely. You have no idea what kind of temperament the parents had, no idea what kind of socialization or enrichment the puppies got as weanlings, and there is seldom a really decent screening process. Oh, they screen, but not for the sorts of things that breeders look for; they want to know if the prospective owners are gainfully employed and how much they make, do they have a fenced yard, do they own other animals (usually considered a bad thing) and are any of them intact (almost always a bad thing.) They do screen for things of that nature, but there are a lot of intangibles that get glossed over if you don't really know the dogs you are placing as individuals. Many shelter personnel are neither trained nor qualified to figure out which pup/older dog would be the best fit for younger kids vs pre teens, which dog/breed works better in a high energy household as opposed to an elderly couple, etc. They are working under a lot of limitations because they just don't KNOW; often they have no real idea how big they will even grow up to be much less anything else, and their only observation of these animals has been in a completely unnatural, stilted and highly stressed environment that can make good dogs look bad and bad dogs 'lock down' and seem fine right up until they blow... Health guarantees? Temperament guarantees? Yeah right. You bought it, (excuse me-*adopted* it) you own it, health and temperament issues and all. If the pup/dog develops serious health or temperament issues, they will direct you to the vet or a good trainer, and offer you good luck. Oh, you can return it, but you will not get a replacement for that several hundred dollar 'adoption' fee, you will get attitude for being a 'bad owner' for returning a dog that didn't work out, often for reasons beyond YOUR control. And, in a few cases, overburdened shelters or rescues may 'gloss over' the bad points to try and get more animals moved through the system. Too many animals coming through the doors means they will not be able to keep them long enough to catch the telltale signs of a problem, assuming they are experienced enough to see it. This is where you get the horror stories about kids savaged and etc. I am not demonizing rescues or shelters here, I have been engaged in rescue for many years, and I have seen some very well run shelters who would never do such a thing, and I'd say they outnumber the bad ones. But, it is undeniable that shelters and rescues are working with a handicap when trying to make any kind of predictions about what you can expect, long term, from adopted dogs.

A breeder will have a record of health testing on the parents usually for several generations, and a pedigree that shows what those dogs were good for. This is sort of important if you are getting a dog for a special purpose, such as herding livestock on your ranch or working as a police or search-and-rescue canine, or a service dog for the handicapped. Pedigrees track more than parentage; they show a lineage of talent behind your puppy, giving you a good idea what you can expect. The breeder who delivered and sat over these puppies for weeks has socialized those puppies and has a pretty good idea, after several weeks, how best to fit those pups to prospective homes; so we don't waste the time of an elderly couple sending them the hyperactive overacheiver; we send that one to the high end performance trainer and put the sweet, quiet one with the retiree. Health and temperament guarantees are offered by most breeders, which gives the prospective owner genuine remedies if things do not work out. Because it is in the best interests of all concerned, the breeder tries very hard to make sure these arrangements are beneficial to all concerned, because first of all they are a lot more involved with their puppies from the beginning so they are more emotionally invested in wanting the pups to be happy, and there is also the issue of (in the best cases) wanting the new owners to be happy with their new pup so they will love it and give it the best of everything, and (lesser case but still valid) they don't want to see it come back through the door in 18 months because the people are unhappy so they are going to do the front work to see that does not happen. This is where those intangibles of time spent socializing and enriching these pups, and sorting and screening homes to make sure they are paired properly, really makes a difference.

Yes, it is also true that just like shelters and rescues, there are also low end breeders who breed more than they can reasonably manage and who will therefore be less likely to 'screen' beyond whether or not the check will clear. But, as in the case of shelters, the good ones far outnumber the bad ones, it is just that the bad ones get all the press. This is pretty much true of most things in life, actually, but in recent years the ARAs, and especially H$U$  have seized on sensationalizing every single 'bad one' totally out of proportion to reality, presenting each as 'typical' of breeders in general. Of course, each such 'puppy mill bust' comes with a camera crew and a pre-packaged rollout of begging for donations to 'help us with this crisis.' All of this is arranged far in advance of the actual bust; does nobody ever realize just what this means? This is a BUSINESS, people. (Remember Katrina? Remember the millions of dollars in donations to 'help Katrina victims' that H$U$ *still* has not accounted for? Uh huh. Business as usual for those folks.) Sad faces of puppies and kitties will make people open their wallets even faster than sad faces of hungry children; sick but true. As far as that goes, more recently this has escalated to hitting breeders that are NOT doing anything wrong; frankly because there are not enough 'bad guys' out there to keep the 'problem' of 'puppy mills' inflated to the level of a 'crisis' they can sell to the public, to keep the money rolling in consistently. (Now, where have we seen that before, even recently as a matter of fact? *coughcough*MFA*cough*) I wonder where they learned such tactics? Wonder no more; the ARAs teach this stuff in seminars. Incidentally, those seminars that teach terrorist tactics to animal activists? Those are paid for by, you guessed it, your donations to organizations like H$U$ and PeTA, who run flashy ads with heart-wrenching photos of abused and neglected puppies and kittens to get you to part with your green. If you ever wondered what they use that money for, or had some vague thought that they supported animal shelters and helped animals in need, wonder no more. Your donations do not go to provide more care or feeding for a single needy animal; instead they are funneled to cushy pension plans and lobbying to make animal breeding illegal, and yes, those seminars where they teach people how to infiltrate local animal control and city councils, or how to disrupt animal training events, or writing petitions to stop hunting and fishing in your state.

The POINT here is, adopting dogs is a noble calling. I do not want people to take away from my comments that rescues and shelters are bad, or that adopting a dog is always a poor choice. I have done rescue and re-homing for the past 20 years; if I did not believe in the process, I would not be engaged in it myself. Many rescues do a very good job, and even from a breeder you can get a pup with issues. It is more a matter of weighing options, and a rescue dog is often a win/win for the dog and the new home. I also do not want to pick on rescue workers here, they have a tough enough time. It is hard work, from people dedicated to taking animals that have not had the best breaks in life, and trying to turn things around for them. And adoption works; there are literally millions of dogs that have been saved from euthanasia who are presently making their owners very happy.

BUT, there are many situations where an adoption should not be the first choice, and it certainly should never be presented as the only choice. Pretending that buying puppies from whatever outlet is inherently wrong and bad, (whether that be a breeder, or pet store, or your neighbor,) is irresponsible and wrong headed. The same arguments that apply to pet store puppies as far as socialization and etc., apply to shelter dogs as well; and as others have stated, most pet shop pups get a lot more handling once they get to that pet store, than the majority of shelter or rescue dogs. And often they arrive at that pet store too young, before they really should have been taken from their dams which is a sign of irresponsibility on the breeder's part on one end, but at the same time if they are just cranking out pups for cash it's probably for the best to get the pups out of the environment sooner anyway. They are not going to benefit from a longer stay if they have been yanked off their dams to make her dry up sooner, and are not being enriched anyway. At least in the pet store they will get plenty of handling and affection. Even in an ideal shelter or foster situation, they are seldom the entire focus of the rescue personnel, while pet shop puppies (and kittens) are the belles of the ball and the undisputed biggest attention getters. I worked for a pet store when I was a kid, it was one of my first jobs as a matter of fact, and I learned a LOT from that facility, not all of it bad. The pups were kept very clean, they were taken out and worked with all day, we watched them carefully to make sure they were not wallered to death and that they got plenty of time to rest. People bitch about 'spur of the moment purchases' but the simple fact is that a lot of people do that anyway, that is not the shop's fault and in the absence of a pet store these same idiots will be buying pups from ads in the newspaper. Which is also not always a bad thing. Like all things in life, making a decision that will impact your life for maybe as much as 20 years needs more thought and preparation than buying a pair of shoes. But at the same time, everyone is on a learning curve, and sometimes those people with pups in the paper are nice folks with decent pets that were gleefully and delightedly raised in their kitchens, given much love and support, and cradled in one child's lap after another as they grew. It is unfair and actually unreasonable to label those puppies categorically 'undesirable' because their owners are not as accomplished or knowledgeable as some other people.

Bottom line is that the concept that puppies should only ever come from a shelter or rescue is ridiculous, and condemning pet stores on generalized criticisms that actually apply equally as well to shelters themselves is kind of an oxymoron. And, implying that all breeders, or even commercial breeders are 'puppy mills' is BS to start off with, it is demonizing people who work very hard without a shred of fairness to the accusation. It is roughly equivalent to attacking all car dealerships as 'disreputable' businesses that ought to all be shut down, because everyone has a story about some used car they bought that blew up once it left the parking lot. It's a load of crap.

Assumption Becomes Presumption: and the ASS Here Might Be You!

This started life as a Note on my FB page. The amount of support and the number of shares of this short article have astounded me somewhat, but gratified me even more. This is an issue that is very near and dear to my heart; I feel it is unconscionable that I am an American citizen who pays taxes, drives responsibly, and breaks no laws, and yet I live in constant fear of animal rights activists, and the ways the fanatacism these people preach, threatens my life and that of my pets and livestock. And yet, I am forced to go to great lengths to protect my animals and my family from these people. I have lobbied at our state Capital in defense of the rights of people to have their Constitutional rights protected; to be able to not fear a knock on the door, and the loss of their rights and their legal property because of ignorant or malicious people with an anti-animal breeder agenda. And I have come home to find that these 'animal lovers' have targeted my animals in my absence; apparently they believe that death by poison is far better than living a life in my house and on my couch and bed... This is a terrible situation, and it threatens ALL of us, when you consider that this is not just about pets or so-called 'puppy mills,' but that these people are assaulting ALL animal producers, including our farmers who produce food for this nation. In fact, I am in the crosshairs from both directions, since besides our beloved Beaucerons and English Toy Spaniels, I also raise ornamental poultry and pet rabbits, so I am under the gun both as an evil dog breeder AND a heartless farmer. What follows is a plea for simple common sense, and for logic and reason to trump hysteria and emotional rhetoric. Thank you to all who have sent me kind words about this piece, and a permission to crosspost is included.

This is for all the doggie people that have friended me on FB, and that includes the pet owners and dog lovers, not just the show folks. I want to say a word about assumptions, and I really hope a lot of you are listening.


Recently, we have seen a huge change in the way people respond to one another. I blame the internet, because while it allows us to communicate better than ever before, it has not allowed us to really CONNECT like you do in person. And, many studies have shown that people are far more ready to be rude and outspoken on the 'net than when they are face to face. They are more willing to be hateful, aggressive, and accusatory. And I believe we are beginning to see this trend spilling over into real life.


Nowhere is this more apparent, at least in my world, than in the ways that people berate one another over animal issues. We have seen a huge increase in blaming and shaming, in almost all aspects of pet ownership; everything from docking and ear cropping (oh, teh HORRORZ!) to crating vs kenneling, on up to owners who shave their dogs for summertime. It seems that no pet owner is doing it right, doing it well enough, providing well enough, giving enough room, spending enough money, time or what have you on their animals. But unlike the past, instead of people shaking their heads in disapproval, they seem to feel it is incumbent upon them to accost people they feel are not 'doing it right,' or worse, call the authorities on virtually any pretext. And I did not use the word 'virtually' by accident; some of these people preen about this as if they were doing something virtuous instead of just inexcusably irresponsible and rude. And this is even worse when people act out of ignorance and think they are being noble.


One of the most common accusations is 'neglect.' Anything from buttonholing people at Petsmart because their dog is 'too thin,' to calling the authorities on a rancher for 'starving' a horse, or having animals in supposedly 'deplorable!' conditions. People, let me tell you something: Even if you *think* it's your business... it probably ISN'T. Those 'filthy'' rabbit cages? Are scheduled to be bleached tomorrow, but that is just what rabbit cages look like after three days, and no it is not reasonable to bleach them twice a day. The rabbits are just fine, they are fat and sassy, stop obsessing about them, they EAT their damn feces for God's sake! It's how they digest their food; they are a semi-ruminant like cows, and they run their food through twice to digest it. They save their bunny pellets in their wild burrows and EAT them. So stop worrying about a few in their cage, mmmkay?? It's not *filth* it's a normal part of their DIGESTIVE process...


That "matted" dog? May look unkempt, but he FEELS just fine. No, he isn't unhealthy, or in any discomfort or distress. He isn't even necessarily unloved. You can't see it under his hair, but he's in good body weight, and his teeth and gums are nice and healthy, his eyes are clear, and he is HAPPY. It may not suit YOUR idea of how a dog should be kept, but in honest truth? If it isn't YOUR dog, it isn't YOUR business. Just like it's not really your business if someone is too poor to dress their kids in better than rags. You may think that's awful, but in raw truth, the kids may be more loved and better cared for than many who live in better circumstances with less caring parents. YOU CANNOT ALWAYS TELL BY APPEARANCES, AND ASSUMPTIONS BASED ON APPEARANCES ARE USUALLY WRONG.


That 'starving!' horse out there, that you are so hot to call the authorities on? He's a rescue. He's only been there a few days; and just over the hill? is an entire round bale. Of hay. For him. Then again, maybe that skinny horse is ill and has been under a vet's care. But you can't see that from the road can you? Yet it did not stop you from picking up the phone and calling the cops in a fit of noble glee. Did it make you feel good? Did it feed your need to be important, to be 'proactive' as an animal savior? Did you enjoy the drama, and your part in it? Did you give a moment's thought, at all, to the many ways your actions could hurt, instead of help?


Or, maybe she's old. Old animals often look awful, maybe for months, but they still enjoy a slow ramble around the yard, peaceful contemplation in the sunlight, a quiet ear skritch and a soft word from their best buddy. Your helpful 'intervention' ensures that instead of being allowed to die on her own terms, she will be euthanized maybe weeks sooner when the authorities get involved. And instead of a bittersweet, gentle goodbye, with her grieving best friend gently holding her as she slips away, no; her loving owner will get to remember a sharp knock, a scuffle with authorities, and his best buddy being yanked from his arms. And HER last moments will be terror and confusion as she is ripped away from her life mate, searching fruitlessly for his scent, the sound of his voice; while some professional 'in charge' pushes a cold needle in her leg and the lights go out...Thanks a lot. It also ensures that if any of this guy's neighbors have a sick animal, they are going to err on the side of caution and instead of giving it a chance to get better, they will want to prevent that knock on their door, so they will put it down immediately rather than have some well meaning fool call the law on them.


Because, you see, it isn't as simple as the cops show up, see that the animal has water and food, and say, "Excuse me! As you were, sir!" and go off again. There is usually a hearing. Even if you are not guilty, no one needs the hassle of answering an animal abuse complaint, particularly when most such charges end up in the local news and you are ever after shunned by your neighbors, no matter the outcome. Once you have been accused of animal neglect or abuse, you are guilty in the eyes of the public, forever after. Your name will be spread as far as the internet and righteous indignation can take it, and people will never forget, or let YOU forget, either. Dozens of people will team up on internet blog sites to denounce you, people who have never met you or seen a single one of your animals,  but who are SURE you are the Spawn of Satan because the papers said so. And the papers, who were so quick to give copy space on the front page when the charges were brought and the raid was on, will be oddly silent months later when you are cleared of any wrongdoing. If they print anything at all, it will be buried on the back of an inner section, and few people will see it, and fewer will believe it. And of course, by then your animals, at least the ones who are still alive, will have been scattered to the four winds, neutered and placed in new homes by the authorities. Reputations are ruined, reputations that took years to build, and breeding programs that took maybe decades to establish are devastated, all on the basis of juicy hearsay.


Sometimes, the miscarriages of justice are caused by well meaning people wearing official badges, who simply do not know what an old animal looks like, or a dog with cancer, or what have you.  And being human too, these officials are already angry because you told them these people were mean and awful, and just like you they love animals, it's why they took that job, and just like you they don't like mean and awful animal abusers either. So, the owners end up arrested by people who show up biased, already primed to see neglect, and willing to see it even if it isn't present, especially if it is not a species or a situation they are familiar with. Those are bad enough, but I could cite you several examples with documented proof that the owners were telling the truth, that their accusers were either misled or malicious, and yet their animals were taken anyway, and often killed either by euthanizing or mishandling on the part of the 'rescuers.'


Or, chillingly often lately, the animal control people tasked with answering the complaint are people with their own agenda, and too often, owners become entangled unwittingly in a humaniac sideshow, as different animal rights operatives such as H$U$ or the A$PCA compete for the right to steal their animals under color of law and 'adopt' (excuse me: SELL) them to new homes. Think I am being alarmist? No. This has already happened to countless animal owners, even top breeders with plenty of show trophies and years of experience. Heaven forbid that they have a dirty rabbit cage, or the authorities show up early in the morning (their favorite time) before the owner has had their morning coffee, and long before they have had the chance to clean the pens for the day. Those 'dirty' pens will be used as evidence of abuse and neglect, not the natural daily business of caring for animals. John Stoessel did an exposee on this very subject on 20/20; they hired a private veterinarian who examined animals taken on the pretext of being 'abused' and 'neglected' and determined that they were not abused whatsoever. Just profitable for the shelters, who had sometimes arranged for buyers BEFORE the raid. Things that make you go, "Hmmm."


I have friends and clients who are afraid to take their service dogs out in public. Dogs that are impeccably trained, well behaved, and essential for their well being: but they are afraid to take them out in public. Why? Because their dog is an adolescent male, and he is going through the 'uglies,' and for an adolescent male dog of many large breeds, that means that he will be thin. Not dangerously thin, not unhealthy in the slightest, but lean and ribby. Or, their dog is a sighthound, like an Ibizan or a Greyhound, and those animals are very lean and ribby, even with hip bones and backbone showing, when they are in good and fit condition. Yet try getting people to believe that. We love our animals, we do, and we tend to like 'em on the roly poly side; chubby and cute, despite what a toll this excess weight takes on them over a lifetime. Most pet people, who are generally accustomed to keeping their animals way too heavy, already think a healthy, active and fit dog is 'too thin' because you can see the last rib (which is normal and desirable!) They are beyond incensed at a dog who actually is showing ribs, and they want everyone within hearing distance to know about it. Doesn't matter that it's a breed where the hip bones are supposed to be visible, like the Afghan or other sighthounds. In many breeds this is normal, but some people refuse to believe this even if you get a book and show them. They will sniff that you are just making excuses for your neglectfulness; that dog is TOO THIN! I can see his RIBS! Never mind that this is a working dog, an active dog, who is in harness, or running up and down the fence all day, or hunting, or handling livestock and dealing with puberty... could you be mistaken? NO! Let's drag that owner out and shame them LOUDLY in public at the market! Everyone should SEE what terrible people they are! And let's not care if maybe the reason they need a service dog is because they are suffering from some form of emotional distress, like PTSD; that makes no difference! They are TERRIBLE, AWFUL PEOPLE and we will call them out for it, by God!


Honestly.


Here is the thing: None of us like to see animals abused and neglected. And all of us want to see real abusers brought to justice. But, far too many people currently are infected with what I call 'saviour mentaility;' they are all wrought up and wanting to 'save the animals!' even when they don't need to be saved; even when they have already been saved. There is a right way, and a wrong way, to go about helping animals that are genuinely in distress. There is no excuse for jumping to conclusions, attacking people, and acting in ways that only make things worse. This behavior is based on the mistaken idea that somehow, our opinions about animal care should have the force of law. But the problem here is, no two people can ever agree on what is 'proper' care. Furthermore, often what is perceived as 'neglect' is less about any genuine difficulty for the animal, and more about unreasonable or excessive expectations from people long on opinion but short on actual husbandry experience. If you are one of those people who just cannot see others doing things you do not approve of, without feeling the need to publicly shame and blame, here is a really easy suggestion: NUNYA. And if you cannot live with that, if you really believe that you are dealing with possible neglect, here is another suggestion: Try asking. Politely. Instead of assuming, and challenging people in a booming, accusatory fashion. Why not save the righteous indignation and the puffed up cheeks for when you are really sure of yourself, eh? Stop knee jerk reacting every time you see a dog without an inch thick pad of fat wobbling around on its butt... ASK. Ask nicely. "He seems to be a bit on the thin side; is there a medical issue?" in a concerned, interested voice, instead of "How DARE you take an animal out in public in that condition?! You should be brought up on charges!"


Can you see the difference? Because in the first case, I will smile and tell you, "Actually, no; he's just a silly male going through the adolescent uglies. He eats everything that isn't nailed down just like a human teenager, and never gains an ounce; but he should be growing out of this phase soon." Which should put your fears to rest without harming a soul. And in the second case, if you are belligerent enough, that dear li'l doggie you are trying to help may take offense that you are accosting its owner and bite you. And from where I stand, you will roundly deserve it.




Edited to add: This Note has received a lot more attention and appreciation than I ever thought it would when I wrote it. I am deeply appreciative of the many kind comments, and I am adding a 'permission to crosspost freely' tag here, for the many who have asked me by email and PM if I would be willing to share it. Feel free to copy and post as you please, just please give me credit for the work. Thank you, and hoping the best for you, your families, and your pets and livestock.