March 21, 2007
Wednesday AM

Contrary to comments made by breeders, there are no good breeders. Every day thousands of pure bred dogs, many registered with papers, are killed in shelters and pounds. There is absolutely no reason to be breeding any dogs. All dogs are really mutts that have been engineered through breeding. I would not bother posting anything on this topic but I spend countless hours each week attempting to find rescues for dogs at a small Ohio county pound. Every day I receive dozens of e-mails from across the country with pleas to help find placements for hundreds of dogs all slated to die, many in gas chambers where often large numbers of dogs are stuffed in at one time to save time and money. Often fights occur as the terrified dogs are slowly killed. Some pounds throw both dogs and cats in together for gassing. Other pounds use a method called heartstick where a lethal dose of medication is injected into the heart. Unfortunately, it is often not done correctly!
and it is a painful way for an animal to die. Although illegal in most states, some animals are still shot. Lucky animals receive a lethal injection.

Locally the shelter does not place all animals surrendered or brought in as strays and we have a significant kill rate here. The shelter has the statistics available for public viewing. However, we are lucky to have a much better shelter than most communities but it is still a kill facility.

As for the local "pit bulls" being bred here, I have been told by Animal Protection that the parents owned by one person are unusually aggressive and the pups also have aggression problems. Apparently at least two of the dogs produced by this breeding pair have had to be destroyed as a result. These are poorly bred dogs and nobody should ever consider acquiring any "pit bull" bred locally.

In addition, the breed commonly referred to as a pit bull does not exist as there is no such breed. Almost 100% of the these dogs are mutts. There are some breeds called American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, and English Bull Terrier. In addition, the Argentine Dogo, American Bulldog, and the Perro de Presa Canario as also lumped in with the term "pit bull." Almost all "pit bulls" are the result of crossbreeding.

If anyone wants a good dog, get a true mutt that is scheduled to be killed because some idiots did not get their dogs altered. Stop the breeders by refusing to buy their dogs. Dogs breeders do not really care about the dogs or the breed. They are only interested in making money and adding to the thousands of dogs killed every day.

I am sure that I will anger some people with my comments, but maybe I will anger enough people in the community so that local backyard breeders will no longer have a market.

Margaret Cloud
Ketchikan, AK


Received March 20, 2007 - Published March 21, 2007

About: "Involved with dog rescue and owner of four abandoned dogs including two pure bred Chow Chows."

 

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