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BUYING A DOG, THINGS TO CONSIDER.

I know, an article about buying a dog, as oppose to adopting one on a site about animal welfare. My rescue friends are saying, “say it ain’t so”!

Relax; this Foundation has many causes, one of which is to educate the public.  This task has been taken upon by me, Cindy Cherry, President of the Foundation.  So the title of this educational subject could be: puppy mills vs backyard breeder vs (responsible hobby?)  breeders .  Now that should confuse you.  I, myself, even googled backyard breeder.  This is what Wikipedia said, “a term used to describe amateur animal breeders whose breeding is considered substandard, with little or misguided efforts toward ethical, selective breeding”.  There is even this website that tries to define the pro and cons between backyard breeder vs a responsible hobby breeder.  Click on the following link for some amusement: www.ktcampbell.com/taji/rbvsbyb.htm

I have devoted a whole article on Puppy Mills on this site. Click here for my interpretation & thoughts.

So this is what you can conclude, it’s all slang.  There is no definite definition. It’s all in interpretation.  It is up to you the consumer to recognize the differences and make up your own mind on where you want to fit in.   But remember, buyer beware.  Do not forget all these places have one thing in common; they are in the business of selling animals.  Someone told me a story about him and his wife falling on hard times, and decided to breed teacup yorkies for a fast buck.  (FYI, he did not know my association with the Foundation at the time).  You can imagine my horror, but wanted to hear out the ending.  Needless to say, they had up to 14 dogs, and lo and behold they couldn’t make a profit and ended up selling them back to the “breeder” that they got them from.  I had a very close friend who bred her Golden Retriever ( who she had gotten from a friend who was getting a divorce)  to the pretty Golden at the end of the street.  This was a very intelligent financially well off, divorced mother of 2 who did this cause she thought her kids would get a kick out having all these puppies around.  She insisted on telling me how she sold them all for about $500 each and all got homes. No matter how many ways I tried to explain to her that for every home she took up, there were hundreds in shelters that could have used that home.  She didn’t see my point.   We no longer speak.  I know I shouldn’t judge.  I, my friends, and family have supported all 3 scenarios in the past.   Did we love these dogs as much as someone who adopts an unwanted homeless animal?  Of course we all do, but at the time we didn’t know any better.   That is our job here at this Foundation and to all those other Rescue Groups.  We have to make it “vogue”, “in”, the politically correct thing to do in adopting, not shopping for a pet.  On a personal note my Father, Don Cherry has told me many times now, that I am getting too militant on my stance here.  He is correct.   I am very fortunate that I can  use the Foundation as a platform to spread the word. This is important, for knowing that I am too militant and judgemental, plus have a hard time masking my discontent when people are telling me they purchased a BerniePoo for $3500 because the salesperson said they were hypoallergenic; I soon learn to change the subject.  I can only preach so much.  So what is the conclusion?  What was the question? I think this is the question to you. What part to do you want to play in the fact that there are too many unwanted pets in Canada.  Do you want to be the cause of the problem, or play a part in the solution?  Life is about choices, how lucky are we?  Most animals don’t get to choose.

If your friends, family, or members of a local sell/buy/trade group are offering animals for sale, please report them to the admins or directly to Facebook.

This change is not only extremely welcome and a sigh of relief from animal right activists and rescues; it is a huge step towards stopping back yard breeders and puppy farms.
https://www.facebook.com/policies/commerce

“NOW IF ONLY Kijiji could get with the program”.  Thank you Facebook!