Vet and columnist Peter Wedderburn writes:
...[O]ne of the main reasons why people abandon dogs is that they should never have bought them in the first place. If people thought carefully about that initial act of taking the dog into their home, many of them would never do it. Instead, the typical sequence of events is something like this: “A dog would be cute. I’d love a dog. There’s one on the internet that I like. How much does it cost? Deal done.” It’s only several months later, when the dog has matured into a bouncy adolescent eating a hole in the family budget that the reality dawns: for many people, a dog is the wrong choice of pet. It isn’t easy to find a home for such half-grown animals, so they’re abandoned. The humans are allowed off the hook, but the dog is scooped up by the local authority dog pound, and you know the rest.
Full applause, and I could have not have said it better myself. We really do need to "de-normalize" dog ownership, or at the very least make people think long and hard.
But will most breeders (hobby, show, Internet, backyard, accidental, or puppy mill) really help in that regard?
Don't count on it!
- Related Links:
** The Madness of Dogs (12-2009)
** Ten Tips to Finding the Right Dog (10-2010)
** A Dog is Neither Shovel Nor Child (1-2011)
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