Brain Injury Lawyer Blog

My passion for brain injury began as a partnership with an exceptional advocate, Becca Martin. She continues to be propelled by advocacy, although of a different nature. But her advocacy is so genuine and passionate that sometimes I devote this blog to her passion for dogs.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
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g@gordonjohnson.com
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©Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008



I knew a dog breeder once. She was a friend I met through work. She bred collies and shelties out of her home. Back then I didn’t know this was called a backyard breeder. Her house had that overwhelming smell of dogs as the shelties lived indoors. The collies had kennels in the yard. The puppies were raised in a basement that made your eyes sting.

Now, this woman’s life orbited around her love for dogs. She lived, breathed and reveled in dogs. She showed dogs, trained dogs and sold dogs. But, she taught me that there is no such thing as a responsible breeder.

Being a lot more ignorant then, I thought the only problem she had was an overabundance of dogs and that a love for dogs could go too far. But I discovered there was a darker side to breeding pretty quickly. I would play with the cute litter of collie puppies and watch as their noses grew into the traditional collie nose. Round about the time the puppies were ready for sale, she would drive them to a vet an hour and a half away for a “vet check”. It seemed odd to me at the time as one of her best friends was a local vet.

Now being that kind of person, I always was drawn to the puppies that looked a bit off. You know what I mean, that look that you know something makes them a bit of an underdog in the world. I asked about these little guys and she told me that collie genetics sometimes resulted in abnormal skull development and the eye sockets didn’t expand for the growth of their eyes…a painful condition.

Anyway, she usually came from these “vet checks” missing a puppy or two. “Where is so and so” I would ask. And she would say “so and so was humanely euthanized”. So and so had the misfortune to be a victim of selective inbreeding. I suppose you have to travel a long way to find a vet willing to regularly euthanize otherwise healthy puppies.

There was always a kennel full of beautiful collies as well. During my acquaintance with this woman…I began to realize that none of her breeding dogs who became obsolete for breeding were ever rehomed. They were buried in her vet’s back field when they weren’t producing quality puppies.

It was then that I realized that there is a difference between dog lover and dog sickness. It wasn’t about the money. She couldn’t possibly have recouped her losses. Anyone who knows rescue knows there is probably not a high enough price to charge for a puppy that makes backyard breeding profitable. Not if you actually feed and vet the dogs. The only people who turn a profit are those who supply no care.

But, did she love dogs? Yes, she loved the perfect dogs. She loved the ones that brought adoration in the show ring. Everything else was just a means to get there. Love this week could mean euthanasia next week…based on a whim.

Maybe it’s the way she taped the ears to give them that perfect collie fold that just sort of raised the question in my mind of what is it with people? What drives people to breed for a certain look? They breed cattle for record breaking milk or meat production, chickens that mature in 6 weeks…but what is it that drives people to commit inhumane acts in order to achieve a breed standard?

Like a lot of people I used to let these backyard breeders slide under the radar compared to the disdain I felt for puppy mills. I have been guilty myself of obtaining a puppy from a breeder, but education is everything. I admit, during my life, I have always been younger and more ignorant.

I just want to finish with a thought that has bothered me this past year about my own rescue dogs. Because it illustrates the mentality which leads to this obsession with breeds.

It is an incident that occurred when I adopted Charm, my pit bull/border collie mix. Now most of us know it doesn’t really matter what the other part of the mix is…if it got labeled pit bull at the shelter…it’s a pit bull for life. No one looks at my dog and says is that part border collie? No one. But there was a certain rescuer that put in postings saying that what I had adopted wasn’t a real pit bull.

Which led me to the thought…so would I have to go to a breeder who gives out AKC papers to have a real pit bull? What does it mean to be a real pit bull? Cuz, gosh, the shelter wasn’t going to provide me with anything other than an adoption certificate for a pit bull mix. I didn’t even know it was a contest…my pit bull is more pit bull than your pit bull? All I know is there was a dog who needed a home and she was labeled pit bull and that meant no one wanted her.

It’s that sort of thinking that fuels breeders everywhere. Human ego gets catered to at the expense of the dogs. In the end, dogs are dogs are dogs. I don’t expect perfection, or conformation. My purebred chow is no more and no less than my shelter specials. No one is following me around with a score sheet that I can detect.

But to conclude my rant for the day….breeders cater to something in humans which is not pretty. Get a dog not a fashion accessory. You are not going to look cooler, your dick is not going to seem bigger, your place on the planet is not measured in your manipulation of genetics. And every shelter in America has something special waiting for you…a 100% dog waiting for a home. And each and everyone comes with an adoption certificate…what other papers could you possibly want???

Becca Martin