HunnyBunny wrote:Are there any #AdoptDon'tShop pet adopting advocates here? I have a problem with this philosophy, but maybe I'm wrong.
As someone who's volunteered for small animal rescues, and has just founded an horse rescue, let me tackle these.
1. adoption (at least in France & UK) isn't free. In our part of France it costs €250, so these people are buying a pet.
Adoption fees do seem to be rising over time. Part of their purpose is to ensure the prospective adopter is serious; the rest is to generate revenue. In my experience, many rescues often rely too heavily on adoption fees for revenue, instead of grants, donations, etc. High adoption fees are a disincentive to the very behavior -- adoption -- these orgs are trying to promote.
2. along with the #adopt mantra, comes a plea to always neuter your pets. If all breeding should be stopped, and every pet is neutered then there will be no animals left. I can only assume that therefore these people are animal haters with the ultimate goal of removing cats and dogs from the face of the earth.
PETA & similar radicals would like to exterminate all pets, a
coup de grace to end the slavery.
Animal rescue orgs promote neutering to cut down on the excess of animals. They know that breeding will continue. A lot of pet owners allow field breeding to occur, then scramble to dump a litter of kittens.
In the US, there are no licensing requirements to animal breeding. For dogs and horses especially, that leads to a bunch of ignorant wannabes producing some sorry creatures -- that of course are of no use for their intended purpose and thus add to the excess of unwanted animals.
3. Many breeds have been around for hundreds, or in some case thousands, of years. No breeding would mean they all disappeared and only feral animals would be breeding, creating just one type of dog / cat / goldfish. I have found specific breeds can differ greatly from other breeds, and I wouldn't want to lose this diversity. Dogs used for jobs like care dogs, or sniffer dogs are specific breeds for a reason. Is it ok to breed those dogs still? Is it ok to breed horses - should we only adopt those as well because some people are mean to them or don't ethically breed them?
IMO, breeding should only be done by professionals. Even then, the various communities of breed fanciers are so incestuous, and the key, desirable traits in the animals so limited and over-emphasized, that a lot of bad traits are accepted, to the detriment of the animals. A few examples:
breed/ desired trait / neg. side-effect
Border collies / narrow noses / small brain cases leading to retardation
Boxers / wide mouths / incessant drooling
Certain hounds / fleshy jowls / exposed eyeballs
Arabs / pronounced 'dish' in nose / breathing problems
Quarterhorses / stocky conformation / extreme 'muscle bound' physique
All sorts of undesirable behavioral traits are also tolerated. There was a local warmblood stud who was very popular, who also threw cryptorchids with nasty dispositions (I had the pleasure of starting one of his uncut colts.) The owner finally gelded the bastard.
For purebred dogs, Temple Grandin suggests two generations of cross-breeding to clear out all the bad inbred traits. NB: dogs have been
bred for centuries for specific
roles, but the
inbreeding for specific
features is more recent.
4. Animals in shelters are there because people, both breeders and owners, are stupid or mean or both. Only adopting animals won't stop people from being stupid or mean, it will just be that the nice people continue being nice, but with less opportunity to have a pet because there will be so few pets to go around. In short, it is people that are the problem, so perhaps we should do something about the people instead.
Far from a risk of running out of pets, there's currently not enough homes for the animals that exist. That's the immediate crisis that needs to be addressed until the ultimate causes can be remedied.
As I said, I acknowledge my love of certain breeds makes me biased. But also I hate extremists of any kind, and I am sceptical of the logic and claims made. If we didn't live in Hong Kong with the issue of no space, I probably would adopt a pet, along with the specific breed animals I like, if I found one that suited our family. I know that the recent rise in 'puppy farms' and unethical breeding for fashion traits is awful, but that comes back to people being a problem, and therefore we need to sort the people who are a problem.
I have my preferences, but specific breeds don't hold much appeal to me, rather than disposition. I'm not going to judge people for whom breeds are desirable -- aside from noting that a lot of people use them as status symbols.
I would require all breeders to be licensed, with a portion of the fees going toward rescue.
Breed fancier communities should also promote sound breeding practices, and discourage tolerating bad physical or behavior traits as a by-product.
For most prospective dog owners, a nice mongrel will likely have a better disposition and fewer health issues than a purebred.
People should also be more open to adopting older animals or ones with health issues. Euthanization or a sad life in a cage is often their prospect.
Promoting neutering is essential to reducing the surplus of homeless animals. We're a long, long way from the surplus changing to a shortage.