In this current climate we are facing a lot of change in the ownership of dogs, we have seen revision’s to the animal Acts and Codes nationwide which in some cases are decreasing our ability to own dogs and in a lot of cases the ability to breed dogs for the future, and now we have the POCTAA up for consultation. What some also fail to see is that the changes will also affect shelters and pounds as foster carers will be further limited on what they can take on, but that is a story for another day.
While no one wants to see animals in shelters, there has been a lot of debate around the “adopt don’t shop slogan”. People should have a choice, we need to look at why most animals end up in shelters and pounds, it is generally due to behavioural or temperament problems, or due to people falling on hard times. Dogs with temperament and behavioural issues are not always easy to re-train and it is a timely undertaking, unfortunately with most of the population working longer hours not everyone has the time to re-train a dog or has the tools to deal with behavioural issues. So, do these people not deserve to share their lives with a dog? Do they not deserve the right to go out and find that dog that best suits their lifestyle? If these people were to take on a dog with severe issues, what are the chances that the dog would end up back in a shelter when the new owners cannot fix the original issues? There are people out there with the time to take these dogs on and they should be commended, and it is a wonderful thing to see a rehabilitated dog out in society.
People should not be demoralised and made to feel guilty for going out and buying a dog from a breeder.
The term “preservation breeder” is a somewhat recent designation. It is used with increasing frequency among dedicated fanciers to reinforce a commitment to produce dogs of quality. This new designation is a direct response to animal rights campaigns determined to eliminate the controlled breeding and ownership of all companion animals. To a growing number of people, the stakes have never been higher and the use of “purebred” seems out of touch these days, if not entirely obsolete. “Preservation” may best describe the work required of today’s breeders who wish to live in a world where Schipperkes and Rottweilers coexist alongside “service dogs” and “rescues.”
With preservation as the objective, every breed requires a plan of action tailored to its circumstance. Each breed’s development, historical function, current state of health, and susceptibility to disease must be understood in order to establish standard practices that will help to ensure its continuation.
In the 21st century, “adaptive reuse” has been coined by real estate developers, city planners, architects and politicians as a directive for finding new purposes for places that already exist. Well, dog breeders have been doing much the same thing for years. Where as a breed may have been originally developed to retrieve ducks, chase gazelles or confront an errant bull, the Golden Retriever, Saluki and Bulldog have each managed to survive through their own adaptive reuse: guide dog; couch potato; and symbol of the British Empire respectively. The survival of each breed depends at least in part on its having been rebranded for the modern world.
Times are changing and we are now being asked to consider animals as sentient beings this again is being heavily pushed by the Animal Activist and the Animal Rights movements. Do animals have feelings and emotions? Yes they do, but if we are going to go as far as I predict is suggested than this will mean we should not at any point be de-sexing animals as this would be going against the idea of them being sentient as by de-sexing them we are undertaking a procedure that was not their choice. We are all huge advocates for animal welfare and rights but while we are going to these measures to appease the emotiveness of animal ownership, we are forgetting the bigger picture of these animals being huge parts of people’s lives and we are forgetting how they improve metal health.
I would like to see the end of the “Adopt Don’t Shop” slogan and it be replaced with the “Adopt or Shop Responsibly”. We all want to see an end to the puppy farm and the terrible conditions in which their puppies are raised and the over breeding of their producing animals but it is unfair to say all dog breeders fit into this category.
By: Kylie Gilbert – Animal Care Australia Dog Representative – Originally published: December 2019 ACE Newsletter.
