This Is Not Your Grandma’s Humane Society

Jay Kitchener (Nov 7th);

Today I saw how Americans buy dogs at a rescue dog market. Hundreds of people in a small New England town shopping for a dog from unknown sources and unknown conditions sent from Louisiana and Texas. And it was all about the puppies. There were lots of puppies. This is okay? This is politically correct? But, buying a puppy from a pet store whose supply kennels are inspected and licensed is not? Enough with the double standard already. If you think the source of your pet makes you a better person, then you don’t need a pet, you need a therapist. ‪#‎RetailRescue‬
Photo taken today inside the alwaysadopt.com dog market in Matunuck, Rhode Island.

15 Replies to “This Is Not Your Grandma’s Humane Society”

It’s all about the myth that stray mutts are “organic” and breeding for profit is eeevil.
I’ve told people who are fad followers, who wouldn’t have an opinion about anything if some self-righteous Lefty pinhead didn’t give it to them, that if they were in 1930s Germany they’d be members of the Adolf Fan Club.

The dogs are all still just dogs. How their DNA is strung together matters little to me. If they have some love to give someone I don’t think that is a bad thing.
I could buy a Porsche or a used F-150. They both get me from A to B. Its all about what I think of myself. the vehicle doesn’t care.
The dogs are products marketed to appeal to human sensibilities. This is nothing new. It won’t change and neither will people. Ever.

Why do they have so many puppies at a rescue dog market? Twice as many animals enter shelters as strays. Is there a problem in America with stray puppies wandering into rescue shelters?
https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics

Licensing breeders and pet shops and tracking the provenance of animals sold as pets has some value to some people. If it doesn’t matter to you and you are content to buy a puppy of unknown provenance I’ll accept you accepting the risks, not that I think that’s a good idea, because I’m in favour of your freedom of choice. But much of this is about people who are pushing the idea that there is something wrong with pet shops and licensed breeders “exploiting” animals for profit, and then creating a supply of alternative source animals and making money doing it, pretending their preferred way of dealing in animals is not for their own benefit.

as a member of the rural heartland I have had occasion to take puppies to the pound that were dumped on my dead end road.
ONCE. Because they charged ME – the good samaritan $45 bucks per dog to drop them off. I should have just put an ad in the paper and sold them.
(this was about 10 yrs ago)
NOw it’s fashionable to buy a Heinz 57 for $500 when they have cute names like Labra-Doodle or Cock-a-poo or
Affen-poo.

If you buy registered animals, behavior is more predictable and the owner is likely to be happier with the outcome if he does a tiny bit of research and buys an appropriate dog. Shelters are the new puppy mills.

You sell your dogs out of petshops?

I’ve owned dogs (hunting) for a long time. I have slowly come to the conclusion that a lot of the purebred dog business needs a shot of out crossing into the bloodline. So concentrated are genetic faults that the life span of a lot of dogs is now measured in single digits. When was the last time you heard of a Golden Retriever that didn’t die young of cancer?
I’m in the process of starting to look for a replacement dog. I have had Labs all my life – lots of them, but my new dog when I find it might for the first time be a cross breed. I have watched guys hunt pheasants successfully with Borzois and Schnauzers.
The purebred dog business has become a vanity industry. With over 300 breeds now available it’s all about looks. The original purpose of the dog has for the most part been forgotten. Who cares if the dog wont hunt? Hey feel his coat – soft and silky – completely at odds with what the dog might have needed if he was ever asked to do what he was originally bred for.
So the rescue market might have unintended consequence.

Agreed. A friend of mine who has adopted dogs from shelters on 2 different occasions suggested I go to a breeder because both of her dogs have had behavioral problems, ie. hostility and extreme shyness towards other people except the owner.

No, dizzy.

As bad as these do-gooders are, there are ultra do-gooders that actually get their “rescue” pets from overseas. Kind of like the animal equivalent of passing the orphanage on your way to the airport to go to Russia to pick up your new adopted kid.

I have a Jug, Jack Russel Pug cross. :-)))

Actually people go to overseas to adopt a child because it is much easier to import one than to get child abduction services release one into your care. Also an orphan form a village in Kazakhstan will not have a crack-whore mother who five years later will challenge the adoption in court.