How much is that moral superiority in the window?

Several years ago I noticed a trend. I’d be on the beach with my dog Betty when she’d meet another dog. They’d play and I’d get chatting with the dog’s owner. When I’d ask what kind of dog it was, the owner would tell me it was a “rescue dog.”
Did some doggie version of the Titanic sink off the Jersey Shore? Nope. It turned out this was a new term for what was known as “a mutt from the pound” when I was a kid.
[…]
The people running animal shelters found out some years ago that they had a problem, Reichman said.
“There was a very successful campaign to educate the public that if you are not intent on breeding, you should spay or neuter your pet,” she said. “That campaign has worked so well that the shelters in the Northeast generally don’t have any puppies anymore.”
The shelters could have declared victory and shut up shop. But in 2005 a new field opened up, said Reichman.
“It started innocently enough with Hurricane Katrina,” she said. “There were so many animals loose from the storm that people all over the country adopted them. After that died down, I think people realized there was a market. That’s when it started.”
The “it” in question is a massive and unregulated market in pets.
[…]
That points to the real problem with the attack on dog breeders and pet stores, which have been banned from selling dogs in many major cities. Under the guise of reducing the population of unwanted dogs, the traffickers are eliminating competition.
In many cities, you can’t purchase a puppy from nearby. But a pooch from Puerto Rico is yours for the asking — as long as you pony up.

Dr Arnold Goldman, a speaker at the most recent NAIA conference related to the 14,000 dogs (documented by the State of CT) that were imported into his State in 2012. (from an attendee’s personal notes from his speech:)

….They found that PetFinder was not necessarily honest about problems, and people who adopted these dogs imported were not ready to deal with the accompanying illnesses, i.e. respiratory illnesses, parasites, deformities. 14,000 dogs were imported into CT in 2012. How do these imports affect animals, dogs, already in the State? Diseased dogs were imported into CT from Katrina; again, PetFinder wasn’t honest, so the new owners have been dealing with issues. The modern outlaw is “The Dog Runner”.. someone with a laptop and letterhead would search PetFinder, broker a deal, then sell the animals at big ‘adoption’ events in CT – big dually trucks with long trailers pull into a parking lot at 7am with crowds waiting on a Sunday morning. One particular company, P.E.T.S, has 7 of these trucks. Laptop person never even sees the animals. 14,000 dogs in the rescue pipeline – and in comparison, CT only has 3,000 in pet stores. Another avenue is the adoption events, about two dozen a year on the East Coast alone, in cooperation with the big box stores of Petco, Pet Smart, and crowds show up for the events, put on by the SPCA/CT which is a one man operation. Lots of money in this.. $125 transport fee, $60 vet exam, and sell for $450 – $650. Use emotionally manipulative terminology – ‘adoption’, ‘pet parent’, ‘furbaby’, ‘guardian’. ….

The trade is so lucrative, commercial breeders are now breeding and selling dogs into the “rescue” supply chain.