[Bonoluvr]

My sister in law wants to get a new puppy, i keep talking about the shelters, and how she should rescue. she did go check out a shelter, but said none of the dogs were the "type" she wants. she is fixated on getting a gorden setter or gorden setter mix. she has contacted a gorden setter rescue league, and they had her call a woman in the area, this woman breeds irish setters and she has a gorden setter as well. ( she rescues irish setters and gorden setters and finds them homes)........but anyway this woman told my sil that her gorden and irish "accidentaly" mated and now she has a litter of this mix. my sil wants one.

my feeling is why not rescue a pup from the shelter, ( her words after saying they didnt have what she wanted was that it was a no kill shelter anyway and they wont die) my feeling and i said this to her is how would she like to live in a cage??

anyway, i feel my blood starting to rise when she talks about it, i have said my peace, and i dont want to start a fight, but its very upsetting to me to have someone think a shelter dog just isnt good enough, if i could take every dog from a shelter home i would, i think its just crazy not to adopt an unwanted dog from a shelter if you want a pup. they are filled, with puppies and adult dogs. All my pets are rescues and always have been.

that woman will find homes for her mating mix up pups she wont put them in a shelter.

so would you just let it go and not say anything anymore, would you keep hounding her to rescue from a shelter, or would you just change the subject if it comes up? like i said i dont want to start a fight but this is hypocritical to me, she doesnt use any product tested on animals, she is a pescatarian, she has one dog that she got in the same way ( a breeder with a mating mix up)........

any thoughts? or am i just too emotional about rescuing pets?

 

[Thalia]

When no kill shelters fill up, animals are left to go to the kill ones. So it doesn't matter if a particular shelter is a kill or no kill one. Something has to happen to all the extra animals out there.

I can understand your outrage, but I think like you said, you've said your peace. I think anything more will just strain the relationship. Perhaps as an outlet for your anger you could see if there are any Puppymill or spay/neuter activist groups in your area or you could make a large donation of time or money to a shelter. You might not ever influence your sil, but maybe someone else instead. www.Petfinder.com gives away free bumperstickers if you write them.

 

[meatless]

Perhaps you could show her some articles about how there are millions of dogs euthanized in shelters every year because there are no homes for them. There was one posted somewhere on VB recently about Texas... but I'd say it could apply to many parts of the U.S. And I'm sure there's more out there.

 

[Bonoluvr]

Meatless.....thats the thing that is soooooo darn frustrating, she knows this, i just get so upset when i think of this. a friend of mine just lost their dog to cancer a couple weeks ago, the kids wanted another dog .........they said they would only do a rescue , so they went to the shelter and they got a cute puppy, i keep telling my SIL this story about how cute the pup is and how happy they are they got her from the shelter, hoping this will make her see the light, but no not yet.

I feel myself getting upset just thinking about it right now!

 

[freebird]

several points against breeders (they are all pretty obvious):

*if the dog is born with a flaw, it will usually get put to sleep (unless its lucky enough to get to a rescue)

*giving money to these breeders just perpetuates the vicious cycle of creating more puppies, when there are millions of adorable, homeless babies. (i personally think breeding dogs for profit should be illegal)

*i have 3 dogs. a full bred mini dachsund (a gift from a boyfriend), and two shelter mutts. guess who were the easiest to train? guess who's 3 years old and still goes potty in the house? imo, mixed breeds are the smartest and most loving dogs. (don't get me wrong, i absolutely adore all of my dogs. it's just that my little lily is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and miles davis and sage are geniuses...maybe it's a coincidence, maybe not.)

*i have a hard time believing that anyone could get a shelter puppy and not love it because of it's breed. i'm willing to bet that if she got a shelter dog, she would fall in love with it.

the end.

 

[kpickell]

That's a tricky predicament. Unfortunately it sounds like you've said and done everything you can.

Thalia is correct, that it doesn't matter if a shelter is no kill or not... no kill shelters just turn away their overflow to kill shelters to be euthanized. In fact our local humane society, that euthanizes a thousand animals a year has recently been calling itself a No Kill shelter because they don't kill the animals they put up for adoption. It's a shame that the Rescue group she found referred her to a breeder. I would email that rescue group and let them know what trouble this has caused and tell them about the accidental litter. Accidental litters should not be happening, and a responsible rescuer would have spayed the mother before the litter came to term. But then a rescuer should also know about overpopulation and not be involved in breeding on the side. That's more frustrating to me than your sister purchasing a dog from a breeder.

I assume she tried petfinder? Why does she want a Gordon Setter anyways? Hopefully not just because they're pretty--you want a dog that matches your lifestyle. Gorder Setters are a sporting breed that need a job. They are high energy dogs that need lots of exercise including daily jogs and a large fenced area. They are very friendly and good with kids but reserved with strangers and needs extra socialization.

 

[hollywoodveg]

Take her to your local pound, that's usually enough to change peoples opinions.

 

[bstutzma]

How about this. I have a friend who LOVES mini schnauzers. Well, she went to a "reputable" breeder and spent unGODLY amounts of money for a puppy, which ended up having a horrible congenital disease called Mega-E, they spent thousands upon thousands of dollars trying to save it, feeding it a liquid only diet for a year, but it eventually died anyway.

6 months later, they went to ANOTHER breeder to get the same type of dog. The dog they were going to get DIED at about 6 weeks, but they adopted its sister.... which has a congenital liver defect where its liver develops shunts and doesnt filter the blood properly. After a surgery and several more thousand dollars, that puppy is doing *ok* for now. But I would estimate they have spent over $30,000 on vet bills.

Now, all the arrogance about getting a particular "breed" because they like a particular personality of a dog, i dont care what its personality is supposed to be like, its not worth $30,000.

If your sister really want to get a dog from a breeder, PM me and I will tell her the whole horrific story of what my friends have gone through. its not worth it. They almost always have defects of some sort.

 

[Bonoluvr]

i agree about breeders and thats a whole nother bee in my bonnet! i can get way up on the soapbox about them. i totally agree with all said! I wish i could put every breeder out of business.

thalia and kpickell.........i didnt think about the over flow problem and sending them off to a kill shelter.......i am going to tell her that, maybe it will make her think twice, I also think thats a good idea to write a letter to the rescue league, i agree they should not have referred her to a breeder even though the breeder does rescues, she is still part of the problem.

she told me she searched the internet, so i dont know for sure if she found petfinder, but i am going to send her the link to check out.

she wants a gorden setter because the dog she has now is part gordon setter ( another breeder mating mistake!!!!!).........she found that one thru the newspaper.........but anyway she loves her dog, she does walk her several miles a day........she runs her in the woods behind her house too.........the dog is definitely high energy, she runs circles around my 2 kids whenever we go over there!

 

[Bonoluvr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bstutzma

How about this. I have a friend who LOVES mini schnauzers. Well, she went to a "reputable" breeder and spent unGODLY amounts of money for a puppy, which ended up having a horrible congenital disease called Mega-E, they spent thousands upon thousands of dollars trying to save it, feeding it a liquid only diet for a year, but it eventually died anyway.

6 months later, they went to ANOTHER breeder to get the same type of dog. The dog they were going to get DIED at about 6 weeks, but they adopted its sister.... which has a congenital liver defect where its liver develops shunts and doesnt filter the blood properly. After a surgery and several more thousand dollars, that puppy is doing *ok* for now. But I would estimate they have spent over $30,000 on vet bills.

Now, all the arrogance about getting a particular "breed" because they like a particular personality of a dog, i dont care what its personality is supposed to be like, its not worth $30,000.

If your sister really want to get a dog from a breeder, PM me and I will tell her the whole horrific story of what my friends have gone through. its not worth it. They almost always have defects of some sort.

this is a perfect example of why i HATE breeders and what they do.

 

[GhostUser]

take her to visit the gas chamber of a kill shelter.

buying a cat or dog from a breeder is arrogant, self important pretentiousness.

 

[Bonoluvr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by purrpelle

take her to visit the gas chamber of a kill shelter.

buying a cat or dog from a breeder is arrogant, self important pretentiousness.

I agree with this. its funny you said this too, my hubby said the same thing, he said she is too arrogant and pretentious to get a dog from a shelter. god forbid!

the thing is she went to the shelter...........when she got home i said to her " i cant believe you walked out of there without a dog"

it was like she was judging the dogs, they just werent good enough for her,

F#$%%ing self rightious B*&^%%$

ok im getting mad thinking about it again.

 

[bstutzma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by purrpelle

take her to visit the gas chamber of a kill shelter.

buying a cat or dog from a breeder is arrogant, self important pretentiousness.

I agree. its like trying to buy a designer dog. Is a pet like a fancy purse? it is a fashion accessory?

Its ridiculous... and although I feel bad for my friend, i feel worse for the dogs.

 

[Bonoluvr]

oh i have another story about her.........way back about 9 years ago someone dumped a pregnant mama dog in our neighborhood, to make a long story short, we kept mama dog and we kept 2 of the puppies, ( found homes for all the rest of the litter) at the time we had 2 other dogs and that made our total 5 dogs in the house, so she said she would love to have one of the puppies............so we gave her one of the puppies........they brought her back the next day because they didn't want to deal with the pee accidents a puppy might have on their new wood floors!!!!!!!!! so i was more than happy to take the puppy back and we still have all the dogs!

 

[kpickell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonoluvr

but anyway she loves her dog, she does walk her several miles a day........she runs her in the woods behind her house too.........

That's good then. In fairness to your sister I strongly disagree with the advice to just go and pick any dog from a shelter, you want to pick a dog that's going to work for your lifestyle and many times there will not be a dog at one specific shelter that's a good match for you. Looking for the right dog takes a lot of time and shouldn't be entered into lightly. There's nothing wrong with wanting a Gordon Setter if that's the perfect type of dog for you, but I definetely agree with you that you shouldn't get them from a breeder when many are already dying due to lack of homes. Help her look, go out with her to shelters and surf online and call rescues. Also, if she's wanting a Gordon Setter because she loved her last dog, she should know that no two dogs of the same breed are goign to be the same. The next Gordon Setter she gets may be a holy terror since they're a high maintenace dog, so she needs to be prepared for that possibility. A big benefit of adopting an older shelter/rescue dog is that the shelter workers know that dog's personality and problems already.

 

[meatless]

Quote:

Originally Posted by purrpelle

buying a cat or dog from a breeder is arrogant, self important pretentiousness.

 

[Jennifer N]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonoluvr

the thing is she went to the shelter...........when she got home i said to her " i cant believe you walked out of there without a dog"

Don't be so hard - would you want her to get any old dog and treat it badly?

When we went to a shelter, they kept pushing this pit bull on us, and a few bigger dogs. We said no, not b/c we are snobby (any how snobby can she be if she was at least willing to look in the shelters?) but b/c we live in a small apartment in the city - we were restricted to under 15-20 lbs, and we needed a dog that would not need constant outdoors exercise.

 

[Bonoluvr]

Don't be so hard - would you want her to get any old dog and treat it badly?

I am not being hard on her. If i was in the market for a new puppy and i went to a shelter filled to the brim with hundreds of puppies and adult dogs, i could surely find ONE that would fit my lifestyle.

the shelter has a website, she found the litter of puppies on the site and went specifically to see them in person, she didnt like them because of the "look of their eyes", they had some red around the rim.....they were white short haired puppies.

so yeah i think she deserves actually for me to be a little hard on her

 

[Pirate Ferret]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennifer N

Don't be so hard - would you want her to get any old dog and treat it badly?

That was my first reaction to this thread. I'd rather see someone with a dog they want and will look after, than to get a rescue just to shut you up and not really bother with it. Or later on get another one that she does want and favouritise it. Its a long-term decision, and I wouldnt get a dog if i didnt like the look of his eyes! I believe with pets you have to *click* and shouldnt feel the need to get one there and then. Is it possible for her to ask the shelters around to phone her if they get any similar dogs to what she would like in?

 

[hollywoodveg]

Most breeds also have rescue groups also.