Monday, September 20, 2010

In Defense of Dog Breeders


In Defense of Dog Breeders


How Animal Rights Has Twisted Our Language

by the late great JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance
Reprinted here with permission of Donna Yates


“You’re a dog breeder!!!!!!!!!!!!”
In today’s world, that is a very loaded statement. It’s more like an accusation.
“I told the television news reporter that I breed dogs,” a friend from Dallas told me recently. “He looked at me like I was a harlot.”
Dog owners have allowed the animal rights movement to redefine our language in order to paint everything we do in the worst possible light. If we say that we breed dogs, the looks we get ask us if we own a “puppy mill” or if we are a “backyard breeder.”

If we reply that we are a “hobby breeder,” someone immediately asks how we can consider living creatures a hobby. Some of us try the word “fancier.” We fool no one.


The most pathetic response to the question is when we call ourselves “responsible breeders.” Responsible to whom? Who defines “responsible” and “irresponsible?” Some bureaucrat? A politician? Animal rights cretins who say there is no such thing as a responsible breeder? Animal rights fanatics would rather kill all animals than see someone love them. In fact, that’s their plan.


If we say we are not breeders, it makes us “pet hoarders.” We are tarred as mentally ill people in need of psychotherapy.


The entire language about dog ownership has been hijacked by the rhetoric of the animal rights movement.


The worst part is that we have allowed it to happen. We are too fearful and wimpy to stand up for ourselves. We keep searching for inoffensive euphemisms to describe what we do, so that we don’t open ourselves up to attack.


By doing that, however, we have engineered our own demise.


The animal rights movement will not go away. Its agenda is to destroy our right to own or raise animals. Animal rights groups have declared war on all animal ownership, and they won’t stop until they either win or we finally have the courage to stand up and defeat them.


They have not taken that kind of power over us. We have given it away. We have surrendered our beliefs to the enemy.

We apologize for what we do. We make weak excuses for things like animal shelter euthanasia, accidental matings, dog fighting and dangerous dogs. We take at least part of the responsibility for these problems onto our own shoulders, when in truth we have no responsibility at all for creating them.


None whatsoever!


I am sick and tired of watching dog owners constantly apologize and grovel, and allowing themselves to be put on the defensive.


Enough! It’s time to stop sniveling about who we are and what we do.

Let me state clearly and for the record: I am a dog breeder. I breed dogs. I raise puppies. I like it. I’m very proud of it.

If you don’t like it, you are free to take a flying leap. I don’t care what you think of me or what I do.

I raise two or three litters of English setter puppies a year. I wish I could raise more puppies, but can’t figure out how to do it without driving myself into bankruptcy.

My dogs work for a living, just like I do. They have to be good at their jobs, just like I do. If they aren’t good at their jobs, I don’t keep them and I certainly don’t breed them.

They are hunting dogs, and they have to be able to perform to a very demanding standard of excellence to be worthy of breeding. They have to meet the exacting standard of championship-quality performance in the toughest competition.

They are professional athletes.

Most of them don’t make the cut. Those dogs make wonderful hunting companions or family members.

I have never had a dog spayed or neutered, except for medical reasons, and I don’t intend to start now. If a dog is good enough for me to keep, it is good enough to breed.

Nor have I ever sold a puppy on a spay/neuter contract. With performance dogs, it takes two or three years to know what you have. There is no way that anyone can know the full potential or worthiness of a young puppy. I hope every puppy that I sell will become a great one that is worthy of being bred.

I do not feel bad (and certainly do not feel guilty) if someone decides to breed a dog from my kennel that I did not choose to keep for myself when it was a puppy. It still will be a very nice dog, and I have worked very hard on my breeding program for 35 years to assure that very high quality genetics will be passed along and concentrated in any dog that I sell.


On occasion, I have a puppy that has a serious flaw. I don’t sell those puppies, even though they would make many people very happy. I give them away free to good homes, and the definition of a good home is mine because it’s my puppy. I own it. You don’t.


My responsibility is to the puppy. It is not to you, and it’s not to some gelatinous glob called “society.” I consider myself to be personally responsible for every puppy I raise, from birth until the day it dies. It always has a home in my kennel, if its new owner can’t keep it or no longer wants it.


That’s a contract written in blood between the puppy and me. It’s a contract written with a handshake with the puppy’s new owner.


I laugh cynically when someone from the Humane Society of the United States or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ask if I am a responsible breeder. HSUS and PETA are two of the most vicious, bloodthirsty and dishonest snake pits on Earth. Their moral credibility is a negative number. PETA butchers more than 90-percent of the animals it “rescues” every year, and HSUS supports programs and policies that result in the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of animals every year.

By now, I assume that I have pushed all of the buttons of the animal rights crazies. I can hear them snort and see their pincurls flapping in indignation. It makes my day.


Can’t you hear them, too? They are calling me an exploiter of animals. They are saying that I ruthlessly cull and manipulate the genetics of my dogs. They saying that I make the exploited poor beasts work for a living and live up to impossible standards. They will say that I do this to feed and gratify my own fat ego. They will say that I sell them for money and exploit them for personal gain. Then, of course, they will say that I use them to viciously hunt innocent wild animals.

Terrible, terrible me! My mother should have a son like this! She was such a nice woman.

Well, I plead guilty to all of the charges. Know what else? I don’t feel guilty, not even a little bit. I do it. I like it. I feel good about it.


Now I will speak in my own defense – as a dog breeder.

I happen to love dogs. I love being around them. I love working with them. I love watching a puppy grow up and discover its potential. I love having the privilege of experiencing a truly great dog in its prime. I love sharing supper with my dogs, wrestling with puppies, and sacking out with them on the couch. I lose sleep when they get sick, and work myself unmercifully to care for them. I spend almost all of the money I have on them, and some money that I don’t have. My heart breaks when they grow old and die. I have a dozen lifetimes worth of beautiful memories.

What do the animal rights freaks have? They have their ideology. They look in the mirror and feel smug and self-righteous, as if God has personally anointed them to protect animals from the likes of me.

What they have is nothing at all. Utter sterility. A world devoid of life and love.

They can keep it.

My life is filled with love and joy and beauty, and I owe most of it to my dogs. They have helped to keep me sane when sanity was not a given. They have given me courage on the days when all I wanted to do was lie down and quit. They have given me strength to endure on the days when all I wanted to do is run away and hide.

I owe them my life.


The animal rights folks are right. I ruthlessly cull and manipulate genetics. To make the cut, my breeding dogs have had to live up to the most exacting possible standards and pass the most strenuous tests.

I am very proud of doing that.

The result is that the vast majority of people who buy a puppy from me love it. When I sell a puppy, chances are that it has found a home for the rest of its life. The puppy will have a great chance of leading a wonderful life. I produce puppies that make people happy to own them and want to keep them. That’s my job as a breeder.


I have done this through rigorous selection. My puppies today are the result of 35 years of my stubborn insistence about never breeding a dog that does not have a wonderful disposition, perfect conformation, great intelligence, exceptional natural ability, breathtaking style and that mysterious ingredient called genius.

Every puppy born in my kennel has six or eight or 10 generations of my own dogs in its pedigree. All of those ancestors possess a high level of each of those desirable traits. I have raised, trained and grown old with every dog listed in several generations of each puppy’s pedigree.

Simply put, my puppies today are a lot nicer than my puppies of 35 years ago. Today, there is a much higher percentage of good ones, a much lower percentage of deficient ones, a much higher average of good qualities, and a much higher percentage of true greatness emerging from my kennel today.


That’s what it means to be a breeder.


Does that feed my ego? Yep. I like having my ego stroked. Don’t you? If you don’t, you are in very deep trouble as a human being.

But I’ll tell you what else it does. It makes for happier dogs. It makes for dogs that lead better lives, find permanent families and homes, and get to experience love in many forms.

It also makes for healthier dogs. Generation after generation of perfect functional conformation means that the dogs are less likely to get injured, wear out or develop arthritis. Many generations of selection for vigor, toughness and good health means that they are able to laugh at the extremes of climate, weather and terrain.

I also have virtually eliminated genetic health problems from my strain of dogs. For example, hip dysplasia is the most common genetic problem in English setters, afflicting a reported four-percent of the breed. In the past 20 years, I have had only two questionable hip x-rays, which both would be rated “fair” by the Orthopedic Foundation of America (OFA). The last one was 10 years ago.


Yes, I am very proud of being a breeder. I did that.


I am proud, too, that I am producing dogs that are so intelligent that it’s scary, so loyal that they can be your complete partner in the field while also possessing the extreme independence needed to do their job well, so loving that you want them with you every second of the day, so bold and brazen that nothing bothers them, and just plain drop-dead gorgeous to boot.

They make me smile a lot. I think I make them smile, too.

But, the animal rights whackos say I am doing it for the money. They accuse me of exploiting animals for profit.


Yep. Every chance I get. I am very happy when I am able to sell a puppy for cold, hard cash. It makes me feel good.


It makes me feel good because it shows me that someone appreciates the work I am doing. It makes me feel good because I have earned it, and earned it honestly.


My only regret is that I have not made more money as a breeder. With all of the sacrifices I have made and the hard work I have done, I should be rolling in money.


Alas, I am not.


It has been years since I actually have made money on a litter of puppies. Usually, I lose my shirt.

For every puppy I sell, there is another one that I keep to evaluate, and a couple of other ones that I am keeping for two or three years to evaluate for their worthiness to breed. Then there are dogs that are in competition, and that costs bushels of money, not to mention old dogs that are retired and have a home here until they die of old age. Almost a third of the dogs in my kennel are elderly and retired, and it takes a lot of money to care for them.


It takes money for dog food, supplies, veterinary bills, kennel licenses, repairs, vehicle use for training and field trials, advertising, internet, phone bills, and four pairs of good boots a year. It takes money. Lots of money. Bundles of money.


Oh, Lord, please help me to sell some more puppies!


Besides, what’s wrong with making money? It is a rather fundamental American value. Making money is something to be proud of, as long as it’s done honestly.

Even animal rights bozos have to eat. Someone has to make money to stuff veggies down their gullets, and organic veggies are rather pricey. Most working folks can’t afford them.


I also can’t help but notice that most animal rights activists over the age of 30 drive pretty fancy cars (we are talking about the Beamer set, folks), live in rather fancy houses and dress very well indeed. I can’t help but notice that many of the leaders of animal rights groups have pretty cushy gigs, with high-end six-digit salaries, fancy offices, and all the perks.

I guess they are saying that it’s ok for them to make money by the truckload, even if making money turns dog breeders into immoral greed bags. There is no one in America who exploits dogs for as much money as the paid leaders of animal rights groups. Their fat salaries depend on having animal issues to exploit. If there were no animals for them to exploit, they would have to get a real job.


It’s a rather perplexing dual standard, don’t you think?


Well, maybe it’s not perplexing after all. The only thing perplexing about hypocrisy is that so many people can’t see through it.

My next sin is making my dogs work for a living. The animal rights people try to paint a picture of whipping dogs beyond endurance, exploiting them, creating misery and causing unhappiness. The poor, downtrodden, huddled masses. You know the tune.


Only problem is, my dogs don’t agree. They love to work. They love their jobs. The only time they are sad is when it is not their turn to work. For my dogs, working is sheer joy and passion! They love every second of it.

What animal rights groups live for is creating imaginary victims. Helping victims makes some people feel better about themselves and, of course, it helps them to part with their money so that animal rights leaders can live high on the hog. Oops. I mean high on the carrot. How callous of me. I guess I’m just not a sensitive kind of guy.

Back to the exploited masses of bird dogs. Try an experiment sometime. Read an animal rights essay, and substitute the word “proletariat” for the word “animal.” You will find that animal rights philosophy actually is pure and straightforward Marxian doctrine.


I guess my dogs are not natural Marxists. They love their jobs. They are excited about their jobs. Their jobs make them very happy.


Animal rights people can’t seem to grasp that people can feel that way about their work, too. It’s how I feel about the very hard work of being a dog breeder. It makes me happy.

Another way of putting it is that both my dogs and my own example provide proof that life is not pointless drudgery and exploitation. We provide living proof that joy, beauty and personal fulfillment are possible in life.


I just don’t think of those qualities when I think of the animal rights fanatics I have known. They seem a rather sad and sorry lot to me. I’ll take my dogs’ company any day.


Oh, but the icing on the cake is that I use these poor exploited creatures to hunt innocent birds. How terrible!

Hunting, of course, is a subject of its own, and I won’t attempt to cover it here.


Suffice it to say that opposition to hunting flies in the face of a few million years of human evolution, the entire balance of nature everywhere on Earth, and common sense.

I know one thing for certain. The fact that we have healthy populations of most species of wild birds and animals today is only because hunters have cared enough to support strong conservation measures. We have preserved millions of acres of habitat that are vital to the survival of many species, saved more millions of acres of wilderness from development, supported the protection of endangered species everywhere, and put our money where our mouths are.

Animal rights groupies do nothing but blow hot air, when they aren’t too busy destroying the land and the animals that live on it to create vast wastelands of industrialized monoculture.

I am proud to be a hunter, too.

It’s time for every dog owner and breeder to stand up proudly and be counted.

Each one of you has done far more to enhance the quality of life of both people and dogs than all of the animal rights activists put together.

So stand up and shout it to the rooftops!

Stop crawling around on your bellies and apologizing. Your dogs deserve better from you. You will just have to get a little tougher if you want to live up to your dogs.

What you are doing is right.

It’s just that simple.






39 comments:

  1. I love it, very well written. Thanks for posting it. :)

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    1. This was written by John Yates, who has written many other wonderful essays on the threats we face due to the animal rights agenda

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  2. just found this article and LOVE it!

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  3. Excellent article and it really shows how strongly dog breeders feel about their companions down the generations.

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  4. When my daughter passed away 12 years ago, my whippet named Joy saved me from going crazy just by being with me. She gave me my first homebred champion, Bruiser, and he in turn and his wife, Flower, gave me me 8 puppies and I kept 3 - Autumn, Rose, and Stashu. I spend a lot of time on the dog show trail but even more, by just loving my family of whippets. Joy reached the grand, old age of almost 17 1/2 years and crossed the Rainbow Bridge in January 2011. She never was seen by her Vet for illness, only for two small injuries in all those years. No animal rights person would or could give me what she and the other whippets do and I am very proud to be the breeder and owner of such beautiful, loving, elegant creatures. This article is wonderful and should be "must" reading for every dog lover

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  5. Incredibly awesome article! Shared with my 600+ friends on FB. Thanks for having the courage to write it. Many dog breeders are going underground. Sad.

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  6. We need to write more OPED articles like this as serious dog lovers and breeders and yes I too am a serious dog breeder who does not appologize or it, works my behind off to produce dogs that can do their jobs and can be wonderful companions and partners to their humans.

    It IS time to fight back and educate the masses about why purposefully breeding animals is NOT a 'sin' it is instead something to be lauded and supported not destroyed.

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  7. I agree with this so much. I am a breeder - and I'm proud, too!

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  8. Huzzah! We need more articles like this one.

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  9. Perfectly said! Thank you

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  10. well said. i dont disagree with your right to work your dogs, control genetics or earn money. as a non breeder my worry is with the unwanted puppies in shelters. but i know breeders that also help rehome shelter puppies as well as bringing up there own which i believe is a happy compromise.

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    1. Anonymous have you ever been to the shelter? As HSUS, Petfinder and bornfree usa states... only 25% of shelter dogs are purebred. That raises a question for me... where the hell did the other 75% come from?!?! Targeting hobby breeders as part of the problem is totally ridiculous!

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    2. www,windrockhounds.netSeptember 24, 2013 at 9:55 AM

      Indeed, many of those purebred puppies come from puppymills, in fact many shelters are now IMPORTING foreign bred puppies from puppy mills in Mexico and Canada and other sources.

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  11. I think the article is great! I use to breed dogs as well. There is bad breeders and good ones just like cops there is both. And yes, I agree that there is lots of dogs in shelders that need homes. BUT in reality that is not a "good breeders" fault. Most of the dogs in those shelters are mix breeds. Once a breeder sales the puppy they can not control what happens. Sorry but the fact. And the fact is alot of people like to have pure bred dogs not mixed. I personally have rescued dogs from the roads, shelters, etc. But saying that quality breeders are bad because of the dogs in the animal shelter. Would be like saying people cant have kids because they my die before the kids are grown and there are to many kinds in foster care now! Or what about horse? There is tons of horses right now being killed because the owners cant afford to feed them yet there is still tons of breeders. And there not being looked down on. Maybe just a thot but it may help to control the shelters if they said instead if your not a breeder (big or small) you have to have your animal fixed. You cant criticize responsible breeders for what other people, nor can you categorize all breeders the same.

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  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  13. I think there are two kinds of breeders those who love dogs and those who love money! Only the first should be respected!

    dog glands

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  14. Yes! Well said, you took the words right out of my mouth!

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  15. I love it thank you for your knowledge and experience

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  16. I loved this article, the only thing I would have changed a bit is touching more on when you began breeding 35 years ago. How difficult it was to start and the stipulations on it then. The thing is, you probably did not have it as difficult back then as it is now for a new breeder starting out. I will include myself in that. I'm a toy poodle breeder and I'm working with genetics that have been going through centuries of manipulation, a lot of bad with a dusting of good. I've been in it now for almost 5 years. Just getting started was a nightmare. Not only is it the organizations against you, the Vet's are also against you, individuals are against you, and other breeders are VERY catty towards each other. Breeders will slap an astronomical price tag on a dog just because they know a breeder has to pay it to get the animal they want. Sometimes I think the price tag is just something they yank out of the nether reaches of their mind. Not only does the general public need to understand us more, other breeders need to treat each other with more respect. I know that you breed to standard and I respect that, even though I breed mine to standard, I do not put emphasis on registration or show quality. Yes, some of them are show quality, but some are just pet quality and I'm perfectly alright with that, so are their new owners. There also has to be an understanding that even though we strive for perfection, there is never a completely perfect animal. Also, as much as we test DNA to prevent certain things, genetics doesn't always predetermine what afflictions a puppy can have into adulthood. The organizations that you spoke about, HSUS and PETA, along with many others, are trying their best to pound us into dust. While I appreciate what they are doing in getting rid of puppy mills and horrible backyard breeders, for every law they put into effect against those is another law that the "responsible" breeders have to hurdle around. These organizations have to come to the understanding that every animal cannot be spayed & neutered because if you do that to every animal out there, in a few years time, there won't be any pets. There has been major declines in the amount of stray animals that end up in shelters. Eventually we have to come to a happy medium.

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  17. Actually, someone who UNDERSTANDS both Marx and dogs will recognize that a dog's work -- especially a purpose-bred hunting dog's work -- is the perfect model of UN-ALIENATED labor. The dog literally does what he does for the sake of doing it, not for any extrinsic motivation.

    Only bad behaviorist models of dog-ness alienate a dog from his own labor.

    Karl Marx would absolutely approve of the working life of a hunting dog. His material needs are met regardless of his performance, and his performance is driven by the desire to work, not the fear of starvation or punishment or the hope of riches.

    Animal "rights" nuts are not Marxists -- they are Benthamite Utilitarians engaged in a gormless calculation of lower-order pains and pleasures on behalf of beings whose inner lives are a closed book to them.

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  18. Beautifully written. As someone who is currently learning to breed and beginning to experience the disdain from others for it, this really resonates with me. I am embarrassed and afraid to tell people I am in the process of learning about breeding so that I may one day hopefully improve my breed. I used to be someone who felt breeding should be something you should only be able to do with strict government regulation - no more. I used to be anti-hunting - no more. If I can make this much of a 180, then others can too. But it requires an open mind and great mentors.

    I also have gotten some really shocking reactions from people when I tell them I plan to breed. I have a few vegan friends as well as some pretty hardcore AR friends. Some of them were INCREDIBLY awesome and open-minded about my decision. They said that they knew I'd do it right, and one of them even wants a pup from me one day. Those people are the ones who are open to being taught. The ones with the flashy BMW's that blow a lot of hot air without worrying about having facts to back it up - those ones aren't worth your time. It's just a shame that they do so much to affect breeders, from trying to pass legislation to making sure that the public paints all breeders with the same brush.

    Recently I searched Google, eBay, Amazon, and Etsy to find pro-responsible breeder merchandise, like stickers, magnets, pins, t-shirts, etc. I could not find any. I just found a lot of BAN BREEDERS and hate things. It made me very sad.

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  19. I like what you had to say and I only wish you bred Chihuahua for then I might have the off chance of meeting you! God bless you! Keep taking such good care of your dogs and breeding them!

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  20. Incredibly moving op-ed. On point and informative. I own two BSD's who do agility and flyball and are healthy specimens of their breed. They love their 'work' and love to play, are great with children, love cats, and are fabulous traveling companions who are always welcome back as guests. Breeding responsibly is, well, responsible! The ones that get on my wick are those who breed to 'calm down the bitch' or 'because I love my dog and want his/her puppy'. That makes me crazy! and The 'doodlypoodlys' and 'shitzewawas' and the fact they are peddling these mongrels for hundreds of pounds, like we dont have enough mongrels in the rescue centers. Well done for this article, sharing it and it is going in my archives!

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  21. Bravo! As a fellow blogger on dogs, I simply say, "I wish I had written this." To the point, no apologies, totally honest, and right to the truth. Every dog owner should read this.

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  22. Can you delete the post by the nutcase that uses the name "Barbara Bush" - for some reason when you try to share, THAT is the text that comes up with the pic and is VERY misleading!!

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    1. Thanks, I'll cut/paste that interchange and post it lower in the thread. Good catch!

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    2. I deleted the comment but it still shows when using the "share" button. Anyone know how I can get rid of it? Please let me know.

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    3. I found that when using the share function, you can right click on that text, highlight it and then delete it.

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  23. barbara bush July 30, 2013 at 9:58 PM
    OMG! A picture of a woman in pearls and a few pampered pets? Get real. Show us the pictures of dead dogs in cages in the middle of a Missouri field. This iwas laughable. Ozzie and Harriet for dogs. Barf



    Starbreeze July 31, 2013 at 12:51 PM
    Here's the quintessential example of the mentality of the brainless animal rights proponent. "Barbara" (?) has formed her opinion based solely on a picture. Not able to read, it seems, but that doesn't stop her from interjecting her uneducated opinion here.
    Since pictures are all your little pea-brain can comprehend, let me fill you in on that picture, "Barbara Bush". And I believe if you were really Mrs. Bush, you'd appreciate a nice set of pearls, but I digress.
    The woman in the picture above is Pomeranian breeder Gladys Dyke. She bred hundreds, if not thousands, of dogs in her lifetime, under the banner of the “Hadleigh” kennel name. Her dogs were not necessarily "pampered pets", they were her breeding stock. Pomeranian breeders today universally aspire to accomplish a small measure of the success she achieved in her time. You, and people like you, would consider her a horrible person for breeding LOTS of dogs.
    I bet you'd accuse her of keeping dogs in cages out in the middle of a field somewhere. Drama queens like you look for bogeymen around every corner, and this lovely woman would not be exempted from your vileness.
    Big kennels with big numbers are necessary for successful breeding programs that produce healthy, sound and genetically diverse dogs. Practice makes perfect, and few breeders achieved the perfection in Pomeranians that Mrs. Gladys Dyke achieved through the use of her large-scale breeding program.

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  24. You are right. HSUS and PETA need to be exposed for what they are. They both sponsor ALF, The Animal Liberation Front, USA's number one Terrorist group which plants bombs to explode research facilities and they open cages to release animals to their deaths to be hit by cars on highways and other treacheries. The leadership of both HSUS and PETA believe humans should not own a single animal. Their campaigns use tactics of pretending they want to help some poor caged animal by posting some sad photo to sucker in membership. Their advertising is absolutely false and misleading once you know Peta operates a "kill" shelter of its own in Virginia. They are EVIL! Thank you for this article. The word needs to get out to responsible pet owners to NOT support these groups!

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  25. I purchased Pepper as a puppy from a nice person who had purchased her parents with limited registration. She is the best dog. She did need surgery for her patellas, and is over the standard size. However, she is extremely intelligent, loyal, and intuitive. She is the perfect dog for me. I am often stopped in the street and asked if I have puppies (Pepper is spayed). Other people want to clone her. She doesn't meet her breed standard, so she was spayed = no puppies. I fully intend to purchase my next puppy from a breeder, I like to start with a young, healthy, purebred puppy. Those are normally not in shelters or rescues. 90% of small purebred dogs in shelters are seniors with major medical problems. Most of the puppies in shelters are mutts or from actual mills (very bad breeders who pay no attention to standard) with confused pedigrees and medical issues. I have a friend who spent a year scouring her local rescues for a small purebred dog, in good health, and under a year old; she had no luck at all. She ended up purchasing a puppy from a breeder. The truth is, when you want a small or rare breed, healthy, and young, you have to go to breeder.

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  26. Dog or any kind of pet animals deserve to live without any danger in it environment. Especially for dogs their are the most domesticated animal and they really show it. Like my pet chihuahua she really is important to me because of the things that she shows and I know all people knows that. Thanks for this one.

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  27. Well, I bet those straw men that are sorry you ever created them.

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  28. Very well written, These do- gooders are now proactively calling breeders that they see fault with puppy millers. These breeders could have been in the business of producing stunning dogs that were sought after (by the so called rescuers themselves) irresponsible, hoarders etc. If a breeder is experiencing difficulties but is willing to start downsize ( and yes the older ones are usually the ones they start with) they get accused of being a "puppy mill" and having dogs that have medical conditions that are common to the breed like gooey eyes, ear infections and fleas. They then flood the internet with negative remarks about the breeder and slam the breeder every which way. And yes, that kind of smack talk can ruin a breeders reputation to ever sell a dog again. These do- gooders become vigilantes because they don't like the fact that law enforcement as well as AKC and humane society did not find any violations. But they wont accept the result of the inspections. No, they take it upon themselves to harass the breeder until the only way out is to send the dogs to auction. Not something the breeder ever wanted to do.
    Then the public hears. Oh, this terrible breeder is selling her "puppy mill" dogs to other Amish puppy millers. If they hadn't started the witch hunt the dogs would still be with the breeder. The breeder needed a little help in a difficult time, but got harassment and backstabbing. Yes, she should have stood up to them and said " I'm proud to be a breeder of merit for so many years and proud to have shown dogs and won awards but the breeder couldn't fight the aggression of so many do-gooders. Now the breeder is out of business and worse, they are suing her for who knows what. If you are a breeder this could happen to you. You need to stand up for yourselves and tell the do-gooders to go to hell.

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  29. Much of what she says makes sense,BUT she goes overboard and contributes to the problem. I am understanding, as I too was a breeder. I also do believe in the label "responsible breeder". Even if the definition varies, the outcome pretty much should be a more positive one for the dogs.. Yes the "do good-ers" do need to find another hobby or a new therapist.

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