comments on Animal Rights: Whose Dog Is It, Anyway?

posted by Daryl, May 17, 2010:

I have been thinking about the unwanted pet issue.

I have one dog from the pound - America's word for unwanted dog kennel or animal shelter - ( spent $80 for spaying) , one dog from a dog breeder (I spent hundreds of dollars for).

I regret getting the expensive dog. I was at the pound Saturday (to volunteer to take a pound dog for a walk) and the fact that I could have got a nice intelligent dog there without the extra money suddenly struck me. (I wanted a companion-dog - maybe eventually service-dog - for my disabled son - and thought I had to get an "intelligent" purebred dog).

Of course i won't give up my purebred or stop loving him, but that doesn't stop me from thinking. I think people get purebred dogs for the status it brings. Or they are misinformed like I was and think only a purebred dog can only satisfy the function they want, when a mutt will do perfectly well.

Dogs are in some ways just like a lot of other things in are society - THROWAWAY.

So what's the answer? How to get mutts a better rap? Better advertising.

The prime minister and the president should own mutts. The high and mighty people - from Obama to Oprah to the British queen - should be the first to get pound dogs, to rescue a dog, to adopt a rescue dog.

Comparisons and analogies. Do we suffer people do be "purebred?" No, that went away with the eugenics movements from the early 1900's. What makes us think we can make doggy DNA do tricks that we can't do with human DNA?

Laws? Make people get one pound dog - to rescue a dog - for every purebred they buy?

Disclosure notices? (e.g. "This is to notify you that purebred dogs may suffer from inbreeding diseases and may be no more intelligent than hybrid dogs.")

Responsibility classes/notices? Anyone getting a dog should sign off on a responsibility affidavit. This should list time and money responsibilities to which one must commit. Note: we have purebred dog rescue because even purebreds often end up as unwanted dogs.

BUT I suppose the same humans who kill off hundreds of species every year and fail the call for resource and habitat conservation, probably don't care much about the many hundred thousand dogs euthanized/abused yearly. AND the same humans who demand abortion be outlawed but fail to support foster parents (read the "little lost boy" to get an inside look at the foster parent program in America), probably don't care to be the first one in their exclusive, gated community to own a mutt to rescue an unwanted dog.

Sorry for the acerbic twist at the end of my comments, but hey, they have a lot of truth.

It all comes down to how much do we value LIFE, not the "life" that some say they value - with a specialized, very definitive meaning - but what I call LIFE capitalized, i.e. living things having a chance for a fit, fulfilling - each in its own way - existence here on earth.

I welcome discussion on this issue -and may it be as wide ranging as mine!

***SOCIALIZEIT***

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