Dog-Sense: For All Dog Owners

Disabled Dog Breeders

If you can read this and go through your day without thinking about those who are struggling to care for their pets, shame on you. Here, take a dose of feel-good...

Stella Starr, Pet Perspectives

Do you know a long-time breeder they talk about for neglecting their animals?  People are always gossiping at cat shows and I think it must be the same with dog owners.

Have you been to their place or had a real heart-to-heart talk lately? Do it before you gossip! They may be financially or physically handicapped or so burdened by life that they are emotionally unable to take care of the one bright spot in their lives.

Just think about how much MORE a pet can mean to a handicapped person than your prize winner means to you. Desperation has always existed but it is worse now than ever before.  The economy is worse.  People have lost their jobs and with that many have lost their dignity in ways you can only imagine.  They have hungry mouths to feed - but do food banks have pet food?  Call your local food bank and ask.  I did.

Animal Planet and other TV shows increasingly brand breeders as money grubbing, dysfunctional human beings to be pitied or despised.  Sure they “balance” that with shows about cute dogs and kittens but the balance has slipped.  A lot.  What sticks in your mind, the loving caring pet animal breeder or the grossly obese hoarder with a house full of dogs and feces everywhere?  The fence is broken, she can’t afford repairs or maid service.   She’s blown up on prednisone and dumbed down on Prozac.  She is physically incapable of bending over to reach the floor.  She shuts out her fate along with the urine and feces on the floor.  Her dogs are fat and happy, that’s all that matters to her in the moment of each day.

I had a cat friend get in that condition.  People came from out of state when we finally discovered her plight.  If you know many “dog people” the odds are that someone you know is in desperate straits right now.

Hoarding exists.  None of us can deny that.  It is about good people who loved and cared for their animals but were caught up in the do-gooder frenzy generated by TV shows such as air every day of every week – OR they were seen as easy targets by animal rights activists and then persecuted by the very people we trust to uphold the law and protect us.

The time has come when we fight back or just roll over and play dead.  The animal rights activists are organized, funded, and have the media’s undivided attention.  What about us dog and cat fanciers?  We have no union, we have no unity and the truth is we can’t even take a minute to supply our local shelter or food bank with a sack of dog food!  We cat people have a usually-defunct legal defense fund but what about the dog fancy?

You or someone you know is going to need help.  And more than anything else, that person needs to know the rest of us care.  If we had the loyalty our dogs have...

Start now by contacting your local show club.  They probably have an attorney-member or someone has a relative they can get to help organize a charitable group a disabled dog breeder.  Then get busy in your own community and state.  Reach out to a reputable legislative group.  See if they are interested in funding a legal service.  If not, contact someone else!  But start by uncovering and helping desperate animal owners.

And see what else you can do: TUBA - United Breeders Of America

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