Your Letters To Editor are one of our most-read features!  

DoodleDog's nose is permanently bent out of shape so keep your letter short or typical bully, he'll bury it!  He likes letters signed but if he knows you (and you toss him a bone) he can withhold your name.  NOTE: We embed your email to block spammers but will sometimes provide your URL as additional information for readers.  Send your: Letter to The Editor

What APHIS means, common sense on ASPCA, and one reader's Pet Peeves are jewels made out of words.  Smaller litter size in show dogs and Castration are not related but... Be sure and heed the sad warnings in three different letters on Medications.  If you can help win the battle against mandatory micro chipping, folks in Malta will be grateful.  And we prance like a Crestie when praised so thanks readers, we owe it all to you!

Excellent Articles - "Where has everybody gone?" and "Extremes in purebred dogs" both make excellent points. Jacqueline Brellochs showed my 1st dog to CH in 1971)

More On Extreme Purebreds - I appreciated articles on extreme purebreds and on where have all of the people and dogs gone!! I think it will get worse if all of the new regulations get passed!! I hope more and more people are educated on the lies and untruths of the HSUS and ASPCA and do not get so taken in by their ads on TV. Thank you for this and I am glad to be on your subscription list. One of the breeds I have seen a lot of extremes in is one of my breeds, Chinese Crested. I have asked people "why are you breeding them so large and so hairy?"  One person said, "I don't mind the grooming" so I said that wasn't the point, but why so large and so very hairy and she repeated her statement. I turned and walked away. They are supposed to be refined toy dogs, not draft horses! I have tried to get into the articles, I would love to read the Puppy Evaluation. ... 2 pups I have right now about 9-10 weeks old are rather different, not only in color, but in personalities.  My lil palomino girl is very outgoing, ran out the back door into the yard first time she saw it open. Usually the "big" dogs use a doggie door when I am home. The little blue pup climbed on the couch first and she is cautious when she wants down and will not just jump down! These are pretty smart pups and I want to channel that as well. Marie Lundbom

NSAIDS - My experience was with previcox not rimadyl but I just thought I would let you know my experience with NSAIDS. My 6 year old Golden Retriever pulled her back leg and was only on 3/4 a tablets a day for 4 days when her kidneys failed. She got fluid in her lungs. Long story short, she ended up at the vet hospital at UGA and went into respiratory arrest. After a long week in the hospital and a month recovery at home she is doing great and back to her wonderful self. We were never given a patient insert and were not told any side effects by the vet.  Hopefully getting this info out to dog owners can save some lives! Thanks, Stacy Cope

Info On Rimadyl - I lost my dear Collie Sammie to Rimadyl. She had just a sprained shoulder, no other problems. She was given a total of 8 ½ tablets of Rimadyl and she was killed. Have had BIG problems “talking” to Orion Pharma, that’s Pfizer’s representatives here in Norway. They are arrogant and don’t care.  I have written my dear Sammie’s horror story here : http://home.online.no/~roeysla/rimadyl.cfm  Sincerely, Elisabeth Roysland

Please Help Fight Micro Chipping!!! - Kindly can anyone help us in our fight against the introduction of the Micro-Chipping in Malta - Europe with more information as the Ministry in Malta are stating that there is no cancer cases due to the Micro Chipping.

     We are fighting against the introduction of the micro chipping of dogs in the Maltese Islands (Malta and Gozo) but if you read the reply from Mr John Joseph Vella as the Director (Animal Welfare, Promotion and Services) The Civil Abattoir, Abattoir Square, Albertown, Marsa MRS 1123 Malta. Tel: +356 22925219 / +356 22925371 - He is stating that..... "The cases mentioned concerning microchipped dogs which have suffered infections following implantation of the microchip do not describe by whom these microchips were implanted, under which conditions these were implanted, nor were these procedures documented in a scientific manner." Joe Meli

Dog Medications - Thanks for the reminder with the article on Med conversations!!! I "know" the amounts... but it's nice to be able to see a reminder - print it out and put it in the folder in the kitchen! Dani Rosenberry

Castration - I very much enjoy your newsletters and often send my friends a link to your site to read a specific article. However, I will not do that for your article on castration. I applaud you for pointing out the dangers of castration and spaying. I have often wondered whether my bitches got "hot flashes", etc from being spayed and whether my males would grow tall and slim from being castrated. Therefore, about 25 years ago after I adopted a stray macho Australian Terrier I insisted that my Vet give him a vasectomy rather than castrate him. The problem with this is that his behavior did not change. He was still running after females and trying to impregnate them and was still constantly urinating on everything in the house. Of course I kept him through old age but when he passed away I decided that never again would I put a dog through surgery without neutering him.

Smaller Litter Size: I'm new to the world of purebred dogs  (my Ibizan Hound just turned two years old) but I did a considerable  amount of research into the breed prior to getting my puppy and have continued to follow the breed.  I (and the breeder) are currently waiting for the breeder's bitch to come into season so that I can add a second dog.  In the short time I have been following the breed I have seen an increase in litters having only 1-3 pups instead of the 6-10 pups that were common in the early years of this breed in the US. I have wondered if the use of human intervention (AI) is part of the problem.  Personal observation: dogs used for only showing = small litters; dogs used for both showing and lure coursing = normal litters (6-8 pups).  I would like permission to place a link to Mechanics of Mating on my Facebook page.  Many of my FB friends are breeders and this info needs needs a wide audience.  Thank You, Lisa S. Peason

Astute observation!  Lisa, you are not the only person who has noticed a trend.  We will set up a comments page for readers, starting with information such as you have provided.  Thank you!

Pet Peeves - Solutions To Shelter Purebreds.  These fights don't just take place among the factions within an interest group (in this case, dogs). They also happen between interest groups. Circus people know that the ARs lie about circus animal abuse, but they may still get all wound up about "factory farms", never thinking that the ARs are lying about them too. The hunters and fishermen rant about the "puppy mills", and the large-scale dog breeders are derogatory towards the fur ranchers and the fur ranchers think those horrible egg producers pack all those chickens in way too tight.  I mean really -- chicken brains aren't even a half step above reptile brains. If anyone stopped to think for just a minute, it'd be obvious that chickens don't sit around in existential angst over the square footage of their cages. They were hatched and raised that way. They don't have the mental capacity to know anything else exists.  If we do ever stop fighting among ourselves, we'll be unstoppable.  BTW, I am a frequent reader and very much like your site.  Anyway, thanks for listening. I'm so tickled to have gotten a response. :-) Candace Ware

Another dimension heard from to keep the rest of us level-headed and on track!  Thanks Candace.

ASPCA & Common Sense - Breeder vs Buyer; AR vs AW, purebred vs mix. Why can't we stop all this bickering? Greed & $$$$ are the bottom line. We love all animals, dogs, cats, rats, wild or tame, & we work to make their lives better by contributing to all types of organizations. Perhaps this is the problem - we want to do the best, but who decides what "best" means? Right now we send a monthly donation to the ASPCA, an organization we've respected since we were young people. Lately we've seen them lumped in with PETA & HSUS. This we know to be wrong. I'm so old, I used to contribute to the ANTI-VIVISECTION SOCIETY. How, 60 years ago, could I have known this was a predecessor of PETA? To us, the dog fancy, cat fancy, bird fancy & any other fancy out there, must start working together and soon before it's too late for all us animals here on earth. In case some young people out there don't know it, but human beings are also animals. Mary Ann Larssen, Former breeder.

Another truth.  We should stop infighting long enough to swing at the real enemy.  One correction though which should make you feel better.  The ASPCA is ONLY in NY City and is a venerable, wonderful organization.  So far as we know, it has nothing to do with local SPCA groups who use the name.  Some are honest and good.  Some (many) are not.  20/20 has covered some of those.

What APHIS Means - Hello Mr. John Q. Public, With the APHIS proposed rule, you will pay a huge amount for your new puppy! I will only be able to keep 4 breeding females, so quantity will definitely go down, & I won't have a very big gene pool, so quality could possibility go down. Dog shows may become more expensive and fewer in number. My breeding stock may not be evaluated, as dogs shows are instrumental in evaluating and judging breeding stock to produce quality dogs.

In addition, you will have to get on a plane and then drive the 150 miles to my house to pick out a puppy. I will be screening you very closely, maybe even getting a background check and credit report, before you are allowed to visit and pick up said puppy and my prices will be triple because a home raised puppy with social skills will be very rare, plus all the costs for screening you. Only the upper-middle class and rich may be able to get a well bred puppy from me.

You may however, get at puppy at one of the facilities that will spring up, where as required by the USDA regulation, puppies and adults are caged. The puppy will have no social skills and their temperament will not be known until you get them. Some breeds will disappear. Commercial facilities do not deal well with females who need c-sections to produce a puppy.

But we all need more rules and regulations in our lives to fix the problems of so many dogs in the pound and rescues. Oh wait, responsible breeders take back any unwanted puppy and those generally aren't in the pounds. Now Joe Down-the-street, lets his female dog run the streets and get pregnant, producing 8 to 10 puppies with no registration, no shots and no care and of course he will not be affected by this law so his girl will produce, season after season. Joe down the street will probably give you a dog or will just put the litter in the pound. It is not all Joe's fault - he can't afford to fix his female and we can't afford to have more low-cost spay/neuter clinics. We would rather spend our tax dollars on regulating responsible breeders.  Sorry, I had to vent.  Connie & Wamo Mathewson

We strongly considered using this as a stand-alone article but time was short and we didn't want to miss getting it in this edition.  Those who have taken 90 seconds to respond on the APHIS SITE