Moving more than once since the last post made it hard to keep up. I intend to change the tone of this blog a bit - hence the header change. I've also retired from practice, so this now becomes just my advice, observations, and in some cases condemnation.
To kick off, we'll start with the hottest topic, and see how it spins out of control. I know that countless sites are out there on either side of animal breeding - better dead than bred, adopt don't shop, plenty of other rhymes. The reality is there is value in breeding animals. Not that I'm referring to money earned by breeders - I mean value in maintaining particular breeds and their appearance and behaviors. I think that's the last point where almost everyone agrees.
Of course, you have read that breeders make a significant income on the backs of their animals, but the truth is the vast majority of us couldn't turn a significant profit unless we sold $20,000 animals. But if a breeder is turning a profit - so what? If you produce a specific product, why would you not sell your product to make income?
I know, you're screaming "Product!" right now. Here's why I feel I can use that. Animals are property, under the law. That means they are a product. And breeding, much like painting and sculpting, is an art. You must do research on every breeding, you must seek out breeding animals that will complement yours in producing a conforming animal, with a predictable temperament. And if I were an artist, or a sculptor, and I choose to sell my works of art to make money, why would a breeder not have the same privilege?
We're wading in to where it really gets out of control, because there are so many individual opinions on the breeding of animals, and how it's done. There are several colloquial names that are all meant to be derogatory in different ways, none of which are recognized under law. The first is a backyard breeder, or BYB. Who or what this is depends on who you are talking to. To some people, it is anyone who breeds animals but does not show them. The theory here is that they don't show because they don't care about conformation, they are just producing pets. To other people, this is someone who breeds random bred animals, with no purpose other than making some cash selling the kittens, or in some cases producing mixed breed kittens to show in the Household Pet category of major registries. Which person is right? I don't know. In my opinion, it's a mix of both - it definitely includes anyone purposefully breeding mixed breed cats. There are enough of those and creating more is irresponsibility at its worst. A pedigreed breeder whose cats don't resemble the conformation of the standard, and who doesn't care about it, I think that person falls into the BYB category, too. But just not showing? I have friends who are adamant about this, but showing costs a LOT of money. You rarely have a show that doesn't require a long drive and a hotel stay. If someone takes a break from showing due to financial issues, I don't think that relegates them to BYB status. But that's just my opinion.
The next is the ubiquitous "puppy mill," where the owning breeder is a "miller." This one was created by animal rights activists, and it caught on. The typical mill, to most people, including home hobby breeders, is really a horrible place with wire cages and just dog upon dog churning out puppies, no pedigree research, no real attempt at health care, and with animals that are completely unsocialized because they have had no human contact. Unfortunately the animal rights folks didn't think it was enough to shut these mills down, and they now consider every breeder a miller. I know, I've been called a kitten miller. I generally have 2 or 3 litters a year. And I'm a miller?
Like so much in this country, this has been a completely polarized issue. But as the issues above show - there isn't a good extreme to have in either direction. Daily I see some breeders who have gone completely off the charts with their ideas - it's the extreme libertarian-type view that they are my dogs on my property and get out. They may have wonderful programs, but the ferocity of their anger at anything activists will do, or government Animal Control will do, that they lose all credibility. I've seen someone who was arrested for animal cruelty, who even had a case opened about child custody, because the conditions were so bad on their farm. This person is accepted and is a regular commentator on many pet law lists, and any attempt to bring that up is met with howls about how they were set up and they had a perfectly fine house and the dogs were fine. You can't reason with that kind of logic.
Then there's the other side - animal rights (AR) extremists, who think all breeding is wrong, who want all breeding outlawed at the federal, state, and local level. They want all animals spayed and neutered, adopted only from shelters. Take a moment to think about that. All breeding outlawed, and all pets adopted sterilized. Where, exactly, will the pets for your great-grandchildren come from? All that will be left are feral and potentially rabid animals who roam free. Better dead than bred, they say, and some have acted on that threat. You also can't reason with that kind of logic.
The reality is most home hobby breeders are all along the middle. I referenced my friend, who feels showing is necessary to not be a BYB, and that's fine. I'm more to the center, if you will, of the BYB definition, and I know many of my other friends might have descriptions based on number of animals or what have you. What you will find almost everyone will agree with (some exceptions, unfortunately IMO) breeding random bred animals is not a good idea. There are lots of wonderful mixed breed animals out there looking for homes - you don't need to have a litter of them and sell to whoever has cash on them. Breeders usually agree with local animal control on this, even if they don't know it. There are some others, I am sure, who feel a breeder must slide more to AR standards, that you need to have x number of animals or your cattery should look like this House Beautiful. The incredible range of these opinions makes it awfully hard to have folks agree on one thing, one definition, one standard. And with animals, maybe there can't be one standard. We'll see.
I'm hopeful that in pointing out these facts, these differences and divergent definitions, can be learned about, and for people to make their own decisions about breeding, about animal rights activity, about adopting and rescue. I know, it will take a while. But we have time.
