They are always in the hole.

Adopt a soldier I can give someone a few names. Privately.

BTW, I assume you have already stepped up and adopted neglected kids too. Please let us know how many, and how they are adapting.

You are quite misinformed on these topics.

First thing I suggest you do is to research the difference between animal welfare and animal rights.
Animal welfare is the philosophy to end cruelty and neglect, and to ensure animals are treated humanely.
Animal rights is the philosophy that domestic animals should be extinct and that humans and animals should have zero interaction with one another.

Secondly, you obviously know nothing about breeders. A responsible breeder, doing things the right way, doesn't make money. Do you have any idea how much it costs to title dogs before breeding, properly raise a litter of puppies, etc? A LOT of money! They're lucky to break even; they often lose money. It's a very expensive hobby, not a job.
You are getting reputable, responsible breeders confused with puppymills, which is about the same as getting a pharmacist confused with a drug dealer on the street.

Paul is only half right. The same can be said the other way around. Just because someone is a "breeder" does NOT mean they are only in it for the money and that they do not love and care for the animals. While I know there is no shortage of breeders that cut all the corvers and treat the animals like "cash cows", not all breeders are that way. The fact is that people ALWAYS seem to think that because someone breeds their animal (even once) that they are driven for profit and don't care for animals. That is just as bad as saying that all people that love animals, hate people.

If you want to see what I mean, go to and AKC dog show and talk to the folks there with dogs. Not the big handlers that show up with 10+ dogs. Look around at all the people that show up with 1-3 dogs and talk to them and see how "bad" they are.

Animal rights people tend to think all breeders are bad and that is just plain not true.

Priorities are out of whack with the card carrying people from Peta And SPCA.

All the money that is donated to these places (peta and spca)
could feed all the children in this once great
nation. Also would help our other needing citizens.

MO$.02 is they're wacked in the head.
Talk about going overboad.

I'm sad that people believe this because it is NOT true.

Just because a breeder requires the owner to return the dog if things don't work out, in the contract, does not mean this actually happens. Most breeders don't keep in touch with their buyers for the lifetime of the dog, and many owners don't keep in touch with the breeder. Owners' life circumstances change – move, divorce, health, getting into another sport or interest – and dogs are dumped. It makes zero difference if the person spent $6000 importing the dog from Germany, and half a year on a waiting list for the puppy – when they no longer want the dog, it goes.

I work with German Shepherd rescue, and the number of very well bred dogs we've gotten in rescue is staggering.

We've pulled dogs from county kill shelters that had ear tattoos that could be traced to their breeders, but because they were owner surrenders, the shelter did not try to locate the breeder.

We've gotten dogs that people spent thousands on buying and importing from Europe, with their papers, in absolutely miserable conditions because their people stopped being interested in them.

We got a gorgeous male with German papers and Schutzhund titles that had no hair left on him, because his owners couldn't be bothered treating for a simple skin issue, and it then became too severe and caused him to loose all his hair. They didn't want to bother paying for it, so they turned him into the rescue, papers and all.

We've even pulled one dog that turned out to be a retired police dog – nice way for someone's partner to end up, in a kill shelter, at 9 years old!

I currently have two shelter dogs of my own: My German Shepherd came from a very well known Virginia breeder with a great Schutzhund training facility. She was dumped in a county animal control facility because she barked when left home alone. My Belgian Malinois has been worked in Schutzhund, was seized by Animal Control because she was locked in a garage with 10 other dogs, starved, and bred over and over.

If you seriously think only puppy mill, backyard bred, and pet store dogs end up in shelters, THINK AGAIN. Shelters are FULL of purebred dogs needing good homes.

I now refer to the shelter as the clearing house for puppy-milled and backyard bred dogs. These are the dogs that end up there. These dogs rarely come from health-screened parents. Who knows if they were socialized as pups or what the mom ate while in whelp with the pup?? Dogs that come from responsible breeders (where the parents are health-tested and socialized, where the mother eats premium dog food, where the littermates are socialized as pups, etc...) DON'T end up in the shelter because these breeders REQUIRE that a dog (at any point in its life) be returned to the breeder if the buyer cannot keep the dog FOR ANY REASON. That's the person I'm supporting by buying a puppy from them. They run their OWN defacto shelter (without government subsidies) by requiring that their dogs that cannot be kept by the owner be returned to them.

And lest anyone think that I'm a cruel person for talking about the shelter dogs, my first dog came from the shelter, a male buff-colored Cocker Spaniel. He was 9 months old when I got him, had probably been abused by his prior owners and had a not so great temperament. I worked with him and also had a trainer work with him. His temperament did not get much better. At one point in the past, he was sleeping on my bed. I sat down next to him startling him. He bit me on the face. He still lives in my house as had I returned him to the shelter he would have been euthanized. He is now 12 years old and is a very loving dog most of the time, but if I had a small child in the house there is no way he could have stayed here. With this experience I will never again buy a shelter dog. My other dogs have all come from responsible breeders breeding for health and temperament.

If the AR people hope to keep dogs out of the shelter, they better start realizing who the problem is: (for the most part) irresponsible dogs owners who put little thought into the purchase of a dog and think little of dropping off a dog they no longer want at the shelter. THEY bought the dog. If they bought it from an irresponsible breeder who doesn't take their dogs back, it's THEIR responsibility to find the dog a new home; not the taxpayers via the shelter.

They should all go to the classified section of the newspaper, to buy a used car.

Need a Pick-up truck to haul a trailer?
–Sorry, we have a lovely Yugo that will get crushed in the compactor if you don't buy it. It's only had "one owner" *wink* *wink*
Looking for a small, red 2-seater?
–Sorry, how about this lime-green, rusty conversion van. It will need a new transmission in a year, but don't buy a new car with a warranty, or these cars will die!!! >.<

Maybe if people took the time to get the right dog for them, instead of whatever caught their eye at the shelter, there would be more responsible pet owners, instead of returns and strays at the shelter.

Also we were told our AKC papers would be sent via mail and we never receieved them, despite repeatedly contacting the breeder.

Ms. Linda Brown deserves some of the criticism coming her way.