Puppy Mills and Hereditary Defects

Our capitalistic society has encouraged irresponsible commercial dog breeding such as “puppy mills” and backyard breeders, which contributes to pet overpopulation, has dire consequences for animals, and leads to a double-bind situation for animal care workers. A worker in a double-bind situation is asked to do two completely opposite and mutually conflicting things at the same time.  On one hand, workers are supposed to advocate for animals--to nurse them back to health, to feed and love them, help them get adopted--and then they are told to exterminate them.   According to the ASPCA, a “puppy mill,” sometimes known as a “puppy farm”, is a large-scale purebred dog breeding facility that operates under substandard breeding conditions, causing the development of chronic health problems, temperament issues, and hereditary defects. We have many dogs that come to the Animal Friends Rescue Project (A.F.R.P.) that are homozygous or double merle dogs, especially Australian Shepherds.  Many are born blind and/or deaf (in varying degrees).   While there is no study to indicate that the immune system is also affected, the shelter has noted there is also the possibility of immune system malfunction.  Merle is actually a heterozygote of an incompletely dominant gene.[1]  A merle should never be mated with another merle, causing the double-merle situation above.  These dogs are ending up in high kill shelters if they are not nabbed up by rescues like ours.  The high numbers of euthanized animals, 4 to 6 million each year according to the Animal Rescue league (ARL)[2], has led animal rights advocates to oppose the mass breeding of pet animals. 

As you can imagine, these dogs take a little more care.  I fostered a blind longhaired dachshund that I named Mr. Budders.  He was found roaming the streets of Salinas with no collar or tags and picked up by the animal shelter.  Because he had some medical issues, A.F.R.P. added him to their roster and he was sent to a veterinarian’s office for a couple days.  After that, I retrieved him and fell in love.  He was amazing, already house-trained,  a wonderful companion for my chocolate Labrador, and I would have adopted him had my husband not been so allergic to him.  After eight months, I found Mr. Budders a fabulous family  but I still miss him to this day.  The main point is backyard breeders are breeding what they think are purebreds, trying to make money by selling them in the newspaper, on-line, and to pet stores.  Do not buy from pet stores ever!  It only encourages these people.  If you want a purebred, buy from a legitimate breeder—check out their facilities (many are back east), see how many times they breed the females in a year’s time.  The second point is handicapped animals can be trained to be wonderful household pets.  I hope that in your lifetime, you will be as lucky as I was, and have a chance to care for a heavenly dog like my Mr. Budders. 

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[1] Sheila, Schmutz. "Schmutz - Merle". Sheila Schmutz. http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/merle.html. Retrieved 19 February 2012.

[2] According to the ARL, each day 10,000 humans are born in the U.S.—and each day 70,000 puppies and kitten are born.  Put another way, for every person that is born, 15 dogs and 45 cats are born.