Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunas Mom
It is personal responsability and morals - things you can't legislate - that need to be brought to the forefront, and if the breeder doesn't do the testing you feel is appropriate, don't buy from them. On the flipside, you will see folks who don't do a single health test on their dog but as he is THE NEWF who won Westminster, he gets bred to anything that will hold still. Would I take that chance? I don't know, but I like that I have the choice...
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See, the thing is that, there may be "dog people", dog-savvy people, with the ability to discern a good breeder from not, but as you know this is painfully not the case with the general public. From purely personal experience with 0 statistic to back this up, more than 90% of all the dogs I have known from day to day life outside of shows and other dog-centric activities are dogs from mills or back yard breeders with zero knowledge of pedigree and health testing.
You can say, only idiots buy like that, but that doesn't stop the fact that most people will continue to buy like that not because they are idiots but simply because they don't know and dogs, as much as they love them, are simply just a family pet, just a dog, and will never be more interested on how to find a breeder that is actually trying to better the breed.
It is true that legislation cannot stop all incidences of the huge amount of millers and BYBs here, but it can certainly curtail what can or cannot be sold as an "AKC pedigree x breed", which the general public views as a stamp of quality, kinda like when you buy a Nike sneaker, you know it's Nike quality. People are simple like that. There are things I don't know much about, that I would buy based simply on the 'brand'.. stuff like lawnmowers and cars. If the AKC is "the dog's champion", I would really hope one day they will care about their brand.
I don't have to buy from someone who doesn't test, but that doesn't stop the production of dogs that are bred like that. They will never be my dogs but that doesn't make it less sad...
I would think it is a good idea to take a look at countries that have rules for breeding and registration, and take what we can from them, see what works, what doesn't work... more than just depending on people to learn themselves and make the right choice.