How much better would be world be if there were laws that?

Question

ensured that before ANYONE could own a dog they had to undergo a basic education course that taught them about proper vet care, feeding, exercise, etc. for their dogs? Does anyone else get really depressed when reading some of the questions asked on YA? And also laws that made ANYONE who wants to breed their dog obtain a license. I know in CA they were working on something like that. But really. We need better laws to help shut down these back yard breeders and puppy mills!

what do YOU think it will take to really put a dent in the BYBs and PMs?

I never said regulate just to own. Just require an education course. feed the dog X amount of food based on body weight and the particular food. This is how you crate train. As for vet care...rabies vaccines are required by most state laws, a lot of people don't know.

Answer 1

I am totally against any laws such as you described. There are too many variables as to what constitutes "proper care".

Vet Care-- If person "A" takes their dog in twice a year to be vaccinated because he/she is blindly following what their vet sends out reminder cards for, is he/she a better pet owner than person "B" who after researching the benefits and risks of vaccination decides to not vaccinate their dog at all? Or is the pet owner who has their dog treated holistically a worse owner than the one who utilizes an alopathic vet?

Feeding--would one be required to feed an AAFCO tested kibble that can include road kill, 4-d meat, and moldy grains (most kibbles on the market)? Would letting your dogs lick your plates or giving them some left-overs from the thanksgiving turkey become illegal? What about the thousands and thousands of people who feed their pets homecooked or raw diets?

Exercise--Oh boy regulating how much exercise is required would be more than impossible...not only would there have to be different requirements for every breed and combination of mixed breeds, but you will have to make sub categories for the ages and any physical limitations of each individual dog. Otherwise, one could be required to take their 13 year old blind dog with severe hip dysplasia for a five mile jog.

As for the anti-breeding laws, those are actually only effecting the people who are breeding responsibly. If you read the actual wording of the proposal, puppy mills, are exempt from the regulations.

If you really want to make a dent in puppy mills and byb, the public needs to be educated, not regulated.

Answer 2

People have to take tests to drive and lots of them are still horrible drivers. I'm not sure more laws are the answer. Maybe we should be glad that the ignorant are at least asking the questions somewhere.

I think more education is the key. Perhaps volunteering to speak at your local middle school, or setting up spay/neuter education booths at community events would help. In the past I have given classes to 4-H and other school groups. I know, it is frustrating as it can be but I guess we all try to make some difference and if there are enough of us, we do.

Just for the record, the law in California was poorly written, and IMHO would have caused many more problems than it would solve.

Answer 3

What you are asking for is to DEFINE breeders...to draw a line in the sand...can't be done. Your definition of "byb or pm" may be totally different than mine, or your neighbor...The animal rightists have been VERY successful at brainwashing the public into believing that ALL breeders (including responsible ones) are the epitomy of evil. They thrive and succeed on dividing and conquering us all!

No, legislation is not the answer. Public funded education, more low cost spay/neuter clinics , and the continuing educational efforts of dedicated dog owners and breeders is the ONLY solution for ANY of us to continue to OWN and enjoy our pets.

1. Who would be in charge of determining who is responsible enough to own a dog or even breed one?
2. Who would determine the criteria?
3. How do you "define" a byb or a pm??

NO, I'll keep MY rights thank you, very much.

In the meantime, please take a moment and look over the websites I'm providing below. There is a war on, and unless ALL PET OWNERS and BREEDERS unite, we will lose our rights to own and breed our dogs.

Answer 4

Nice dream,
shut down the puppy mills ok, but how do you draw a line between the backyard breeders and the Hobby Breeders??? They both breed dogs but your Hobby breeders (most are AKC or Stockdog Registry rocognized) are out to improve the breed, maintain the integrity of good lines, where your back yard breeders are careless people who 9 times out of 10 are just too lazy to get their "mutts" (and I mean that respectfully) spayed. The California bill will never pass, the AKC will see to that. We've got to come up with something everyone can live with! (Maybe FREE Spay and Neuter Clinics)

Answer 5

I agree but I think that for now if every state would require breeders to get a license and make them give people a rundown on exercise requirements and feeding and vets and such it'd help alot.They could have people initial everything they've gone over as proof they put forth the effort.That'd be a start.
Who better to educate than the owners and breeders especially since all dogs are different.Some require more exercise and more care than others do.

Answer 6

While that sounds nice and all, it really isn't practical. I'm also against gov't interference with my homelife. A better law would be for people to go thru child development and a practical guide to child rearing before they are allowed to procreate, but I don't see that one coming anytime soon. Any time you put too much power in the hands of the govt, you run the risk of losing what freedoms you do value.

You want to put a dent in BYB's and Puppymills? Education is the key, not prohibition. How many people really know how to properly pick out a puppy? What signs to look for? What are warning signs? What are signs of good health and temperment? etc. If people were able to make educated decisions, such questions as this wouldn't be necessary. Until people are able to make educated decisions byb's and puppymills will continue to flourish.

Answer 7

I do agree with the breeder's license idea, although I'm not sure that I believe that all owners should have to pass a test. Although the law is good in theory, I can't help but be the pessimist and see the opportunity for abuse of such a law. Back "in the day," they had a test prior to voter registration, but the test became primarily aimed at excluding blacks from the vote, not at testing literacy or education, and I can foresee something similar happening with a such a dog ownership test. I do understand the importance of ensuring an individual's readiness to care for an animal, but I would hate to deprive a competent person of the joy of having a dog based on a test technicality.

Answer 8

Better yet how about we make people take a test and pass it before they can have children?
I agree with Ista! The government does NOT need to tell me I can own a dog. Yes there are ignorant pet owners but that doesn't make everyone ignorant. What would you do if somebody told you that you couldn't pass a test so no animal for you?
The key is to educate. And sometimes I wonder about the people that are trying to be the educators.
I'll keep my rights thank you very much. Feel free to go after the breeders!

Answer 9

I don't know that I have a lot of faith that there can be a dent put in them -- I used to think that education the public would help but as the years have gone by I have seen that all educating really has done is make more adept bygers/pmers -- they learn the 'lingo' and use it to sell their wares... I used to mentor a lot of new people in my breed -- did it for decades and looking back there were really very few 'successes'.

I had thought at one point that people need to be licensed, like for driving a car, to own a dog -- to pass some sort of basic test of knowledge but the more I think about it or the concept of 'licensing' breeders, the more I realize that just doesn't work -- it only ends up hurting the responsible breeder and the ones that don't care, won't abide by any regulations anyway or will figure out ways around it. Look at Europe -- in Germany you have to have a breed warden evaluate puppies and only a certain number can be in a litter (think about it) and be sold with papers and then they have to have certain titles and health clearances but essentially, this hasn't helped anything and has actually caused more harm than good -- they still have greeders and the people that are doing the breeding are for the large part, meeting mandated minimums that any responsible breeder in the US will exceed. They also have instances of 'fixing' things so that they can pass and these things are not for the good of the dogs... they also have to deal with even worse BSL situations than we ever have had to deal with... so regulation like this simply doesn't work and at least when I check out a breeder here where things aren't mandated, I know that the good ones will do it all even without the mandates so it is a good way to weed out the good from the marginal or byber types... In a mandated minimum system you don't have that and they all simply meet the minimums and the fools in the US and other countries think it is a big deal that they met minimums because they have to instead of doing it because they care...

While some sort of something has to be done, I don't know that laws are the way to go -- we have laws and they are not being enforced and the only ones that are abiding by them are not the ones they were meant to deal with in the first place... some sort of 'users' license for anyone wanting to own an animal would be a start I guess but then we would have the Mike Vicks who wouldn't show up on the radar anyway, until after the fact...

Oh yea, these questions have bummed me for decades ... way longer than YA has been around... I always take prospective breeders (people who think they want to breed to my male) to the local pound for a long visit ... I particularly try to get them there on kill day... to see what is happening to the millions of unwanted animals every year... if the animal control was more vocal about how much it is costing them in tax dollars every year to kill and dispose of these dogs -- if they were more visual about the body piles and what they see and deal with constantly - if people were confronted with what their actions lead to then maybe, maybe they would think twice before breeding Feefee but then they have to have a conscience to begin with and there are a lot of sociopaths out there and they reproduce a lot...


btw, I did have one thought once that I considered good -- even proposed it to AKC but it went to one guy and he pfhopfhoed it... it wouldn't affect many pm/bygers because they aren't even using AKC dogs much anymore since people are stupid enough to believe that ACA or ConKC means anything but mutt -- anyway my proposal was for High Volume Breeders (HVB) and there are quite a few of them that still do AKC -- I proposed that as their number of litters/puppies increased each year, that the cost for registering them both by litter and individually would increase :) sort of like a graduated increase in fees -- it was a thought... I figured if it hit PMs in the pocket book maybe they would actually consider what they were breeding before doing it but not sure it would... figured AKC would go for it because it meant more money for them but again, did't go for it... but I do think the money is the key -- if people stopped irresponsibly and ignorantly supporting these bygers/pms then they would stop breeding -- no profit, no puppies...

Answer 10

i think i never heard here in my staye about a license, but you do have to have one if you breed the dog or cat so peoble who ask for papers the can be sure its a true fullblood and no matter if the have to undergo a basic education course does not say they will not abuse that dog or cat or whatever kind it is and i dont see nothing wrong with as you say backyard breeders as long as there aloud to do so there is nothing wrong with it and my thing is i rather safe a dog or cat from where ever i can, merry christmas