O.k., so I’m running up against the law of unintended consequences, from the back end. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
We (my lovely bride and I) got our first dog in 1995, when I was first starting law school. Her name — the dog, not my bride — was Lakota, and she was the best dog ever to walk the face of this earth. She was the dog standard from which all other dogs deviate. We got her from the humane society in Montgomery and, surprisingly, she was a full-blooded husky, with AKC registration papers and everything.
As Lakota got about middle-aged, we had the foresight to know that we were going to want to keep Lakota’s blood/genes in our family. Fortunately, we had very good friends who had a magnificent husky male, and we were able to successfully breed her. The litter produced three beautiful puppies. We kept one, one went to the sire’s family, and we found a good home for the third.
The puppy we kept we named Alaska, but always just called her Ally (my daughter didn’t know until just a couple of days ago that her actual registered name was Alaska!). She was the second most magnificent dog to ever walk the face of the earth — and a close second, at that. Unfortunately, we failed to breed her when we had the opportunity. She graced us with her presence for 13 marvelous years, and left us about 4 years ago.
Through the years, we have had the privilege of owning and loving two additional huskies (Shoshone and Kaia). We love huskies! The dog we have now (Sierra) is half-husky (her other half is a mix of labrador retriever and golden retriever). She is wonderful, but getting old.
Now we would like to find another husky puppy to join our household. However, we don’t want to make the same mistake we made with Ally; we want the option of keeping our puppy’s bloodline in the family for years and years to come. Unfortunately, through communications with various breeders and rescue organizations, we are finding that they will not sell/adopt out a husky unless that dog is already spayed or neutered, or without a contractual commitment to have the dog spayed or neutered at the appropriate time.
Sidebar: I wonder how the breeders enforce that. I mean, do they follow up with the purchaser to see if the dog is “fixed”? And if not, what will they do, take the dog back by force? Go to court? I’m just curious — we would not agree to such a stipulation and fail to perform. We keep our word here in the Gosnell household. End sidebar.
Now I totally understand where these folks are coming from, though there are some competing interests involved. The rescue organizations are working to reduce the number of unwanted dogs, not increase it, so obviously they would not want to adopt a dog out to someone who will use it to create a “puppy mill.” And the breeders are ostensibly working to maintain or increase the health and welfare of the breed, and so similarly don’t want to sell a puppy to someone who will breed it irresponsibly. (The fact that having another dog out there capable of breeding, and thus capable of competing with their business, doesn’t even cross their mind, I’m sure.)
Many of these folks can be pretty hostile, or at least the conversation gets very, very chilly, when I mention that I would like a female which I can breed once down the line. Even when I explain my reasoning (above), they simply shut me down, often rather curtly. I get the very strong feeling that I have been judged guilty of some sort of heinous ASPCA crime for wanting to have a litter of puppies at some point.
Look, I don’t like puppy mills any more than the next guy (if the next guy really, really doesn’t like puppy mills). And I don’t want to breed dogs — any dog. It’s a lot of time and hassle, and it’s just not something that floats my boat. (Glad I didn’t evaluate my kids on those same criteria!) Three of our 5 dogs over the past 25 years have been rescues. But the upshot is that I simply cannot get an un-spayed puppy from a breeder. So I have no choice but to look elsewhere.
And this is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. The rescue organizations and breeders want to shut down puppy mills and irresponsible breeders. But that seems to be the only place I can go to get the dog I want, since the rescues and breeders won’t cooperate. So they are going to wind up perpetuating the very thing they are trying to eliminate. As long as the puppy mills and backyard breeders will provide dogs the “legitimate” breeders won’t provide, they will have a market, and their industry will continue.
Stay tuned . . . .
