Pets
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Backyard Breeders
So my husband and I got in an argument because I called our mutual friends "backyard breeders" in a negative way. Basically, these people LOVE animals and had planned to breed their 2 golden retrievers one time before neutering them. They had planned on making sure the pups had a home before beginning the breeding. They ended up getting them fixed and never breeding them, but my question is what makes a "backyard breeder" so bad. I had tried to tell my husband that it was a bad thing, but then we he asked why I couldn't really tell him. We got each of our dogs from BYBs when we were younger, but would now rescue a puppy from a shelter, so I can't judge too much... Anyway, can anyone explain why it is so terrible beyond that it is increasing the population?
Re: Backyard Breeders
Breeding should be done to better the breed. And genetic testing (not just a simple "vet check") should be done to ensure that the parents are not passing on genetic diseases (heart disease, eye problems, bone problems). An independent breed expert should judge the potential parent dog against AKC breed standards in order to ensure that the "best of the best" is being bred (which is the purpose of dog shows).
Ditto RedHead. BYBs aren't breeding to better the breed and generally don't perform proper/sufficient health testing on their dogs. What makes your friends so sure their two goldens should be bred? How do they know they don't have underlying health, genetic, or temperament problems? Do they know both dogs are great examples of the breed standard? They probably don't, and because of that, they could be (albeit unknowingly) passing these issues on to the puppies. Additionally, many BYBs now breed designer mixes, which by definition can't be aimed at bettering the breed because they aren't producing a breed but a mix.
Also, I'm not sure why contributing to the pet overpopulation problem (and thereby subjecting more dogs to euthanasia) isn't enough to be against BYBs. Reputable breeders generally have homes lined up for their puppies before they breed their dogs, whereas most BYBs don't look for homes until after the puppies are born (or at least after the dogs have been bred), so what happens if they can't find a home for one or more puppies? Those puppies go to shelters. Even if they do find homes for the puppies, those puppies are taking homes away from shelter dogs and may be more likely to be surrendered to a shelter themselves because BYBs don't tend to screen potential homes or perform temperament testing on the puppies to determine a good match.
FWIW, I have a cat (adopted from a rescue) who has health problems due solely to negligent breeding. I love him and would never wish he hadn't existed, but if whoever bred him (probably some kind of pet mill operation) had spent a few hundred dollars getting his parents a simple test that can be done at major veterinary hospitals, they wouldn't have bred his parents and he wouldn't be in Stage III renal failure at the age of 5.
Additionally, BYBs are one of the major reasons the resources of shelters and rescue groups are stretched thin. Supposedly, the cats I have now were for sale in a pet shop, got sick, and were handed over to a rescue group to "deal with," until they were nursed back to health. At age 3, we finally adopted them. Legitimate breeders breed when they have placements for their pets, and obligate owners to return pets to them if they can no longer keep the pet. If there were no BYBs and everyone actually got their pets fixed, there would be very little need for shelters or rescues.
40/112
We are in the same situation. After our 10 year old tuxedo manx died of cancer, we were devastated and purchased a purebred Ragdoll from a breeder... turns out he has a congenital heart disease common to the breed. We discovered this one week shy of his 1st birthday, when he almost died of congestive heart failure. Saving his life cost us $4000! The breeder claims to test for this gene in all her cats, but obviously we learned otherwise. It's terrible to bring a new member into your family and have them be ill, no matter how much you pay for them, so backyard breeders are doing blood lines no favors by making designer dogs, or better looking babies. The prettiest pair, may not produce the healthiest offspring, and ultimately, if you care more about looks than long-term health then you probably don't need a pet anyway because you won't look after them. Oh, and my Ragdoll is fine (for now), we have him on a strict medication and supplement schedule, and he gets better care than some people do! The breeder didn't seem to care that he was sick... only interested in offering me a new kitten. Why?! So I could return my sick baby and let her put him down... I don't think so!
I'm so sorry! My Norwegian Forest Cat had congenital heart failure, but it was at the end of his life on top of some other problems. But man, paying for my cat to see a cardiologist wasn't cheap!
Samson is a silver-shaded persian and has Polycystic Kidney Disease, which is present in about 1/3 of Persians. He's had the cysts since birth, although only since they've grown recently have they caused problems, and the only way he could have been born with them would be for one of his parents to have had them, too. They can be detected with an ultrasound for about $350 - which, if you are breeding cats, doesn't seem that exhorbitant to me. We had to do one to get him diagnosed. We also have his sister/littermate, Delilah, and we will be getting her an ultrasound in the next few months to see if she has the cysts so we can get pre-emptive treatment and be on the look out for signed of kidney failure.
Unfortunately, we got them from a rescue, which pretty much guarantees they weren't well bred. I'd do it again, because I like to adopt from shelters/rescues (and Persians are very common in my area - silver shaded persians were developed in CA and there's even a dedicated Persian rescue in my city), but this is the chance we're going to have to take.
40/112