General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My 30 pound dog was attacked by three unleashed pit bulls [View all]TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)There's no other way to improve a breed's health or temperament. For example, hip dysplasia used to be an epidemic problem among pretty much any large breed dog. Through better breeding practices it's been virtually eliminated to the point where most breeders can and do contractually guarantee against it. Allowing dogs to breed indiscriminately fosters genetic health problems whereas breeding only those dogs that are specifically chosen for their health with certified health checks and good temperament is the only way to produce dogs free of known common genetic ailments or bad temper. The key is responsible breeding. Most people have no idea what that is or why it matters. We would not have an epidemic of ill and bad tempered dogs were it not for irresponsible breeders and owners.
In a perfect world the only acceptable legal breeding would be responsible breeders closely monitored for acceptable practices and where every dog sold through them is contracted to be spayed/neutered unless sold to another responsible breeder to produce more healthy good tempered dogs to further saturate the breed. Any indiscriminate or backyard breeding or owners that refuse to spay/neuter would be illegal and closely monitored. In a perfect world every gene responsible for every known genetic health issue would be recognized and tested for to eliminate carriers from the breeding pool. It has only been through responsible breeding that some of these already have been identified and are tested for today, hence the virtual elimination of some health issues like hip dysplasia. Without responsible breeding there is no hope of producing healthy good tempered dogs raised responsibly in those most important early weeks of life so they have every chance of a long and healthy life with a responsible owner. It is only responsible breeders that CARE that much about the health and temperament of the dogs they produce and screen potential buyers to insure as best they can that the dogs they produce are owned by responsible and loving owners.
In order to get to any such perfect world BOTH encouragement of acquiring dogs from shelters AND from responsible breeders is necessary while encouraging the perfect world of responsible breeding only. The huge pool of abandoned, ill and genetically bad tempered dogs need loving homes, but responsible breeding MUST be fostered in order to reduce and eventually eliminate that huge pool. Government must be encouraged to pass laws and closely monitor dog breeding and ownership to reduce the epidemic of suffering by both humans and pets committed by bad tempered dogs and mostly because of bad owners. Both bad breeding practices and bad owners need to be reduced through education as well as real legal consequences focused on the bad breeders and bad owners much more so than the dogs that bad breeding and bad ownership have produced. Thankfully, some of that is working. The campaign for people to spay/neuter their dogs has worked wonders. It was not long ago that people generally never thought to spay/neuter their dog or know or care why they should and therefore didn't whereas today it has become almost a given to do so. But it obviously isn't nearly enough.