Pets have to come from somewhere, and I don't mean "the pet store" or "the shelter," I mean they have to be born somewhere. This can happen at a breeder's, at a "backyard" breeder's, at a puppy mill, or accidentally at a home. I'll just describe a bit about each of these locations.
At home: two "intact" pets mate. The owner is usually unaware of the mating and does not realize it until the female is visibly pregnant. The male is often unknown. The newborns are typically well cared for but usually given away, either to a shelter, or to an un-researched acquaintance. Some of those acquaintances will invariably also give the young to shelters when their cuteness wears off.
At a backyard breeder: These "breeders" buy two intact individuals from a breed, usually at low cost from a shelter or previous owner and deliberately mate them. The pedigree of the individuals is not known, nor is it known if the individuals are actually purebred. The owners sell the resultant puppies for rather exorbitant "rehoming fees," usually on craigslist or other classifieds. Any unsold puppies are sent to shelters. The unsuspecting buyers believe they are adopting, and many eventually end up giving their animal to a shelter as well.
At a puppy or kitty mill: These are essentially high volume backyard breeders. Females are nearly always pregnant and living conditions are very poor. Most offspring end up either directly or indirectly at shelters.
At a breeder: When a breeder has enough interested and pre-screened buyers to justify a litter, he or she carefully selects two individuals of a breed. These individuals are usually champions in either conformation or working competition and have an extensively documented pedigree. As such they have been shown to have excellent appearance, temperament, and working characteristics. They have been tested for genetic defects, and the health problems of their ancestors are well known and accounted for. If a breeder does not have two suitable individuals of their own, they will acquire one on loan from another breeder. The two individuals are deliberately bred for one litter and interested buyers can spend as much time as they want, from ultrasounds onwards, interacting with the parents and puppies before they decide on one. Any offspring that show undesirable characteristics are not allowed to be bred in the future. Most breeders require that the purchased offspring are spayed or neutered unless you intend to breed or show your animal.
While some people may feel that "a dog is a dog is a dog," that is certainly not true. The differences between breeds can be enormous. Without breeders however, there wouldn't be breeds, and breed is one of the largest factors determining a dog's (or cat's) personality, and certainly its appearance. It is fairly simple, once you've laid out all of your requirements, expectations, and abilities for a pet, to choose an appropriate breed, and then an appropriate individual of that breed. If breeds did not exist, we would be lost in a sea of individuals, with no idea as to their personality until we brought them home. If that were the case, I am certain even more individuals would end up in shelters than do now.
Unfortunately, due to overbreeding at backyard breeders and puppy mills, there can be some pretty large differences between individuals of the same breed too. The difference between a well-bred english-stock labrador retriever and a poorly-bred puppy-mill lab could mean the difference between the best dog you've ever owned and the worst dog you've ever owned. Breeders do what they do, not because they're in it for the money, but because they love the breed and want to do everything possible to improve it. They are the ones striving to create the best dogs in the world, not creating the monsters that destroy everything of value in your home. Most will also be entirely willing to turn you away empty-handed if they do not feel that you would be an appropriate caretaker for one of their dogs.
When you pick up a dog or cat from a shelter, think about where that animal came from. Its most likely that it did not come from a breeder. All of the mutts clearly did not come from breeders, most of the so-called pure-breds look a little strange. Take a picture of a champion animal of that breed and compare it to the animals at the shelter, and you will likely see that the shelter dogs look fat, stumpy, red-eyed, slump shouldered, drooly, jowly, ratty, hyper, neurotic, aggressive, or timid in comparison. If you go ahead and bring that dog home, you will likely find that "rescuing" it from the shelter did little to improve its temperament or appearance. This dog will likely continue to give you problems until you return it to the shelter or it dies young from health complications.
So what can YOU do about it? First, spay and neuter your pets. That way you won't accidentally be sending a handful of young animals off to be euthanized. Second, avoid getting pets from classified ads. If you do, you are likely supporting backyard breeders or puppy mills. Third, do your research. Whether you adopt from a shelter or buy from a breeder, you will have this animal for 10-20 years. Thats longer than you will own your car, longer than your apartment lease, longer than you spend in college, and maybe even longer than your kids will live at home with you. It makes sense to spend at least as much time thinking about this decision as you would any of the rest of those things. Think about breed, gender, age, temperament, energy level, size, etc. instead of letting yourself fall in love with the first puppy or kitty you see. Last, commit to it. In a perfect world, everyone would buy pets from breeders, keep them until they died of old age, and then repeat. If everyone were to commit to keeping their pets for as long as they lived, shelters would not exist and no pets would ever be euthanized.
Note: I have never purchased an animal from a breeder. Both my cat and my dog were adopted from shelters, and I will likely continue to adopt for as long as I choose to have pets. But unfortunately there are hundreds of dogs and cats at shelters that I wouldn't ever want to own in a million years. I got lucky with my cat, but spent months researching my dog and drove over 12 hours to pick her up from a shelter in rural Nebraska, even though there are literally hundreds of dogs up for adoption in Denver. While I believe in rescuing pets, I believe even more strongly in finding the right pet in the first place, so it doesn't end up right back at the shelter. If finding the right pet for you means going to a breeder, then I wholeheartedly support that decision.
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