Friday’s words….

A deviation of a hair's breadth at the center
Leads to an error of a hundred miles at the rim.
When the effort is so slight,
Why should you hesitate to set things right.
Deng Ming~Dao

This morning on this very cold morning, I was pretty content to sit on the sofa under the blanket to sip on my coffee and catch up on what is happening in my world.  Knowing that I had to make a trip down to Southern Maine later this morning, I was not in a huge hurry to get moving, so I sipped and read….and then I read a post that just upset me….a.lot!

I wrote a brief note about this auction a few weeks ago that was happening in Missouri.  The person who sent these dogs to a digusting lifestock auction in Missouri was once a breeder who had the best interest of our breed in her heart, but somehow lost her way along her journey..greed?

This is what a puppy auction looks like…and you can see how involved the Amish people are involved. I wasn't going to post this because it is hard to watch, but these are the puppies that end up in pet stores and on pet finder websites.

The breeder who I have spoken about has dogs with pedigrees that hard working reputable breeders worked hard to establish and shared with her.  I know that a lot of people do not understand what a reputable breeder does before breeding a litter.  In our breed, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, it means having yearly heart exams by a board certified cardiologist, yearly eye exams by a board certified Opthamologist.  Hips OVA'd and hopefully patellas as well.  It's expensive. 
Then finding the right dog to breed to, that has had all of the same testing and has the strong qualities that will offset your girl's weaker qualities to improve the next generation, another big expense.
..and then the puppies, the ones that fade, the ones that are still born, the expensive c-secitions… the heart break.  It's not about making money, because breeders who are doing it right, really are not making money, it's about going forward and bettering a breed of dogs that we love.

So back to this morning.  When I read that this same breeder had an additonal 57 dogs that she had to place, because thankfully the USDA is shutting her down, her demand to keep them off the auction block is 150,000.00.  I know this woman and reached out to her last week in kindness hoping that she would do the right thing with the rest of the dogs she still had, but in reading the FB posts this morning, I realized that was not the case in this situation.
Old red haired gene Kim would normally jump into the conversation very heated, but older tired Kim decided to drag her body out for a walk in the frigid temperatures to mull it all over in her mind.
When I walk, I prefer to walk alone.  I feel badly when people ask me to walk with them and I decline because, I enjoy the quiet solitude to work things out in my mind as I walk and today was one of those days.

The short version…if we continue to spend huge amounts of money buying these dogs at auctions, it's only going to drive up the demand sadly.  I personally feel we need to find a way to stop these dog auctions that the God fearing Amish farmers run.  We need to find a way to shut down puppy mills and we need to find a way to educate people to understand that buying from a pet store or a back yard breeder (mill)  perpetuates this  cycle.  We need to educate people to understand that when they do bring a pet into their home it is a commitment…a family member, not one to ship off to a shelter, unless life has changed so much that there is no other choice.
As a breeder, I have always built into my contract that if a puppy buyer can not keep their dog, then they need to contact me first and I will either take them back or help them find another good home.

I'm sorry for this rant.  Today in my life, I rarely find anything worth getting fired up about, but knowing that another 57 babies are being held ransom for money has made me sad and mad.  This should not happen.  We need to find a way to fix this.
You will probably never see me post like this again, but today, I was upset enough to plow easily through a 4 mile walk…and I think it could have been 5 miles.
There has to be a solution and I want to be part of the solution!