I wanted to find a word that could accurately describe the kind of shameless cynicism that goes into such marketing, but was worried it'd break the thesaurus. The idea that there are commercial breeding operations creating "shelter dogs" as a product to be sold to well-meaning prospective pet owners is so repugnant the first reaction isn't horror -- it's often disbelief, even anger toward the messenger. In fact, this is a subject we are very careful about bringing up, because it is so hard for a decent person to wrap their head around. "Nobody could do something that despicable! How could you say such a horrible thing?" NAIAWell quite frankly that was NOT my first reaction. My first reaction was something along the lines of doubled up laughing, combined with a certain admiration for the enterprising souls with the imagination to cash in on such an obviously lucrative and gullible market.
And anyway, the dogs will probably have a great life with a Madeline Bassett as owner, and the owners will get a disease free (probably) animal. Or do these breeders deliberately infect the animals to increase their sympathy value? The questions, the questions.
(Not that I am unsympathetic to shelter animals or anything, but a little sense of proportion would hardly be amiss here)
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S0, you stop all such breeding and neuter/spay any animal within reach. Next thing, you'll be compaininga about the rodents out of control in your neighbourhood.
ReplyDeleteRegarding "disease free (probably) animals:
ReplyDeleteThe transmission of disease and parasites is probably the single biggest reason veterinarians and health officials are pushing to tighten pet importation laws. In many states, it's harder to sneak an orange over the border than it is to drive an entire truck full of parvo-infected puppies (http://www.prdailysun.com/?page=news.article&id=1286246678).
It can take a huge emotional and financial toll on a new pet owner; it's one thing to pay $150 for a puppy at an adoption event... it's quite another to find out a few days later you're going to have to pay $900 more if you want to keep him alive.
That said, if you're able to look past the issues of fraud, disease, displaced local pets, increased animal control costs, etc., etc., it is undeniable that the level of blatant cynicism going into such an operation is, to say the least, impressive. Admirable? I couldn't go that far. But yes, certainly impressive in a cackling evil genius sort of way.
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