Overbreeding in the UK today

[GGkins]

Hi Everyone,
It's heartbreaking how many stray dogs there are in the UK today. Over 100,000 at any one time. There are too many dogs being overbred, especially bull breeds, for easy money. Dog rescues are on their knees and the situation is getting worse. So much misery for these poor animals and this misery affects each and everyone of us directly and indirectly. So easy to breed, and in some cases so easy to neglect, torture and kill. Please would you sign this petition:

epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/71579

and share it on FB and in Twitter. If we get 100,000 signatures, this issue could be debated in Parliament. Thank you :) xx

[JustMe1990]

We already have 'licensed breeders' and they are the WORST.
A licensed breeder with the council operates like a farm with multiple bitches in pup at any one time.
The resultant pups are usually sickly and poor of temperament.

A good breeder, who health tests their stock, only breeds from dogs of exceptional temperament and/or conformation or working ability, who is very picky about where their pups go and puts contracts in place will not have a council license as they would see the amount of litters needed to be registered per year to qualify for a license as unethical.

[sweetkitty]

Even more scary is the latest craze for designer crossbreeds, had someone the other day (whose golden doodle was trying to hump my bitch in season) that people were knocking on his door asking for him to stud his dog, he also told me he paid £1000 for it, £1000 for a mongrel just because you give it a designer name. How long before these labradoodles, sprockets, cavapoos, jorkies, jugs, husk adores, cockapoos end up in rescues?

The number of people who tell me I should bred my bitch is crazy, apparently they need to have a litter, I could get £500 a pup without papers, erm no she's a family pet I'm not making money from her she could have 10-12 pups. She's only having one season before she's spayed.

[fjalladis]

Tbh I'm not sure what's worse the overbreeding or the lack of commitment a lot of people seem to have regarding their dogs. The breeders do all have a responsibility of course to the animals they breed and they most certainly play a part to play. But rescue dogs are not coming from the breeder something happens within the homes of those dogs to cause them to be rehomed/ abused/ abandoned.

[JustMe1990]

'Something happens within the homes of those dogs' - not necessarily.

Temperament is largely inherited, look at the huge numbers of poorly bred gsd's who are extremely nervous.
When not managed correctly, that nervousness can become fear aggression.
Would you keep a dog that was so nervous and anxious that it had to be muzzled whenever strangers were about?

Or severe resource guarding in golden retrievers, severe to the point that the dogs will savagely attack their owners.
It's well documented in America but breeders here seem to keep it hush hush. It's manageable but it's NOT curable.
Would you keep a dog that savagely attacked anyone who walked near its food bowl/toy/piece of junk found on a walk?

What about rage syndrome in Rottweilers and cocker spaniels?

What about the inheritable diseases caused by not health testing, would you keep a dog that cost you well into the thousands, needed many operations and eventually, would probably have to be pts.

I would say that while some people are lazy or irresponsible, the majority of rescue dogs are in there for perfectly valid reasons - marriage breakups, having to move to rental accommodation, but also behavioural or physical problems caused by bad breeding that the owners don't have the time or money or ability to fix.

[TooOldForGlitter]

"I would say that while some people are lazy or irresponsible, the majority of rescue dogs are in there for perfectly valid reasons - marriage breakups, having to move to rental accommodation, but also behavioural or physical problems caused by bad breeding that the owners don't have the time or money or ability to fix."

I completely disagree with this and it's statements such as this that will forever perpetuate the breeding and buying of puppies.

[muttynutty]

Hmm

Reasons given for dogs that were brought into a rescue I am involved in today and this is just today, in one rescue:-

My Dc don't like it jumping up _ It is a 9 week old springer puppy

It has damaged our kitchen _ left alone for over 8 hours when they went out to work

I have broken my leg so can't walk it

We didn't realise that it would bark all day - left alone many hours aged 7 months BC

It doesn't love me or do anything I say - first dog that has never been taken to a dog training class ever

It has allergies and I can't afford to look after it

and the good old favorite heard twice today

My DC's have allergies so we have to rehome it - dogs are between 4 months and 8 months old - if I had a pound for every time I heard this........

[JustMe1990]

At the end of the day, people want a loving pet.
They don't want a dog with serious issues (which poorly bred dogs often have).

I am not suggesting for one minute that no one put any effort in, or give up at the first sign of difficulty, most of the excuses given by mutty nutty are a bit ridiculous and it makes me cross that people can be so flippant and irresponsible, but these dogs that are bred purely for money with challenging temperaments as a result, I don't think you can reasonably expect some of these dogs to fit in with a stereotypical family.

The fact is, most families will not want the stress of dealing with a fear aggressive dog, or a dog that snaps at kids that come too close, or a dog that bites when people come near its food or a dog that is suffering terribly at a young age with preventable things like hip dysplasia or luxating patella.
The greedy sod who bred the dog in the first place should be the one getting a hard time, not the family who just wanted a nice family pet.

[moosemama]

I found this evidence (supplied to the Select Committee for Dog and Welfare Law in 2012) really interesting:

Dog43

I do like the sound of the Swedish breeding control contracts and can see how it could eliminate byb and puppy farming, if done properly.

I also find it interesting that in Sweden, neutering is not commonplace, yet they don't have or have a need for rescue shelters. Perhaps this is due to an overall more decent and responsible attitude to keeping dogs in general, as well as the more stringent breeding laws? Fwiw, Norway and Denmark are similar, with it actually being illegal to neuter for anything other than medically, advised reasons in Norway.

Don't get me wrong. I am not anti-neuter, in fact all my dogs over the past 25 years have been de-sexed, because in the current UK climate I still believe it's necessary. However once you get a nation that has much better control of dog breeding and therefore vastly reduced numbers of dogs owned by irresponsible owners and correspondingly less strays, I can see the more recent medically based arguments against the routine de-sexing of dogs are more likely to come to the fore and less people will need to neuter as a matter of course.

Overall, tighter control on breeding can only benefit dogs, but I say that with the caveat that it would need to be very carefully devised to take into consideration the need for proper health-checks for individual breeds and some sort of way of ensuring that dogs with serious genetically inheritable disorders etc are not bred from without consequence for the breeder.