To get angry at people who..

[Joysmum]

...allow their bog standard, nothing out of the ordinary, cat/dog/whatever to have babies.

With so many animals who can't find a good home wtf are people doing breeding more of them?

I personally believe many issues can be solved if it were mandatory to have a license for breeding yet more animals.

It depends what you want..
If you want a dog go to any shelter (they have poodles) be honest a nod talk about your life!
They will match those they have with you, bring them home,give them time, but be sure xxx

1. you must own a house with a garden away from busy street -- and they can still decide your garden isn't up to standard for a cat.
2. you should not work, ideally not have children or other animals.

But what about breeding of pedigree dogs? Are they more valuable and worthy than "ordinary" dogs?

There is a place for well bred pedigree dogs in our society. I would have no problems with putting stricter restrictions on registered breeders (eg mandatory health testing and open health registries). It is worth bearing in mind however, that there are many, many registered breeders who are already doing the right thing.

You wouldn't buy a car without checking it out first or expecting a warranty. Why then would you go to a pet shop and buy a pet who will be with you a lot longer than a car without doing some research first?

No, some dogs will be happy alone.
No garden, park close by,
Try greyhound rescue!

We have a garden, granted, but also have a child and we both work full time. We were allowed to adopt a cat - it was fine.

Shelters often have cats that cannot be allowed out - they actively encourage people in flats to adopt those.

In other words Nataleejah, they do everything that a breeder or pet shop should (but doesn't)?

I volunteer for a cat charity Nataleejah, and they are not like that at all. They want to rehome the cats where possible and certainly don't judge the garden. They rehome to households with children and people who are out at work. They try and find a cat to suit your circumstances.

Natleejah where are you? Pm me!

I volunteered for RSPCA. Decent loving people often got refused for ridiculous reasons.
I'd recommend adopting pets before they get into shelters -- newspapers are full of ads from people who can't keep pets any longer because of unforseen circumstances.

People buy puppies off the Internet because a rescue centre won't give them a dog as they would not be approved so so sad for the animals.

Nataleejah Some rescues have more stringent criteria than others. The thing is, they don't want the dog to come back - its not fair on the dog, they want them to go to a forever home. Not be shuttled back and forth because they don't take the time to match the dog with the right owner.

You don't have to own your own home - but you have to have agreement from your landlord (which is hardly unreasonable)
If your garden isn't suitable and the dog can get out then the dog risks getting run over and killed.
Not all dogs do well being left all day, some dogs are ok with this, but its not ideal. How irresponsible would it be if they rehomed a dog to a family with young children that wasn't suitable - its a tragedy in the making.

I know that sounds really harsh but those restrictions are there for good reason. Sadly there will be people who think they know better and go to gumtree and buy a dog that isn't suitable, simply because the seller wont check the prospective owners out.

I think if you can't meet the criteria set by rescues then you should consider whether your set up is suitable for dog ownership.

Sadly, licensing will be of little help.

I have talked to a number of breeders. All of the ones I bought pets off insisted on a clause in the contract saying that if, for whatever reason, I was unable to keep the animal I had to give it back to them. Some had animals that they had taken back, and that now lived with them as pets (others I know had rehomed some).

Two of them told me that their worst nightmare was to find that one of their animals had ended up in a particular breeders. They are a massive, industrial breeding business which breeds 100s of pedigree animals and provides pet shops. The animals are kept in cages. They have an annual inspection, and provided all the animals are up to date with their jabs and the tiled cages are sprayed regularly to avoid disease, they get their certificate of hygiene and all is well.

It is up to pet owners to ensure that they only get their animals from someone whose methods they approve of and who they feel is doing the right thing by the animals. Otherwise there will always be someone willing to do the awful thing.

Natleejah that seems a little wrong to me!
If I can stop on person from taking on from a crappy money dealer it's not time wasted!

Oh sorry Nataleejah, I have no experience of the RSPCA as far as rehoming goes. There are often threads about how unhelpful they are in general.

But rehoming from a charity means the animal has had health checks, will be flead and wormed, and had jabs.

Also I know. Of a dealer trying to reclaim a pup under this law (for resale) from a family who are looking after it!......

But rehoming from a charity means the animal has had health checks, will be flead and wormed, and had jabs.

Sadly, this is not always true.

There is only one charity rehoming pets here (I'm in France). I know two people who got dogs from them, and within a few months had a major disease diagnosed (which should have been picked up by the rescue).

Pretty heartbreaking for the children who had already bonded with them!

Do NOT adopt a pet before they get to a shelter. That is highly dangerous. Dogs from reputable rescues will be 'tested' - with children, other animals, for training, aggressiveness, recall, lead walking etc.

You also be able to return the animal if your circumstances change or the dog proves unsuitable.

You DONT know what you are getting if you don't know the owner.

Do NOT do this unless you are experienced and willing to work through issues and possibly spend a fortune on behaviourists/training/vets etc

at the worst a purebred can look forward too......three litters a year until they are old and tired, and then they will be put down while bro and sis are mated, the effect will be a runner and a thief, go for your life

You are not being unreasonable at all! The same problem exists with horses too. Go and look through the adds, top quality pony club horses are going for virtually nothing and anything else is either going to auction or being dumped.

My youngest sons pony came as part of a pair. For nothing. Free, zilch, zip, nada. Two Shetland ponys that cost us nothing except getting their feet done! They are 3 and 4 and if we didn't take them it would have been the meat man most likely. The rescues are full because people are too stupid to get their heads into gear and geld!

all my cats are cats Protection - smallish house, work PT, small garden and near a railway line - never had a problem

I agree OP I think you should have a licence to sell animals - that would stop all the idiots on Pets 4 Homes trying to sell moggies for £100

I have had shelter dogs you are talking out of you're arse

Happy daze 77

When I brought 3 lionhead rabbits from a breeder she wanted to know if I was going to breed from them, when I said No she was stunned. I just wanted 3 rabbits not to add to the rabbit population. Of the 5 rabbits I own, one is from the 3 lionheads, two were purchased for children who got bored of them, the other two were bought by adults that lived in a flat and split up and neither could take them into their next home. They are all neutered.

I agree a million per cent and I extend it to breeding any cat or dog. Pedigree or not.

Whilst COUNTLESS dogs and cats die needlessly every day I do not believe that any breeder is a good breeder.

So, if licensing is so universally seen as a good idea, why isn't this happening? Are there any campaigns for this that I could lend my support to?

We were put off getting rescued pets again after our two rehomed cats died of feline leukemia contracted from their mother. We were given lots of instructions (which we followed) about keeping up to date with jabs, chipping, neutering etc. Came to nothing as both were dead by the time they were a couple of years old.

Both our cat and dog now are from amateur breeders deliberately chosen for the lack of intensive breeding and for their less than pure-breedness (the animals that is not the breeders!). We deliberately avoided pedigree to avoid inter-breeding.