Should everyone be forced to show they aren’t able to rescue a dog before they can buy a puppy?

[Coffeealwayshot]

Just that really

I see my local shelter is full again and saying they will need to euthanise if they can’t find homes.

Everyone I know (bar 2 or 3) who has a dog has bought from a breeder.

Im not rude enough to ask people if they considered a rescue. I know some say they were turned down but some that they just wanted a puppy or a specific breed.

So my question is as above?
I get we can’t say no breeding at all but should taking on a rescue be the only option for those who are suitable and reduce the breeding to just cater for those who can’t have a rescue dog?

A husky owner who has also fostered and rescued dogs from the pound to rehome them, all of which I keep in touch with. Husky owner who took dogs who hadn’t seen the light of day and helped rehabilitate them….

We’ve been looking for a rescue for months. We already have a dog and a cat. We are home all day so can give time and patience for any size or breed. Mostly rehomes can’t be with cats or need to be the only dog in the home. I’d say lots of people who want to take a rehome are probably experienced dog owners who maybe have a dog already.

How about some kind of puppy version of carbon offsetting. For every puppy bred for sale the costs of re-homing a rescue dog are covered?

(Semi serious)

Not enforceable- and so many shelters/ rehoming groups have ridiculous rules which rule out many families, so basically perpetuate the issue.

@Killingoffmyflowersonebyone you are a perfect example of somebody incapable of listening before drawing drawing a conclusion which is exactly what I was talking about on my first post.

So rather than look objectively you’ve already decided a dog is better off dead.

Oh I’m not trying to say rescue dogs are bad. The best rescue dog I ever had was a rescue collie.

However, people blinding going into a rescue asking for a puppy assuming that they can make it into anything they want isn’t the way forward. The amount of behaviour issues I deal with where people say but I’ve had him from a baby is astonishing. Yes, but you can’t erase hundreds of years of humans shaping him to do a specific job, now he wants to do it and your shocked.

Hence, buy a puppy that wants to do what you want it to do! Make life easier for yourself and youll be less likely to give it up. If your out all day and at kids activities all weekend, get a cat. We need to break the cycle.

Gave up trying to adopt because we already had a dog and a cat. Children too.

Yep, the type of people blindly getting a puppy from breeders is probably greater. The huge numbers in shelters predominantly come from owners getting dogs they can't look after. A much smaller number are from people who pass away etc.

I agree I had my beautiful boy put to sleep a month ago. It was a peaceful, calm death.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to compel people to take a dog that they don’t really want, however laudable your motives for doing so.

You may say, ‘Well, if they can’t find a dog they love at a rescue, then they should consider whether they really want a dog at all.’

And you may be right. But most won’t consider that until they’ve had the dog awhile. And when they return it to the rescue, they’ll say, with some justification, ‘You made us take him. This was never the dog we wanted.’

And then they’ll go and get one from a breeder.

Of course, some will love the rescue dog, so the overall number of breeder sales might drop. But the number of rescue re-admissions would rise.

Also, how will you enforce it? When people go to a breeder, will they have present letters from all rescues within fifty miles of where they live? If they don’t, who’s breaking the law - the breeder? The buyer?

I think your concern is reasonable, but your proposition is unreasonable.

Yes this is definitely what the state should be spending money on.
FFS.

Agree. Dogs spending years of a relatively short life in an outdoor kennel with just minutes each day of exercise and interaction is no life.

Rescue dogs that can live with cats are rare - rarer than those that can live with children. A puppy of a suitable breed (one without a strong prey drive/chase instinct) can easily be trained to live with cats - the cats will help by putting it firmly in its place while it's young enough to accept this,

(My dog is a rescue btw. I still think this post is stupid.)

Are you suggesting a lurcher is a dangerous breed?

Sorry for your loss. 💐

Any breed can be dangerous, especially if it's had a hard life.

I mean thats not even equal. It's not like you are genetically connected to a bred dog or were pregnant with them.

This sounds good

@Killingoffmyflowersonebyone

And that’s what responsible pet ownership is - making your dog happy. Not ‘fine.’ Not ‘managing’ but happy.

Sigh. Most humans do not have this. Sometimes fine is fine.

Exactly! We were on a waiting list for a year, we had no kids either at the time so should’ve been easier to get a rescue.

At the end they didn’t let us rescue any dog because we both worked full time.

After a year we went to a breeder.

It's about trying to exert control over a person so they take responsibility gor someone else's (sometimes poor) choices. It us a step but the link is there.

@sashh do you really think it plausible that that would be effectively administrated and enforced in this country? Seems desperately naive to me.

I agree with your proposition OP. The large majority of objections on here are just poorly veiled excuses. Of course there’ll be exceptions.

I want a dog and will probably get a puppy so I know it's complete history. I read the entries for rescue dogs and most of them are unsuitable for an average family home ( and I have had a dog previously). It's very sad that many dogs are unwanted but if you take a dog on you really don't know how it has been treated in the past and how it will react in particular situations. That's quite risky.