Dog Supply Crisis Looming- Seven Warning Signs

Dog supply crisis? It’s a dog overpopulation crisis isn’t it?  According to the slick media campaigns by the well-funded animal rights lobby groups, society is suffering from an oversupply of dogs.  But is this the truth?

Well yes!  And the way things are going I believe it will soon be exceeding difficult for the average family to find a reliable canine companion because there will be a shortage of them. Here’s some factors chipping away at the supply of great family dogs from responsible breeders:

1. Dog Supply from Abandonment is Low

Check out this infographic from the Human Society of the US.  It shows that the number of dogs that die in US shelters is just 1.8% of the total.  These probably represent those that are hard to find homes for due to either unacceptable behavior (e.g. aggression or destructive tendencies) or chronic illness.  So it would seem that very few readily adoptable dogs are put down, at least in the US.  Just about all those with prospects of being great family pets are already being snapped up.

2. Shelters are Shipping Dog Supply In to Meet Demand

Even the dog shelters themselves are acknowledging a shortage of readily adoptable dogs.  Yes, you heard me right – they do not have enough suitable dogs to meet the demand they have whipped up by shaming people away from breeders.  According to several reports, shelters are struggling to meet demand for adoptive pets with many having to ship dogs in from other states.  Shelter dog trafficking between states is now a significant logistic challenge and has negative animal welfare implications plus serious potential to spread diseases.  There has even been importing of stray dogs (and cats) from overseas to top up refuge dog numbers, including one dog brought in from Egypt that was found to be carrying rabies.

3. Shelters Want to Breed Their Own Puppies

Puppies are always a hot seller, so some shelter advocates are even proposing becoming dog breeders themselves to keep up their supply. This is rather ironic considering they have for years been maligning responsible dog breeding professionals for doing just that!  By all accounts, the real volunteers at the coal face of doing the important work of rehabilitating and rehoming abandoned pets, are so overworked and underfunded that rescue burnout is an all to frequent occurrence.  So just who is going to be breeding these dogs?  Kennel staff paid by well-funded lobby groups?  Could be a pretty profitable gig, especially with all that free funding to play with.   Would you trust sourcing your next puppy from amateurs like that? I know I wouldn’t.

4. Adoption Prerequisites Are Getting Tougher

Competition is so high.   There are too few suitable dogs for too many applicants.  Shelters are solving the issue by raising the bar on qualifying adopters.  Many normal households now have difficulty making the grade.  That was the experience of one of our neighbors.  These caring, mature professionals living on their own rural property on Perth’s outskirts were turned away from a shelter because they both worked full time.  Aghast at this treatment, they ended up getting a puppy from a breeder instead.  Another example is a rescue volunteer rejected because she also owned an unsterilised young purebred.  And here yet another dog professional and part-time shelter volunteer was scared to apply because she owned cats under a cat-free tenancy lease and knew the shelter would talk to her landlord.  She went the breeder route in the end too.  As she put it:

“The thing is, a true dog lover appreciates good rescue groups, but she also appreciates good breeders.”

5. The Shelter Dog Population is Shrinking

According to a study by the NAIA, the spay/neuter campaign combined with more pets reunited with their homes thanks to microchipping, and an increasing demand for shelter dogs has seen a steady decline in the number of dogs in US shelters.

The study also showed that purebred dogs only accounted for 5% of those abandoned to shelters in the US, indicating that – contrary to widely aired claims – responsible breeders are not a significant contributor to the “unwanted dog problem” there.  A significant proportion of these were actually hand picked purebreds imported from shelters overseas.

6. Dog Supply Squeezed by Tighter Breeder Laws

Rather than working in collaboration, powerful animal rights groups are aggressively lobbying for new state and local laws aimed at eliminating breeders.  In my view its a pure power grab.   NAIA Board member Dr. Arnold Goldman and former Veterinarian of the Year in his home state of Connecticut shares these sentiments:

“These extreme animal rights groups have become so ideological and irrational that they would rather risk importing rabid dogs from Asia and Africa than support humane, responsible breeding in the U.S. so consumers can purchase the dog of their choice from a responsible and in many cases regulated American breeder.”

And the same is happening all over the world.  In some countries dog breeding of any kind is now illegal!  In some parts of Australia only registered breeders are allowed to sell puppies.

And in South Australia breeders must sterilise puppies before they go to their new homes.  Barbaric!  If that happened here in Western Australia I would rather not breed at all.  The welfare implications for dogs and their owners of this practice are severe, and yet it was organisations such as the RSPCA and the Animal Rights League who pushed for it.  Go figure.

7. Greater Powers to Peak Welfare Groups

The same legislation that forces out breeders often simultaneously ups the authority of the same welfare organisations that lobbied for the changes.  This constitutes a clear conflict of interest.  It also empowers these groups to harvest dogs from owners and breeders from which they profit through fines, being awarded their costs for care, as well as pocketing the proceeds of sale of confiscated animals.

In Australia, even prior to being granted greater powers, cases abound of the RSPCA seemingly concocting animal abuse charges, confiscating pets and selling them for profit.  By the time the owner or breeders’ case is resolved, the RSPCA may have sold, given away or even killed their animals, even if the owners are cleared or were never charged in the first place.

Other reported RSPCA activities are the harassment of competing self-funded no-kill shelters, and a very high kill rate of animals in their own care.  These further reduce the supply of dogs to the community. And there are other instances of abuse of power and disregard for the life of animals.  Milking the public’s emotional triggers is big business, with the RSPCA partnering in lucrative film deals to document animal “rescue” raids.

There are two main competitors such agencies have for the public purse – the legitimate breeders and the local self-funded shelters.  So it makes a sick kind of sense that the RSPCA has also been known to confiscate animals from non-profit shelters or impose facility upgrade orders they simply cannot afford (such as concreting a grassed play area).  This is yet another squeeze on the dog supply, especially since the kill rate is so high for dogs in RSPCA shelters.

Now that they have more power, hopefully this won’t mean more abuse of power!  And please, if you’re going to donate to anything, make it your local volunteer shelter, not the RSPCA.

Conclusion

These factors all squeeze the dog supply for ordinary homes.  Dog breeders as a group definitely need a shake up to improve standards, and I’m not only talking about the puppy mills either.  And there will always be dogs that need rescuing so thank God for the little non-profit shelters out there and the people who give dogs a second chance.  But the way things are going great canine companions may soon be very hard to find.  If you know a great breeder, stand up for her before you lose the privilege to choose.

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