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Breeder or Rescue?

In a world where social media tells us so many things about what we should or shouldn’t do and everybody has an opinion, I wanted to put some information out there for thought. What is the moral thing to do? Buy from a breeder or a rescue?

This type of question is way too basic and has so many dimensions.
It isn’t about choosing breeder or rescue, it is about ethically picking one or the other. I believe that you can unethically do either.

Getting a rescue is an amazing thing. I actually had several rescues that we fostered in our home many, many years ago. If you are able to get a rescue, that is a wonderful thing to do and all animals deserve our love and compassion!

Here is the issue… many people are just not equipped to handle a rescue. Many families are unable to get a rescue because:

• they are needing a certain temperament for service or therapy work
• they have allergies where they need a tested dog that will be good for their allergies
• they have young children so need a dog they can trust with unpredictable children
• they don’t have a huge emergency fund in the chance that they get a dog that needs a ton of vet work from inbreeding and lack of health testing, causing them to have thousands of dollars in vet care that will be needed
• they have dealt with heartache from loosing their previous dog so young and don’t want to risk that with a rescue that could come with a menagerie of health issues potentially causing early death or illness
• they are not wanting to spend tons of money on training supplies and trainers to get their rescue dog to the point socially and confidence wise that their well bred, health tested, home raised, socialized puppy is already at coming from their breeder

The reality is that rescue is a wonderful thing and I highly recommend it to people that are able to take in a dog with issues and take on the risk of health, temperament and training issues and dedicate the time and money needed for all those things, but the average family is just not equipped to deal with that.
Here is the thing though, if you are going to buy from a breeder, it is essential that you buy from one that does all the health testing, temperament and structural evaluations, home raising and proper socializing! You are NEVER rescuing from a breeder! If it is a bad breeding situation and you buy a puppy from them no matter how much you paid for the puppy or what discount you received, you are 100% part of the problem! Abuse of those puppies happens because you didn’t do your research and are 100% funding dogs suffering.

We need to also be careful when choosing a rescue too. There are many rescues out there that work diligently to do the very best for dogs in their care and only have the best interest of all the dogs, taking them from hard situations and taking the time to make sure they find new loving homes, that are best suited for them. There are also rescues that search out dogs from other countries to just help their bottom line when they don’t have enough dogs to sell and rescues that just want to get dogs into homes and don’t take the time to make sure it is a good fit first, putting both the dogs and their new families in bad situations. Make sure to find a registered rescue with amazing reviews if you are working with a rescue.
Why don’t we just stop breeding all together, so that all dogs in rescues can find homes?

If we stop breeding good quality dogs, we will see the eradication of healthy, good tempered, structurally sound dogs and only see dogs that are full of a variety of issues reproducing because of immoral people. There is both a place for dogs from good breeders and from good rescues and I will always support both. What I don’t support is ‘breeders’ that don’t health test or temperament or structurally evaluate their dogs before breeding, as well as people that won’t raise them in a home environment as part of their family, that goes for any breeding operation or random person that just wants one litter from their dog because they think it will be fun. I love dogs and want to see us working towards healthier and healthier dogs going forward with amazing temperaments and structures.

As much as it pains me to say, the reality is many people will continue to breed that don’t have the dogs best interest in mind. The only way to stop these places is to not buy from them. Rescues will take in any dogs that come from bad breeding situations and find homes for them without lining the pockets of people that don’t care about the dogs they breed. Many people choose to buy from these unscrupulous breeding situations due to the savings in money to start with, but the reality is vet costs are significantly more than they used to be and if you have a dog with health issues, you are far more likely to spend way more than the cost of a well bred puppy on vet bills for a poorly bred puppy. You can either spend some money upfront to ensure a healthy puppy or potential spend significantly more money long term on a puppy with no care put into their breeding.

Bottom line is whether you are buying from a rescue or a breeder, make sure that the rescue or breeder are reputable. Breeders should be spending thousands of dollars on health testing to ensure healthy dogs. If you care about dogs you won’t even consider buying a dog without health testing. Instead if you are willing to take a risk and get a dog without health testing, you should definitely go to a rescue and save one of those dogs. Good breeders will ensure the future of dogs, lengthening their life expectancy and ensuring better health, socializing and temperament. We need these dogs for the future health of all dogs, but we also need to do everything we can to provide for dogs that have not had people who care breed them. It isn’t their fault and they need love unconditionally too. There is a significant place for both great breeders and great rescues! There should be no place for breeders that don’t health test or raise their puppies with love and care as part of the family. It is our responsibility as the public to stop this destructive behaviour. Actually, we are the only ones that can stop it! It is a choice that you can make and educate others to make! Make a difference in dogs lives today!

Sincerely,
A Responsible Breeder

P.S. If you are a breeder that wants more education of how to fully health test your dogs and be more responsible, reach out anytime!
P.S.S. If you are a pet family and are looking for more information or resources to make better choices in picking your forever friend, reach out anytime!

Let’s all work together to help the lives of our furry friends