Dear person who breeds puppies

Dear Person who breeds puppies

I came across your advertisement recently where you indicate that you have puppies for sale. I am a supporter of a group known as Pug Rescue South Africa, and it is with that in mind that I feel compelled to write to you.

I am sure you only want the best for your puppies. Happy family pets who live out their lives appreciated and loved. I want to help you do that. There are a few things you can do to help prevent your puppies from ending up in the SPCA, where it's almost definite that they will be put down, or in the hands of people that will mistreat them. Many purebred dogs end up in shelters, many of those are pugs. This is a sad part of our society, it cannot be ignored, especially not by people who are breeding.

Please don't sell your puppies before they're at least 8 weeks old (12 is better). During this time with their mom and siblings, they learn a lot about not biting too hard and about playing nicely with others. A lot of dogs end up at the pound because they bite people or other dogs, so this will go a long way to keeping them in their homes.

Many people who breed dogs sell them through pet shops. At a pet shop, the puppies spend long hours in a fairly boring enclosure, but, more importantly, at a pet shop, they're likely to be bought by people on impulse. Puppies are hard work, very many puppies bought on impulse end up at the SPCA between six and eight months of age. This is so sad, and you can help prevent this by selling from your own home. The little bit of extra effort people have to do to come to you and view the pups help eliminate true impulse buys. I'm quite sure the pet shop would let you put your advertisement up at the shop, especially if you promise to refer people back to the shop for collars, bowls and food.

Get to know the people you're selling your puppy to. Do they have some idea of what it will mean to care for a puppy? Can they take care of vaccines, deworming and so on? I am sure that you already won't sell your puppies to an obvious scumbag, but a lot of people seem nice enough on the surface yet plan to lock the poor dog in a room and breed him or her constantly, until they die.

Many people who breed for shows have people sign a contract when they buy a puppy to make sure that puppy is neutered or spayed. This helps keep dogs out of shelters by simply making sure there are less of them out there. It would be a good idea to do the same with your dogs, to make sure irresponsible people don't use your puppies to simply make money.

It is also definitely a good idea to keep in touch with people. In this way, you can see how your puppies grow, and often, you can get lovely pictures, perhaps over a facebook group. This way, if people ever cannot keep a puppy you would know, and ideally, that puppy would come back to you. Breeding dogs, in an ideal world, places the responsibility for those puppies with you, forever more. If this is not possible, it may be possible for you to assist them in finding another good home for the dog. Another way to make sure your puppies don't end up put to death in shelters (or unloved or even abused) is to make sure that everyone has the contact details of our local pug rescue. Pug Rescue South Africa does fantastic work to make sure pugs that don't have a home finds both a good home, and gets the health care they might need.

I've included links below to that will hopefully help, firstly, to a spay/neuter contract sample. Then, to Pug Rescue South Africa's contact details. I hope you will consider what I said above - far too many dogs end up unwanted and unloved, in small, bare cages, their lives cut short before their time. Let's be part of the solution, not the problem!

Kind regards,
Nina Worthe

Sample spay/neuter contract:
http://curioussniffle.blogspot.com/2013/06/spayneuter-contract.html
Pug rescue contact details:
http://www.pugrescue.co.za/index.php/contact-pug-rescue.html