Today, The Sunday Times reports on a worrying story about designer dogs being abandoned by breeders to shelters when they are done with them. In this instance I’m talking about the ever-popular dachshund, a breed that was particularly popular during the Covid-19 pandemic as was the French bulldog.
Louise Eccles in her Sunday Times report said that she wanted to adopt another dachshund to keep her resident pedigree dachshund happy with a companion. The resident dachshund is Betsy and she bought her at great expense from a reputable breeder.
Discarding breeding dogs to shelters
Louise Eccles then adopted a rescue dachshund from a shelter. Her name is Toffee and she is three years of age. But Louise Eccles understood that Toffee is a ‘damaged’ dog (psychologically) because she was kept in a cage producing litters for her breeding life until relieved of that duty and cast away to a rescue center. This is the unscrupulous side of breeders both of dogs and cats. Once the breeding female can no longer produce litters of puppies or kittens for sale, they are discarded.
It depends how the breeder goes about “discarding” (a horrible word in this instance) a bitch whose work is done. The Kennel Club insists that responsible breeders find a new home for these dogs as it is their duty to rehome ethically. And they say that only a minority of dog breeders act irresponsibly and surrender them to shelters.
However, this ideal or common-sense rule is not observed as much as it should be and is unenforced it appears. Breeders are simply getting rid of their female breeding dogs or cats and in this instance a breeding dachshund to a shelter.
Shelter’s relationship with breeder?
And I also read that some shelters have a relationship with dog breeders in which there is an understanding between the two that the breeder can surrender their worn out bitches to the animal shelter for rehoming.
The shelters say that they have to take in retired bitches because if they don’t, they are worried that they might be killed or discarded in a much more cruel and wanton way.
Shelters perpetuate the problem?
But the problem is this: the shelters are perpetuating the problem. They take in retired breeding animals and customers still go to breeders to buy pedigree dogs. We have a process in which more dogs need to be bred to satisfy buying customers which in turn means that there are more female dogs turning out litters. The female dogs then become tired and worn out and stop producing litters.
The never ending process
In short, there are two important elements to this process, (1) customers still insist on buying pedigree dogs – rather than adopting rescue dogs – in which case breeders have to produce litters and (2) shelters take in retired female dogs that can no longer produce litters which opens the door for the breeder to acquire another bitch and do it all again. That’s the formula for turning out dogs when there are many dogs in shelters waiting to be rehomed. This is the ethical dilemma of what is going on.
Soft paws and weakened limbs
To return to Toffee, she was kept in a cage as mentioned as a breeding dachshund and when she was released to her new owners, Louise Eccles and family, she chased her tail because this is what happens to a dog confined to a small space. And Eccles says that her paws were very soft and she had to wear boots for a while to protect them when they went for walks. She found that her paws bled. Also, Toffee’s muscles were weakened by her inactivity when confined to a breeding cage all her life.
Solution? Adopt a non-purebred shelter dog 💕.
