Beg Pardon?

I ran into a neighbor of mine about six months ago.  He was walking a puppy.  When I stopped to inquire about the new dog, he was proud to tell me the name of whatever “Designer” mix it was that he and his wife had just purchased from a Pet Store.  Dollar amount undisclosed.  My only reply was an off handed comment that they had bought an expensive mutt.  My neighbor didn’t look amused. 

Knowing that I am very involved in greyhound rescue, my neighbor’s wife stopped to ask me, a few weeks ago, if I knew of an animal rescue group that might be able to take their dog.  She then showed me both of her arms, which were black and blue from wrist to elbow.  It seems their now 7 month old Designer whatever it was from the Pet Store, that she paid an undisclosed amount of money for, had bitten her repeatedly.  Unsympathetically, I responded that had she gotten a dog from the pound she could have been bitten for a lot less money.  She didn’t look amused either.  Neither of my neighbors has a sense of humor.    

I was able to find a rescue group that would take their dog and try to rehabilitate and rehome her.

I spoke to my neighbor after she had surrendered the animal to my contact.  She cried and said she loved animals and that she felt like she was a “bad mother.”  I wanted to tell her that, in my estimation, she loved animals like fish loved dry land.  If she really loved animals, dogs in particular, the way she said she did, she and her husband would have been part of the solution; not the problem, and rescued a dog from a local shelter or rescue group and saved a life.  Instead, they chose to purchase a “Designer” dog from a Pet Store, thus contributing to the continued breeding of these animals, not to mention the continued clogging up of an already overburdened rescue group with yet another unwanted animal.    

I say this with the 100% conviction of a proud person who believes in what they do for animals.

Last week I ran into Sharon, the woman at the rescue group who took my neighbor’s dog.  She told me that she had already successfully placed the dog in a home and that furthermore, there was nothing wrong with the animal.  Seeing that I was startled by that revelation, Sharon asked me if I had seen the cage the animal had been kept in.  When I told her that I had not, she told me that it was so small the animal was probably biting my neighbor because she didn’t want to be put back in it. 

Then she told me she had seen the bill of sale from the Pet Store.  Apparently it had “$3,700” written on it but that it was crossed off and the word “SALE” was written across it with a final purchase price of $2,500.  From what Sharon could tell, my neighbors put $250 down and were financing $25 a month.  Roughly calculating that, it may very well be that the animal will be dead before they had paid it off.

“Designer” dog breeders, I mean breeders who mix mutts to create mutts, and then pass them off as a new breed, prey on idiots like my neighbors who want to brag to anyone who will listen that they are the first ones on their block to have this new kind of dog.  Then, the breeders take their money and laugh themselves silly, all the way to the bank.  If there wasn’t a poor shelter animal out there that my neighbors could have saved instead, I’d be laughing too.  

$2,500 for a mutt?  Actually that is kind of funny.  I’m glad my neighbors got taken to the cleaners. 

And I say that with the 100% conviction of a coward who trusts they will never read this.