Tehama County Kennels targeted

Animal advocates have convinced Tehama County Agricultural Commissioner Rick Gurrola to close a loophole in the kennel application process, but that may not be enough to stop the advocates from pushing the ...

[Duh]

Sorry, there should be no such thing as a hobby license, breeding is breeding and measures should be taken to make it profitable only for the serious breeders of quality animals. And why would anyone want 5 dogs unless they were using them for work or puppy mill breeding? The limit should be no more than 3 maximum!

[Geraldine Clarke]

Hopper should do better research. The 1990 San Mateo ordinance she cites was an abject failure and was rescinded. Again and again, statistics show that forced castration laws do NOT work to reduce the number of unwanted animals. If Tehama County wants to know what works, they should read "Redemption" by Nathan Winograd. His No Kill principles DO work.

And, Duh, do you really think that most breeders of "quality animals" do it to make a profit? I was $2000 in the hole on my last litter and that was a litter with no complications (and that was only the costs of the litter and doesn't include the expenses of keeping and showing my dogs.) That is a very common situation with almost all of the breeders I know. We do it for the love of the breed, not to make a profit. If we were doing it to make a profit, we'd be very stupid indeed.

Limit laws, especially ones as severe as you are proposing, Duh, are also counterproductive. Please read Winograd if you want learn what we can do to make sure every adoptable animal has a home.

[Just Me]

If you are indeed a responsible breeder then you would want the backyard breeders stopped. When people breed their little mutts and make 500.00 or more for them then something MUST be done to stop it. No one is saying that responsible breeders do it only for profit. Give Duh a break,I don't think he/she meant that you do this for profit only, simply that the backyard breeders DO! That is so incredibly wrong, selling mutts to fools who believe in the "designer dog" bullsh** Adopt a mutt, buy a registered purebred. Real breeders have overhead, backyard breeders have profits galore.

[Geraldine Clarke]

Well, I am a responsible breeder who has bred champion dogs of a rare and ancient (and healthy!) breed, have kept track of every pup I've ever bred for the rest of its good, long life and, yet, I am a backyard breeder.(Well, the pups are actually whelped in my bedroom.) All these laws that are meant to stop "backyard breeders" will stop my preserving a 6,000 year old heritage that I have devoted myself to for 40 years so please forgive me if I get a little upset at people who try to get laws passed that will do NOTHING to decrease the number of animals in shelters but will make it impossible, either legally or financially (from huge licencing fees and requirements), for me to continue to protect an ancient breed.

Forced castration laws have failed miserably. They failed in San Mateo, Santa Cruz and elsewhere and they are failing now in L.A. big time. Look at the statistics! The reason is that the people you decry as "backyard breeders" will never obey the law. And they are the people who dump dogs in shelters and they dump them even faster when faced with fees and fines.

There are methods that have proven to work and they don't require forced castration or limit laws. Read Winograd if you REALLY want to help animals in shelters.

Education and outreach is always the answer, not ineffective draconian laws. By all means, do everything you can to help and encourage people to get their pets neutered! I do. And I foster a lot of shelter cats and always neuter them before finding them a good home.

An interesting thing is that in Europe, people rarely neuter their animals (in fact, in some countries, it is illegal to do so without a medical reason) yet they do not have shelters over-flowing with animals. We need to keep educating the public so we can have the same level of responsible pet ownership here. I try to spend a lot of my time doing that but now, with the onslaught of anti-breeder laws that is sweeping the country, I will have to suspend my efforts in those areas so that I can fight the legislation that threatens the breed I love.

[Really]

And what would be this "Rare and Ancient Breed" you choose not to name? Is it AKC? No? Then it is a mutt.

[Geraldine Clarke]

No secret. Didn't think you'd care. <G> Salukis. They've been around as a pure breed for over 6,000 years. Definitely AKC but they also live and work in their native Middle East, far from any show ring. I like those ones best. That's one of the reasons they're such a healthy breed.

And, btw, there's nothing wrong with mutts if you were trying to insult me with that remark. I have one of those, too.

[RB Common Sense]

Geraldine, I agree with you. First of all, I would like to know how much money this ResQ is getting for the dogs that they are stealing through shutting down these so-called breeders? They obviously get the dogs for nothing or next to nothing and then turn around and say, "It's the expenses that we have to put into the sick and injured dogs, etc." What about the ones that aren't sick or injured and fly out he doors? How much are they making off of those? Where are they keeping these 100's of dogs that they spend all this money on? Do they have a kennel license in Shasta County? Are they inspected on a regular basis? Why don't they show a picture of thier kennels within their web site? Or do they even have a kennel? Are they operating legally? Anyone can get a 501(3)c as long as you know how to manipulate the system and it appears that Hopper and her clan do.