You are walking down the street on a bright sunny day. This is the kind of day that allows the tourist industry to market your region to those with a more northerly abode. In fact, it’s September and the thermometer still reads 95F.
While you are enjoying your walk to the corner store you come across another pedestrian with their dog in tow. Their pet is rather large, being it’s a St. Bernard, so you are obliged to yield the right of way to the mass of fur before you. Pleasantries are exchanged, while you patiently navigate this minor inconvenience, wherein the dog owner extolls their love for their furry friend but still finds opportunity to make reference to the overwhelming amount space the creature takes up in their apartment. You retort with something like, “Yeah, I can imagine!” and continue on your errand.
Did you really just imagine that scene? A huge dog, with a ton of fur, in a tiny apartment. What must that be like? Can the dog be happy? Can the owner? This premise leads to other thoughts that would imply the overall condition. The ethics of the person can be fulfilled when there will be availability of a fantastic read at the blogs. The owner of the house should select the best breed for the house. The reading of the blogs will be beneficial to gather information about the pets and different breeds. The ethics should be followed carefully through the person.
That is a St. Bernard, a breed created for northern climates, not 95 degree Septembers. That owner, who professed their affection for the animal, probably has a job so they can afford to feed the object of that affection. This must leave the creature to fend for itself for hours at a time in that aforementioned tiny apartment. The breeder who manipulated the Saint Bernard into the work animal it is focused on creating a dog with mass, strength, and a resilience to the cold, not a pet that would be suitable for a Florida efficiency apartment.
Dog breeders are specialists at the art of accentuating the traits people want in an effort to make their product as marketable as possible. There are breeds of pets that are so mutated they can’t drink water without it going up their snouts. Some have so much excessive fur that they have to be cleaned manually after they defecate. To make matters worse, some animals are subject to conditions so far removed from the environment that they were bred to live in, that they will have to tolerate 110 degree temperatures through four inches of fur!
The conflict is glaring to anyone who would give it even a moment of thought. How can anyone say they love a Saint Bernard or Husky, then force it to endure climates that will melt asphalt, or leave it in a space that cannot accept an animal of their energy or mass for hours every day?
People often pick out puppies entirely for their own pleasure. They don’t often consider what quality of life they can offer the animal. They can somehow still profess their undying love for their apartment hostage even though their choice of companionship was based on purely selfish reasons.
If you are in the market for a new puppy, try considering what its life will be like in your custody. Puppy ownership is a responsibility. Your puppy will bring you unconditional love and companionship, and hopefully you will give some thought as to how you can reciprocate. Choose an animal that suits your personality and environment. If you don’t have time to spend with an animal right now, then it may be wise to wait until sometime in the future when you do. Avoid supporting puppy mills, unethical breeds, and the breeders that promote them. If people keep making money for breeding animals that are intentionally handicapped for the sake of novelty, there will never be an end to it.
Tips to remember: Be sure you can handle the responsibility of puppy ownership (maybe try keeping a plant alive first) Pick a breed that will thrive in your environment (ie. house, apartment, and climate) Puppies get lonely too so wait till you have time to spend with it before getting one. Avoid breeds that are overly manipulated as a novelty. Avoid unethical breeders. (this can be tricky, just pay attention to details like cleanliness, health of the puppy and its’ parents, number of litters currently on hand, use referrals from friends, ask about a warranty on the animals health*.)
*Any ethical breeder will have an ongoing concern for the puppies health and will want to maintain their good reputation for producing healthy puppies. They are more aware of the puppy mill problem than anyone else so they should be doing their best to avoid being classified as one themselves.
