Everyday i come home and my inbox is loaded with yet another couple of Danes. Some days as of late it is more than five per day. I am honest when i say most of them are black,multicolored such as fawn Merle's, or there are health issues in which are genetic. The ever increasing cases of Cardio myopia, Addison's, Bad Backs, Bad Hips, Bad Spines, Wobbler's, are due to poor breeding. Our Danes have become lost to a group of people who are breeding from their yards, their said facilities, and not doing their homework all in the name of the dollar they can place into their pockets. I find this type of sale, of flesh ... stomach turning.
There are some rock solid breeders in which i believe in with a full and honest heart. Those are the breeders who are breeding for quality, life span, and are not making a dollar when their litters go home. They have obtained the appropriate dogs, done the appropriate blood testing, and don't make a dollar for their pocket when their pups go home at 12-14 weeks. The breeders i believe in are not breeding Fawn Merle's, Blue Merle's, Silver Merle's, White-Blind and Deaf Danes, Fawnequins, and the list goes on for the newest colors sloppy half assed breeders are throwing into this world. The breeders i believe in are breeding for quality and to ensure that the best possible spawn of their dogs is going out into the world looking at a long and healthy life with someone who loves them.
Should a true breeder have only one stud dog? Only one stud dog to their ten females? Should a true breeder have two litters of puppies on the ground all year long? Should a true breeder continue breeding the Fawn Merle, Fawnequin, white blind and deaf, Danes year after year without thought to the person who is going to purchase and love them? Without thought to the dog who will suffer the bad genetics passed forth? Hell no is the answer. And to hell if i will promote someone because they are nice......have a cool bunch of Danes living in their backyard.....or because the puppies are cute. I just love the breed more than that.
True enough if backyard breeders didn't exist there would be no need for rescue. Because good breeders send their dogs out on contracts and take back those in which they were responsible for allowing to create. Good breeders fully vet their puppies before they go to homes. They are confident in their product and many times offer a health guarantee their final squiqqly wiggly product.
If my Jessie Girl had come from a good breeder i would never have lost her before she was two years of age. And to whomever bred my Jessie Girl....thank you as i loved her more than you would ever imagine........but damn you all the same for breaking my heart with your final product. I hope that $500 bucks was worth it to you. You sold her to someone who chained her in the backyard and beat her. Whoever you are i pray i get to know about your special day in hell. I am sorry you didn't care more about those puppies in which you made in your backyard without taking the proper steps.
Breeding is not for the weak. It is work and a true work of art. It is more than the initial oooo's and ahhhhh's. It is so much more than picking up poop and making sure everyone ate that day. It is more than having a beautiful female and a huge male in the backyard who make pretty and different colorings than we are used to seeing. It is more than that $500 bucks you placed in your pocket for the crappily half vetted puppy you threw out there. Breeding is for those who have time and complete dedication to what they do. It is not a half assed job.
So those of you out there who are supporting the backyard breeder i must ask you why? I must ask why you think it is okay to pump out those crazy new colors which come with a lifetime of health issues? I ask you why you think it is okay to plop up a website and honor a breeder who is out to make a dollar? Again don't you know true breeders never make money? I ask you why you think these females dropping two litters a year should have to live this way?
So what i ask? I ask that those of you supporting these things do your homework. If you want to make others aware of breeds of any kind.....you want to promote a breeds wellness, you want to better your breed and make rescues all but vanish....do your fricking homework. Quit rattling off a bunch of uneducated crap in the face of others....it has only earned you disrespect.....and made you a fraud. I ask that you better your breed next time you want to pump out puppies (because their cute....) by going to a REAL breeder....not a hobbyist, a backyard one timer, a backyard old timer, but a REAL BREEDER with REAL CREDENTIALS with a RIGHT IDEA and get some education. It takes years to find the right dogs......many wait a long time for them. They didn't get a rescue dog, nor create a litter and keep one to continue breeding with two they already have (Their parents, etc.
If this is your idea......to breed from your backyard......or to promote backyard breeders......then call a recommended breeder first. If you would like a list of recommended breeders i can give you one....for any breed of dog you like. Save up your money because it is going to cost you big. And get prepared.....to set out dogs who are in the right health from birth. Is it really too much to ask? I really dont want my heart broken again. I dont want that for others either. And most of all......i say it to many of you every day....i dont want it for the dogs as i came for them.
If you are reading this and thinking it might be about you....it probably is. If you think it is about you then i ask that you take a long look at what you are doing because some place your guilt has gotten the best of you. I am on a roll right now because i am watching the breed that i love the most be destroyed by those like you. I am watching your puppies end up in shelters by 12 months of age or dumped when they become ill with medical issues the average people cannot afford. I am cleaning up your mess and am damn sick and tired of it. Find a new hobby will you? Collect stamps, glass bottles, hobby cars, but for Gods sake quit ... fricking quit screwing up LIFE. These dogs are LIFE......
And lastly.......the challenge to the guilty ones? I dare you to run my rescue out of business. I dare you. I challenge you to that day....and upon it....i will happily take off my hat to you. Hell for that matter you can even have my best shoes and we all know how i love those. The shirt off my back.... and i will kiss your tail in Times Square. Beat me out......i am waiting.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Ground Work.......
It is once per week at least i hear of conflict between rescue groups. One differs in policy from the other. One doesn't like someone who volunteers for this group or for that person. The reasons for rescuers to be at the throat of one another goes on and on until hate brews between groups and it is something in which can never be buried. It is a politic of rescue in which i don't understand and quite frankly i don't want to.
With Dames for Danes there are times in which we have been under fire for the way we did something. Be it a person others think are a qualified adopter that we didn't or vice verso. Be it that perhaps our customer service to a caller or someone who applied was answered not in a timely fashion or even at all. In honesty i must admit that customer service to those who are not our adopters already is lax. It is something i don't place alot of focus on as in honesty i came for the dogs....not the people. Does it make me a terrible person or a bad rescue? I have to think not as my primary goal is to take care of the fur flesh in which has my entire heart. So at the end of the day i don't really care what another rescue thinks about my practices, my opinions, or the way i do things. I care that my rescue partners, my adopters, my foster parents, and my good friends know where my heart truly is.
I thought for several hours today about those of us who are rescuers. We devote the majority of any personal time we have left after families, our pets, school, our jobs etc to saving the lives of these fur creatures in which we love. I cannot tell you the last time i sat down without the phone in my hand, a dog on my lap, and actually had a good silent cry. I cannot tell you the last time i have been to the restroom alone, been without a foster, gone a day without talking to my rescue partners, taken a call for a dog, jumped on someone who wanted an unaltered dog, preached spay and neuter........or had a vacation. Vacation is something that isn't within my vocabulary and i ha vent seen one in years. Through these thoughts i gathered that other rescuers are the same and at the end of the day what we have in common is the love for an animal in which we are desperate to save.
Why is it that we don't work together? Although there are some rescues that i literally would damn to hell for their horrible practices, the majority of the difference i may not like about another rescue is not the battle i want to fight. To not spay or neuter is a black mark upon my book for someone calling themselves a rescue. However small issues like how one rescue does their home visits or what they name their dogs is something i cannot quibble over. Does anyone have any idea what we could do together?
I think how many dogs have died in the past because one group didn't want to work with the other? We are brothers and sisters in this fight. Senior rescues are those in which we learn from as there are none of us who are perfect. We at Dames for Danes learn new things each and every day.....and we are proud of that. If there is a younger or even senior rescue with practices i question, i ask. If i don't like the answer then i try to educate with my opinion and help someone do this better. I want to see every rescuer be successful. And quite frankly folks none of us are successful if our dogs are still dying in shelters.
We are supposed to help one another. It takes every solider to win the war and if we all are opposing one another then where are we really? I ask each one of you to mend fences, reach out, and try to band together for the welfare of the cause in which needs our full concentration. I am not asking you to love someone....or even like them. I am asking that your love for an animal be stronger than your petty personal opinions. I am asking that you be the change........instead of the opposition. Look back when you have helped a rescue in which needed your guidance and feel good about what you have done. Give yourself the inner credit and move on to the next. And please.........leave your drama at the door.
If there is someone you need to make up with for the greater good......do this today and let us quit hurting one another. Let us do it for the dogs.....the cats....the guinea pigs......i could care less what it is.......let us get moving. I challenge you to make that make up call tonight and lets get on with what we were born to do....with the support we should have. And for those who are too small to consider the challenge.......i pity you as you are hurting no one but the animals you are trying to save. Get a life.
With Dames for Danes there are times in which we have been under fire for the way we did something. Be it a person others think are a qualified adopter that we didn't or vice verso. Be it that perhaps our customer service to a caller or someone who applied was answered not in a timely fashion or even at all. In honesty i must admit that customer service to those who are not our adopters already is lax. It is something i don't place alot of focus on as in honesty i came for the dogs....not the people. Does it make me a terrible person or a bad rescue? I have to think not as my primary goal is to take care of the fur flesh in which has my entire heart. So at the end of the day i don't really care what another rescue thinks about my practices, my opinions, or the way i do things. I care that my rescue partners, my adopters, my foster parents, and my good friends know where my heart truly is.
I thought for several hours today about those of us who are rescuers. We devote the majority of any personal time we have left after families, our pets, school, our jobs etc to saving the lives of these fur creatures in which we love. I cannot tell you the last time i sat down without the phone in my hand, a dog on my lap, and actually had a good silent cry. I cannot tell you the last time i have been to the restroom alone, been without a foster, gone a day without talking to my rescue partners, taken a call for a dog, jumped on someone who wanted an unaltered dog, preached spay and neuter........or had a vacation. Vacation is something that isn't within my vocabulary and i ha vent seen one in years. Through these thoughts i gathered that other rescuers are the same and at the end of the day what we have in common is the love for an animal in which we are desperate to save.
Why is it that we don't work together? Although there are some rescues that i literally would damn to hell for their horrible practices, the majority of the difference i may not like about another rescue is not the battle i want to fight. To not spay or neuter is a black mark upon my book for someone calling themselves a rescue. However small issues like how one rescue does their home visits or what they name their dogs is something i cannot quibble over. Does anyone have any idea what we could do together?
I think how many dogs have died in the past because one group didn't want to work with the other? We are brothers and sisters in this fight. Senior rescues are those in which we learn from as there are none of us who are perfect. We at Dames for Danes learn new things each and every day.....and we are proud of that. If there is a younger or even senior rescue with practices i question, i ask. If i don't like the answer then i try to educate with my opinion and help someone do this better. I want to see every rescuer be successful. And quite frankly folks none of us are successful if our dogs are still dying in shelters.
We are supposed to help one another. It takes every solider to win the war and if we all are opposing one another then where are we really? I ask each one of you to mend fences, reach out, and try to band together for the welfare of the cause in which needs our full concentration. I am not asking you to love someone....or even like them. I am asking that your love for an animal be stronger than your petty personal opinions. I am asking that you be the change........instead of the opposition. Look back when you have helped a rescue in which needed your guidance and feel good about what you have done. Give yourself the inner credit and move on to the next. And please.........leave your drama at the door.
If there is someone you need to make up with for the greater good......do this today and let us quit hurting one another. Let us do it for the dogs.....the cats....the guinea pigs......i could care less what it is.......let us get moving. I challenge you to make that make up call tonight and lets get on with what we were born to do....with the support we should have. And for those who are too small to consider the challenge.......i pity you as you are hurting no one but the animals you are trying to save. Get a life.
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