Help - what do I say to coworker who wants to breed pet Lab

[Arcadien]

Ugh, this just came up and I was floundering around with my reasons why this is NOT a good idea -

Her brother just got a black lab puppy, male. He is making arrangements to breed it with friends female lab puppy.

These are products of backyard lab breeders, not show peeps. they haven’t even registered them

Coworker says she wants one of the puppies. The rest will be put in the classified news ad.

Help me come up with solid logic why this is a bad idea, maybe I can stop yet another backyard litter of generic labs from hitting the ground!

[LauraKY]

For starters, print this out and give it to her/him.

http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/clearances.html

[cloudy18]

Good luck. Every person I know that HAD to breed their dog would have done it no matter what anyone said. It’s like they just become so close-minded. I don’t get the big need to do this, and its very frustrating to make valid points against it and get the absolute stupid reasons for why they have to do it in response.

http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/breeding/breeder2.html

Maybe just direct them to the people of Woodhaven Labs and let them smack some sense into them. Go on Petfinder and search for Labs and show them how many need homes. I would also encourage the co worker to adopt, or do his/her homework before buying from a breeder.

[wendy]

http://lvkc.org/breeder-referral/so-you-want-to-breed-a-litter/

http://www.godivalabs.com/cost.html

try those.

[Arcadien]

Thanks guys!!! Links may be the way to go instead of trying to talk to her.

(I know it’s a long shot but figured I had to try!)

[threedogpack]

ask if they have 12-1500 for an emergency c section.

Labs tend toward large litters, ask how many sibs the female had as that tends to come down the female line. So if there are 10 puppies and 8 spigots…who will feed the extra mouths?

these are just practical considerations. If there are 8 puppies, and #4 gets stuck, they will require a section. This almost never happens M-F 8/4 so you are looking at an E Clinic. To walk into our little rinky dink E Clinic is $100, anything after that (consult/meds/fluids/rads) is billed on top. You can EASILY run up a 1500 dollar tab. That’s a lot of money for unpapered pups.

[SkipHiLad4me]

Sometimes $$ figures help too. See if you can find out the average cost in your area to surgically treat hip displaysia and pass that along too.

When I tell people that luxating patella surgery and cataract surgery in Bostons can easily be $1000-2000 (per eye/patella!) it makes that cheap, poorly bred backyard puppy sound just a tad bit less appealing

But others are right… for some reason when people get it in their minds that they’re going to breed Fluffy and Spot, it can be really hard to reason with them. I don’t get it.

[MustangSavvy]

5 to 7 million companion animals are euthanized each year in the US.

[Snowfox]

I don’t have an answer for you but people should be made responsible for the lifetime of any animal they breed be it horse, dog, cat etc. Even if you sell the animal the buck should stop with you and if for some reason those people can’t live up to their responsibility the animal comes back to you. Maybe we could put an end to all this pointless breeding.

[Foxtrot_s]

If it has a uterus and balls, put them together…

But - I am a backyard breeder, so the term ‘backyard breeder’ is not a bad thing in my POV - I just don’t breed prolifically, and do it thoughfully, as I do my horses.

[RackNRoll]

Ask what they plan to do if they can’t find homes for all the puppies.

The shelters are FULL of black lab mixes… they are notoriously hard to find homes for.

If this is unregistered litter, mixes is exactly what they’ll be viewed as.

[tinah]

Show them Craigslist. Or just collect all the free labs on there over a week and but them in thier living room.

[JBD]

Their ignorance is so breathtaking, it will be difficult to get past it. One of my friends has a sister who volunteers at the local shelter AND is a backyard breeder AND surrendered one of her own dogs to a shelter. How can she justify that? I think it’s that people don’t see how they contribute to a problem because what they want to do is spezchul.
Maybe as others suggested a dual approach showing how labs are a large part of the shelter population and another list showing how you can’t make any money.

[Kryswyn]

Do you have their email? Sign them up for every shelter, local and national. Flood their mailbox. If they’re on FB be sure to friend them and share every.desperate.pet.

Of course your other option is to just wait it out because the little bitch’s owners might decide to spay her before her first heat, or after it once they’ve gone through that mess. And if she gets caught unintentionally, I’d be willing to bet they won’t be so quick to want to breed her again.