The thing is, is that MOST mixed breeds now a days cost as much or more than an ‘expensive’ purebred from health tested parents/lines that are proven by being titled or working dogs. At least the expensive purebreds have a reason for being expensive, not just so that greedy mixed breed breeders can maximize their profits. If I look through kjiji near me 90% of the dogs on their are mutts of some kind (mostly poodle crosses, some french bulldog crosses, and other random mixes) that cost 1400+ and the only cost they put into the breeding is the bare minimum.
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Both of my current dogs, gotten from two different rescue/shelter orgs, were shipped to the mid-Atlantic from Georgia.
My local shelters that don’t import dogs are full of pit bulls or pit mixes, which I don’t want.
I think that as long as a rescue is willing to put the time and resources behind their animals and act in a responsible way, they can decide to focus on whatever group of animals they want. This discussion comes up often, not just with imported animals. Why would a group focus on rescuing dogs with health or behavioral issues when they could “save more lives” by pulling young, adoptable animals first? Why would a group focus on specific breeds when others are “more deserving” or a “bigger problem”? Why import when there are animals in need locally?
The reason is, because the people who do the work and pay get to say what their mission is.
What is very, very important in my opinion is responsible health testing and honest communication. If certain infectious diseases are prevalent where the dog comes from, testing is mandatory. It is also mandatory that the dog is described to potential adopters to the rescue’s best knowledge, even if it makes the dog practically unadoptable. The worse the problems, the bigger the scrutiny has to be from the rescue’s side.
My dogs (gasp, Pit Bulls no less) are both imported rescues from the States to Canada. I wasn’t particularly looking for imported dogs, but I decided what my criteria were, then started looking locally and expanded my search. My female is from CA and before transport I had her tested for Heartworm, Leishmaniosis, Babesia and Anaplasma on my own dime to make sure I wouldn’t import any foreign diseases into Alberta. My male it from MT, so.that wasn’t much of a concern.
All that is needed for exporting animals from the US to Canada is a rabies vaccination, so no quarantine or any extensive testing.
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On the one hand, from a strictly objective viewpoint, it’s crazy, there are local dogs going without homes. On the other hand, the locals weren’t going to adopt those dogs anyway, whatever their reasons. The imports are getting homes even though they weren’t wanted where they came from, and would probably have been euthanized without the transport. So shelter dogs are getting good homes, people are happy with their adoption - it’s successful.
The real reason for the popularity of transport is that not all dogs are equally adoptable. More people live in less space, and it is easier to own and manage a smaller dog. Cute dogs are more appealing. A shelter dog’s fate has a very great deal to do with size and appearance. Whether that’s objectively fair, or efficient, it is what it is. At least the transport dogs are getting homes they might not get otherwise.
It’s a little sad, but studies show that if a dog is large, dark, very little or no markings, most people don’t want it. If a dog is small and light-colored or white, there is a larger demand for that type. [When I read that, I was secretly thrilled at how many people I know own a rescue of ‘unadoptable’ appearance. Yay for them! :)]
The real, real, core issue is why there are so many shelter dogs in the first place, and strays that never get to shelters. THAT is the thing to tackle. And yes, there are some major attitudes to overcome … but approached in the right way, a great many people can be converted to more sensible thinking. IF approached in the right way.
I have to say that bringing ‘street’ dogs from overseas is something I find troubling and alarming. Their history does make a great story, though.
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Just like with horses, there is a ‘thing’ about SAVING a dog from somewhere awful that people just HAVE to be a part of.
If the animal ships from somewhere it was going to be eaten, even better.
Sorry to be so disillusioned but my local shelters are full. The no kill shelter nearby is full to overflowing, and dogs live outside in chain link ‘runs’ and ‘igloos’… and still they ship them in from elsewhere [I mean even other countries]. Meanwhile if you were to state the dog would live outside 24/7 on the adoption application? Ha!
Sharing from shelter to shelter within your county or state… seems more realistic [financially] than flying them over on planes from… wherever.
JMHO
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I firmly believe these imported “rescue” operations are responsible for spreading heartworm all around the country and it seriously disgusts me. Again–putting the welfare of unwanted dogs over the welfare of all others. Not worth it, not worthy. What communicable disease/parasite is next?
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Yeah, when I was looking for a dog to adopt, most of the local shelters had primarily pitty types, lab types, and beagle/hound types, and I really wanted a herding type. I talked to a few of the rescues that bring dogs up from the south, but ultimately I picked up a heeler mix locally whose owner had to go into assisted living.
It sounds selfish, but in my case I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t going to take something else. While I was happy that I found it locally, the other options were either adopting something from farther away, or buying a puppy. And I think that adopting a transported dog would probably have been the more ethical option.
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There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you want. I’m a herding breed person as well.
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It’s hard not feeling a little guilty about all those sad shelter faces, though. But both the southern dogs and my new dog needed a place, too. I’m very happy with her, and I really only feel like I have the time and space for one dog right now.
Well, I am a fuzzy pointy nosed dog person. So, I understand frustration trying to find one in a sea of smooth coated square headed doggies. Short haired dogs are equally deserving of homes, but I really do appreciate the dust bunnies of shedding fur all over my house. I would miss it if it were gone.
Let me try a different question - If the animal welfare community has been so successful in some areas at reducing the overpopulation issue, what are they/we missing in trying to reduce the problem where overpopulation is still a big issue?
I’ve heard ‘cultural issues’ when talking about southern / rural areas. If existing approaches are not working, what approach would work? For the moment, I am not even going to consider the issue of overpopulation in other countries.
Why have we/they NOT been successful in reducing the problem in some areas of the US?
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IMO, the problem is totally workable, but many of the people who are impassioned to work it are confrontational and aggressive and achieve the opposite of what they hoped to achieve.
People have to hear the message from voices that are familiar to them, delivered with a tone they accept, with a message that makes sense in their world and has a benefit to them personally. Right now they aren’t getting that.
There have been successful cultural/message change programs about various issues in various parts of the world. Although cultures may be radically different from one location to another, the principals of what people respond to have many commonalities. 
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Oh, I disagree that speuter failed in the rural areas. I see what’s coming in through those transports every week to my local shelters from rural areas. Fully 50% of every transport is pit bulls. The other 50%, from Tennessee and North Carolina and Georgia and Texas, are about 25% hounds, and then the rest are a mixed bag of mostly smaller dogs. There are no transports filled with 50% or 25% retrievers or spaniels or setters or herders or drovers or terriers. The hound population is clearly a regional thing, but there I think you have a disposable hunter culture rather than a regional issue. Speuter worked. The only dog overpopulation is coming from two specific groups of dog owners - pit bull people and puppy mill owners. They’re the ones who are producing dogs at numbers that far outpace demand. Nobody wants pit bulls - I think the fact that no shelter wants to admit they have pit bulls is a hint about the red-hot market for that particular product - and while more people do want the small breeds that are the bread and butter of the mill world, nobody who’s had a mill dog ever forgets the experience and only a small number of ‘savior’ personalities want to repeat the experience. There’s a reason that backyard breeders and online dog brokers are thriving despite the humane world’s relentless message against both for 40 year - people want young, healthy, sane dogs of gentle pet breeds. Speuter worked - maybe too well. Shelter dogs now are the result not of casual oops matings but of deliberate, profit-motivated breeding by a hard core of people who will NEVER stop breeding unless they are forced out of business by measures that destroy the profitability. And the humane/welfare people can’t do that without getting past all their existing BS within their own community and with other decent owner groups (including breeders) and focus on the bigger picture.
And you know, I’m not sure they want to end overpopulation. The goal for shelters used to be to put themselves out of business. Now, it seems like even as the number of adoptable dogs dwindles, my local shelters keep building bigger and better facilities.
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Like most things, some do and some don’t. The shelter I adopted my previous (now deceased) dog from was really good. They did get a new facility a few years ago, but the one they were operating out before that was pretty minimal. And they’re one of the few places that is willing to adopt some animals out to outdoor homes, depending on the animal and the situation. .
There are a few around here that seem like they’re run by borderline hoarders, though. I talked to one woman in charge of a “rescue” who’d just gotten a large donation to help increase their space, and she was positively gleeful that they would “never have less animals here than we do now!” While I understand that might be true, her attitude about it made me want to throw up.
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Good points.
In order to move product, shelters and “rescues” have to come up with better and better marketing campaigns–even resorting to coercion, guilt trips, and the like; vilifying anyone who would buy a puppy from anywhere for any reason. Suddenly you are the pariah in the community unless you patron a “rescue”. Everywhere, people have to lie and say they “rescued” their new puppy for fear of the abuse that will get heaped upon them if admitted they bought [gasp!] the new bundle of joy.
$250 for a cutie pup of your chosen type at a pet store/online/BYB ad, vs- $350 and up up up up for an undetermined mix from a “rescue”. Throw in a mandatory pediatric neuter that is virtually guaranteed to render said pup a cripple requiring a 3K ACL surgery (x2) = not on your life.
Going back to add to that, the heartworm that has been spread all over the US thanks to mass shipments of the unwanted North, nefarious dog flu that suddenly exploded, this whole “rescue” obsession thing needs to be re-examined.
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I used to do the health certificate exams for the dogs brought up from the south so that they could be released from quarantine. Some of the New England states have solid import laws which are fairly well enforced. I agree on the 50% pitbull part, but would go a little higher on the hounds. 10% other large dog and 10% small dog. And of the small dogs, half were chihuahuas. When my area shelter gets in a litter of puppies which are something other than pit bull or hound, there are people lined up when the doors open to adopt them.
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There have been a few cases of rabies in shelter animals in the US, and at least one transport rabies case, of a dog from Egypt. Turns out the dog had been picked up off the street 5 days before being put on a plane; the rabies cert was intentionally predated. What a mess - the dog was one of several, and had a puppy; the dogs had already been dispersed along the East Coast into foster homes when the rabid dog began displaying symptoms.
I my area, at least on my Craigslist and on my facebook groups, the vast, vast majority of even mixed breed puppies from private individuals are $400 and up. I looked at a husky x pup from a private individual for $250, and walked away for temperament reasons regarding the dam, did not have her try to get out the sire. It was for lack of a better word, text book for ‘bad’ back yard breeding. Apparently, although I have not found a way to independently confirm, there is a known known puppy ‘flipper’ in the Yakima area, that picks up litters from wherever and whomever, and resells them via Craigslist under different names and locations for herself and different phone numbers for text only, for $400+. Sometimes they are also very sick (parvo, etc).
So, I would say its a serious mine field out there trying to pick up a cutie pup of your choice from a BYB ad somewhere for ‘cheap’, near where I live. It could be very different elsewhere.
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Does take some leg work for sure. Keep looking, you’ll find your pup.
According to my vet (from Minnesota) that’s exactly how heartworm was transported to MN…with Hurricane Katrina heartworm positive dogs.
They really should be vaccinated, tested, treated and quarantined before moving to a new state.
