I was pointing out the news media.
Evolve??? doesn’t that hint at ‘over time’ by definition?
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I like having pets back in the White House but one daughter and I talked about a potential problem a month ago. When people see the pets of famous people it sometimes creates a problem for the breed. The idiots will run out to purchase German Shepherds not understanding the breed requirements and lot will end up dumped in shelters, etc. 
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The silver lining to Covid is that puppies are already in short supply due to people getting Covid pets. Hopefully those that wanted a dog/puppy already got their Covid puppy.
I am hoping that as more people return to working at the office that the shelters aren’t overrun with those Covid puppies that are now ill trained Covid dogs that the owner now doesn’t have time for.
I really wish we would just get better controls on puppy mills. I think that bad “backyard breeders” can only negatively impact how many unwanted dogs their are a small amount as most of those individuals only have one or two bitches. A puppy mill has 10, 20, 30 of that breed so can ramp up “production” and “stock” quickly.
At least a backyard breeder the mother and the puppies may have a bit of socialization where a puppy mill they have zero.
Sorry to go off on a tangent.
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That is not happening all over.
The local news just reported that, finally, their shelters are seeing a small uptick on adoptions.
During this pandemic news kept talking about people adopting pets, but here, adoptions didn’t, but decreased heavily as people had so much else on their plate than getting a pet.
I think that was a fad fueled by news media maybe in some areas, perhaps not as many as they presented?
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I think encouraging adoption of pets is excellent
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Amen on the puppy mills!! I have 3 dogs that started life in a Puppy Mill- two that I got from a rescue and one that I took for a friend. The one I got from a friend is a Havapoo (Havanese/Poodle cross) and she paid $1200 for him from a “breeder” who has 10-12 litters a year from these various lap dog breed crosses. He is a well bred sweet mutt and is at least healthy. The other two from the rescue came from a Chihuahua breeder who is not selective and these dogs have genetic issues.
Sadly there is a lot of dog dumping in military communities. Families get orders to another post and they don’t want to take the dog (or cat) and so they end up in shelters if no one takes them after they’ve been offered in some FB Community group.
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I think the focus here is on breeders, not shelters, though our area definitely has many less dogs in shelters than usual. I know for a fact that when my mom was looking to find a puppy last spring/summer after we lost our Golden fall of 2019, the breeders weren’t even answering calls for the waiting list. They ended up getting a puppy this fall that she almost forgot she put herself on the list for just after the Golden passed.
I agree that shelters probably aren’t getting as much business as people really want puppies right now, not full grown dogs (not that I agree with that). And I, too, worry that when the pandemic lessens, the shelters will be full of poorly trained dogs that were purchased during Covid.
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It’s sure happening in my area. I just lost my dog a couple of weeks ago and have been browsing. Next to impossible to get a puppy, and the shelters that ordinarily have pages of dogs now only a few pages worth and they’re mostly all very senior or behavioral issue dogs.
Earliest appt I can get for one adoption center is Feb 20th. I inquired on a puppy in the shelter system an hour after I saw her ad and she already had 38 people in line for her. It’s nuts.
Oh I’m so sorry I should have posted on the conspiracy theory thread. There already was a WH pets thread going. I was responding to the absurdity of the wild premise of the ‘distraction’ theory by the conservation news media!! Why I titled the thread ‘WTF’
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Any time the subject comes up, if someone is thinkling of a COVID pet and likes cats, I encourage cats over dogs. Cats are just easier – less training needed, don’t need walks/bathroom breaks a couple times a day, can be left overnight, don’t necessarily need more than 1 cat, etc. And my impression is that cats in general need less veterinary care. Of course cats can develop behavior problems, too.
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Just when you thought the crazy couldn’t get even crazier…does she believe that the Bidens jumped into their hot tub time machine, went back several years and adopted the dogs, so that in 2021 they could be used as a distraction from their radical socialist agenda? You can’t make this stuff up folks!!!
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I agree, except for the veterinary care. Cats can get a myriad of things wrong with them (just got my three year old back from an overnight stay at the vets for constipation) and, as they age, their medical problems most often increase. One thing I wish people would consider, whether cat or dog, is that a young animal is probably healthy and likely to need no more than a yearly checkup, but as it ages, you can count on spending more and more on its medical problems. Just like us, I suppose.
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Omg Hot Tub Time Machine!
Seriously love that movie.
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Only one person really read the opening post? There is an entire other thread to discuss pets.
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And claws. Cats clawing furniture is a huge problem for many people. Sadly.
Luci being an indoor \outdoor cat, she retains her full daggers… And my husband cringes when they hit our old, used furniture.
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Yup, and in NY State, it’s against the law to declaw any cat. I have a total of five horizontal and vertical scratching posts scattered around the house. They don’t eliminate the problem entirely, but they certainly decrease it. Also, microfiber upholstery isn’t my favorite look, but claws don’t seem to do much damage.
I read the opening post and apologized for the pet tangent. I didn’t realize there was another WH pet thread.
This thread has become a run-away dog and is just running amok in the neighborhood. Sorry.
To respond to your original post I think that conservative talk shows and Fox in particular likes to rabble rouse in any way possible. They are the radio and tv versions of those magazines/newspapers that we all would read the covers on at the grocery store check-outs. (Princess Diana kidnapped and replaced by alien clone). They are just more subtle about it so they actually get people to buy into it and get angry instead of incredulous chuckles.
These conservative outlets only care about ratings, duping their audiences to get the votes for their candidates.
(Please excuse any typos- Napoleon the cat is “helping” me type)
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And to further aggravate the thread the pet posts have nothing to even do with Current Events. I asked the Moderator to take the whole thread down. I even edited the title to no avail.
I think some of it may be regional. I am NE area where prior to the pandemic the majority of the dogs in the shelters were pit bulls. We were already bringing dogs up from the south and other areas of the country to be adopted through rescues here. Spay/neuter and heartworm treatment is much more prevalent in my area than it appears to be in the south. I believe you are in Texas. I have a few TX rescues on my Facebook feed. There seems to be many more dogs available there than in my area, many of them are thin and HW+.
It is the puppies that people are wanting for the Covid pet. They have time to housebreak. They don’t have sports for their kids, they can’t go to the gym, they have lots of free time. Impulse buyers don’t want to adopt adult dogs/cats. They want the cute puppies and kittens so their children and the pet can GROW together and bond. Many people think that animals that are turned into shelters are there for a bad reason not just that the former owner was a schmuck and got bored with them. Or the former owner lost their job/home and can’t afford them or can’t find an apartment that will let them have a pet.
In my area it goes back to that most of the adults in the shelters are pit bulls. If I had children I would have a tough time adopting a pit bull with an unknown history from a shelter into a family with young children. That is a big risk. A pit bull from a rescue that uses foster homes maybe. Adopting adult dogs from a shelter when a family has children especially small children is a bigger risk than adopting from a good rescue that uses fosters that can pre-screen dogs for behavior. Buying a puppy of a breed that should be a good fit for their family is even easier for many people.
There have been a lot of puppy scams. People pay for the puppy. They then want more money than originally advertised to ship the puppy due to “increases in fees by the airlines”. Then the breeder drops off the face of the earth. There never was a puppy just a scammer.
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Once you start a thread you lose control of that thread’s direction. Roll with it. At least we aren’t sniping at each other. It probably should go into The Menagerie at this point but much of it is related to buying/adopting Covid pets so sorta current events.
Maybe the best thing is to rename it about Covid pets and start a new thread about Sensationalistic Journalism as the title to start. You could even link this thread and the WH pet threads in the original post to go see those threads if we want to talk pets instead of shoddy journalism.
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