Puppy cams and the Phillipines

So, I've been watching a puppy cam. Cute little puppies squiggling about. They are adorable.

Yes, it is a breeder. Yes, I am more a proponet of rescue. All of my pets have been rescues, except the fish. It is hard to see new puppies and not think of all the dogs being euthanized at the shelters. But, you see, I don't want to wipe out dogs from the face of the earth, I want them bred well, responsibly, and healthily, so that our pets and canine partners have well adjusted, happy, healthy, treasured lives - not misery. Every dog has to have come from someone breeding their dog, so I still want dog breeders out there - just good ones.

This breeder knows where every puppy she has ever bred is. She breeds thoughtfully and responsibly. She raises the puppies with love and compassion. She selects homes carefully. She rejects homes she believes unsuitable, and she takes back and rehomes dogs that don't work out. She's a good one. But, people who's only information is googling a puppycam on the web keep throwing puppymill innuendos and accusations.

Look before you leap! If you keep crying "puppymill" on the good breeders, whose going to listen to you when you trip over a really bad one? You just loose crediblity with all the dog lovers who are watching, and turn your cause into a fringe weirdo thing. Don't do it! Don't throw accusations out to see if anything will stick; look, inquire, investigate and then speak up. Those people oooing and awwing and i-want-one-ing about the puppies are the ones you need to win to our cause, but you won't do it with bad facts and obvious misinformation. The cause is much too important to derail with that kind of stupidity.

Then there are the ones who keep trying to slip in videos and whatnot of the horrible dog miseries in other countries - the more shocking the better.

Again, stupid, stupid, stupid!

As has been proven over and and over and as your own websites will mention, seeing the horror of these situations doesn't raise people's compassion to it - it just hardens them against it and makes it easier to accept. You are being backwards. Instead of lowering the compassion level of those who have compassion and concern for dogs by repeatedly shocking them until they become blase to the abuse, raise the compassion level of the people who are lacking it by showing the videos of dogs as treasured, beloved, wonderful creatures to those who lack empathy. You need to build compassion, not destroy it.

By trying to horrify the puppycam viewers, you are working the wrong crowd. Showing shocking videos to people isn't "raising awareness," it's a self-indulgent ego trip to gloat over how much you can shock them. Get over it. You aren't a little brother chasing your sister with a worm or a fresh buger, and you are contributing to the continuation of the misery of those animals by raising the level of disempathy and apathy every single time you show one of those videos. Find ways to spread the love and appreciation for dogs instead. If you are going to go to the dog markets in the Phillipines, get the dog vendors and consumers into watching puppycams and such and you will have a much more profound effect! We don't need to know how bad what they are doing is, THEY DO! We have our own faults to work on.

Just my opinion.