I am a hospital administrator in Tempe, Arizona, and have worked here for nine years. I have a degree in entrepreneurship from Grove City College. I have done thousands of hours of continuing education. I have volunteered with rescues and the county shelter, and we run a donation center out of our hospital for all the rescues in Phoenix.
Your article “The Looming Dog Shortage” [February/March 2018] is the most asinine thing I have ever read in a veterinary journal. The article angered me so much that I couldn’t hold back. Not only is the article so far from the truth, but do you realize the impact this has on irresponsible Craigslist/backyard breeders/puppy mills? You are justifying their behavior.
Half the dogs we see that were adopted from Craigslist or a backyard breeder have parvo, were never properly vaccinated or dewormed, their mothers weren’t on puppy food while nursing, and they come from terrible environments you couldn’t even imagine — flea and tick infestations, taken from their mother at four weeks because the “breeder” didn’t want to deal with the puppies any longer, etc.
You got stats from The Washington Post showing that about 5.5 million dogs went into shelters and 2.6 million got adopted. 700K were euthanized and 700K were moved to other rescues. Do you notice the math doesn’t quite add up? What about the other 1.5 million?
Do you know that 1 in 600 pit bulls gets a forever home? We are pulling dogs from dog farms in other countries, and we are euthanizing dogs daily at our county shelter.
I really don’t think we need to be worrying about making more dogs at this time. I am shocked that you would publish something like this. So disappointing.
Today’s Veterinary Business provides a forum for readers to comment on anything in this journal and on any topic relevant to the business of veterinary medicine. We welcome letters of 600 words or less — the shorter, the better. Please email submissions to editor Ken Niedziela at kniedziela@navc.com. Include your name, professional degrees and credentials, workplace or city of residence, and contact information.