Archive for the ‘Welfare’ Category

Essential Oil Can’t Compare to Vectra 3D Protection

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Been meaning to tell you, we had talked some about flea control. I may just be lucky or I may be on to something. But I put one drop (only one drop) of Palo Santo essential oil on Diego’s rump once a day, and we have not had a flea problem all season. The oil I use is made by Young’s Living. I read about it online, that Palo Santo oil is a natural flea repellant. I have the Frontline as a backup in case this fails me, but it may be a great tip for your other listeners. One drop only! Diego is 50 pounds Portuguese water dog. He goes to daycare 3-4 times a week, is around a TON of other dogs, haven’t had a flea issue which in most cases would be highly unusual without other chemicals on him. For what its worth! Keep up the great work!

Steve A.

Please read some of my blogs about how Frontline is no longer effective due to 17 yr old technology and I recommend using Vectra 3D monthly year long — that essential oil (IF it is working at all) cannot reach the head, chest & neck which is prime tick area — many ticks attach and drop off unseen, transmitting diseases which are so serious.

Please spend some time on my website reading about it. Your beautiful boy may seem okay but I believe all dogs are in extreme jeopardy without proper coverage.

–Tracie Hotchner?

Food for Thought in Decision to Breed Her Golden

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Food for thought about whether you should consider breeding a pet dog — especially a bred like Golden Retrievers with their health challenges. Research and advice from Gayle Watkins:

Susan,

I think I found “Higby” on our online golden retriever pedigree database. I found the pedigree, so I have a good idea of what is behind Higby.

I suspect you are not going to like what I have to say but I’ll explain myself as well as I can. If Higby were mine, I would not breed him. My reason is twofold. First, Higby is an inbred golden retriever. That means that your breeder selected a sire who had some similar ancestors, particularly males. This isn’t unusual in dogs. It is the way that breeds were initially established but we have learned much since the 1800s and now know there is a high price for inbreeding. Specifically, inbreeding reduces longevity and increases health issues, which is why there are laws that keep people from marrying their close relatives. In Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, there is a move afoot to make inbreeding unacceptable in dogs. Their kennel clubs are limiting how tightly dogs can be bred, in addition to other things. But, the US has not taken this stand with other animals so inbreeding continues to be practiced by many people, such as your breeder.

However, the cost of this practice for the dogs is high. In golden retrievers, inbreeding has reduced longevity by up to 2 years, reducing lifespan from 12 to 10. For animals that usually live only 12 years, to lose two is a lot, nearly 17% of the dogs life.

We measure the degree of inbreeding by the Coefficient of Inbreeding (http://www.canine-genetics.com/relation.htm). COIs can range from 0 to 100% and tell us the probability that a dog is homozygous or has the same two alleles for any gene. For some genes, homozygosity is fine but for deleterious genes, it is bad news because now the dog only has the bad gene. And unfortunately, we just aren’t far enough along in understanding the canine genome (or the human genome for that matter) to know which bad genes an individual carries except in the case of a few diseases. However, we know that dogs with COIs below 6% tend to show no reduction in longevity while those above, do.

Here is information from Dr John Armstrong, a geneticist that was also a poodle breeder:

Is Inbreeding Necessary?

Many breeders still cling to the idea that inbreeding is the only route to success, and that they can use it as a tool to identify and weed out genetic problems in their line. They will cite the success of certain breeders who inbred extensively, unaware (or conveniently ignoring) that the most successful litters from these kennels were often the least inbred. They also seem to be unaware that many studies on a wide variety of species have demonstrated that highly inbred individuals frequently live shorter lives and have fewer progeny. This is called inbreeding depression.

Inbreeding depression results, in part, from the bringing together of deleterious recessive alleles inherited via both parents from a common ancestor. In humans, where genetic diseases of this type are relatively rare, the frequency of affected individuals is often higher in small populations that are culturally or geographically isolated. In dogs, man has created similar isolated populations by restricting genetic exchange between pure breeds. However, given a sufficiently large and diverse group of founders, there is no reason why the average purebred should not lead a long, healthy life — if responsibly bred.

So, what might responsible breeding look like. To start with, it means selecting for health and this brings me to my second reason for not breeding Higby. The very dogs that he is inbred on are dogs known to produce very high rates of health problems in goldens. You can see Higby’s COI and the dominant dogs in his pedigree at [URL removed for anonymity]. This page shows the top five dogs in Higby’s pedigree. The top two of these dogs are producing very high rates of cancer when repeatedly present in pedigrees. One in five goldens will die of hemangiosarcoma and one in eight will die of lymphosarcoma. Both diseases are starting to kill goldens before two years of age. Both these dogs, one of whom died at only 6 ½, are behind many, many of the dogs dying this young.

Furthermore, the third dog in Higby’s pedigree is the source of a relatively new eye disease in goldens: pigmentary uveitis. You can read about pigmentary uveitis at http://www.grca.org/health/uveitis1.html. The veterinary ophthalmologists that are studying this disease, in particular Dr Wendy Townsend, firmly believe that this dog was its source. So, as we inbreed more and more on him, we are ensuring that more and more goldens get this disease. Nearly 50% of the goldens that get this disease go blind and must have their eyes removed due to the pain of glaucoma. It is not a disease we want more of!

Because Higby has a COI above 6% and that the dogs he is inbred on are known to produce serious health problems, I would not breed him if he were mine nor breed to him if he was offered to me. If he were from a rare pedigree, perhaps there would be a reason to keep those genes in play but his sire produced more than 60 litters. That’s at least 400 pups and more likely closer to 500. As you can see, there are more of his genes around than any dog breed needs, IMO.

I am assuming that you did not buy Higby to breed him, that he was to simply be a wonderful companion. I cannot even tell if you have registered him with the AKC. (If your breeder did not sell him to you on a full registration, Higby’s offspring cannot be registered by the AKC.) Why not just enjoy Higby for who he is and go to a reputable breeder for your next pup?

If despite my arguments, you feel Higby must be bred, here are my suggestions:

1) Get out Higby’s AKC papers and ensure your breeder did not sell him to you on a Limited Registration (http://www.akc.org/reg/limitedreg.cfm). If he did, Higby’s offspring cannot be registered and thus breeding him is for the most part, fruitless.

2) Wait until Higby is at least 9 years old to offer him at stud. He is just now 3 and pigmentary uveitis does not even show up in the average golden until they are 8 ½ years old. In addition, waiting will ensure he has lived a reasonably long life. I will often wait until a dog has reached 10 ½, the average age of today’s goldens, before breeding to them. I have bred to some dogs when they are 4 but they were not inbred.

3) Get all of the required health clearances that goldens need to be bred in the US. Those are:

a. Orthopedic Foundation of Animals (http://www.offa.org/ ) hip and elbow xrays to show he does not have evidence of canine hip or elbow dysplasia.

b. annual eye clearances by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist

c. A one-time heart clearance by a board-certified veterinary cardiologist

d. annual OFA thyroid tests (http://www.offa.org/thyproc.html)

4) While you are waiting for Higby to reach 9, get him into some events that will attest to his quality. Since there are thousands and thousands of goldens in the US (60,000 are registered by the AKC every year), it is important to all of us that those goldens that are allowed to be bred have all the attributes that the breed is supposed to have. I’d guess that all or nearly all of these thousands of goldens are loved by their owners but that doesn’t make them breeding stock. So, what does? First and foremost, goldens should be hunting dogs. Second, they should be pleasant companions. And third, they should look like goldens. There are events that evaluate each of these characteristics so while you are waiting to breed Higby, have him evaluated at a GRCA CCA (http://www.grca.org/events/cca/index.html), a GRCA WC (http://www.grca.org/events/field/wcwcx.html) and train and qualify him for the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen program (http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/index.cfm).

5) During this waiting time, you should also join the Golden Retriever Club of America and your local golden club so you can learn more about the breed as a whole.

If you are disappointed in my thoughts, I’d just like to leave you with my philosophy. I have spent 30 years breeding golden retrievers and over those decades, I have seen my beloved breed fall prey to more and more interrelated problems–declining lifespans, skyrocketing cancer rates, more severe health issues, decreased intelligence and stability, and increased hair and size. These problems come from one source and only one source — the people that breed their goldens. Many just want one litter but that means 8-9 puppies. If those puppies were not thoughtfully and intelligently produced and some of them are bred, then the problems get passed on over and over until we are in the situation goldens are in today. I truly fear for my breed and hope you will not contribute to its continued decline.

I’m happy to answer any questions you might have or speak by phone.

Gayle Watkins
Gaylan’s Golden Retrievers
Visit us at www.gaylans.com
Enjoy our blog at gaylansgoldens.blogspot.com ?

She Wants to Breed Her Golden

Friday, June 4th, 2010

I want to breed Higby, my three year old Golden Retriever male. I am not in the dog business but feel that Higby would make a beautiful litter… and I would like to keep a puppy, possibly. Can you advise me on who to call to look for an appropriate female? Higby is the son of the golden from Seattle who won the Westminster Dog Show in the sporting category about five years ago…

Thanks so much for your help!
-Susan

Hi, Susan

I didn’t realize you had kept Higby intact and hoped to breed him — but I”m super happy you turned to me for advice.

1) I understand your desire to have another dog like yours, but breeding does not give you any guarantee that the puppy will resemble your dog — however, I am CC-ing one of the best and most responsible Golden breeders around — Gayle Watkins, and feel safe putting you in her hands to arrange this marriage.

Gayle created Canine Health Events to raise money at the agility contests she competes in so that at year’s end she could make a great donation to a good charity looking for cures & treatments — through my introduction it was Morris Animal Foundation one year, which was terrific

2) I deeply believe that only highly educated and committed breeders create new litters of puppies, especially with breeds like Goldens which have the highest death rate from cancer of any breed out there — 75% are said to GET cancer at this point in time, with the highest death rate being in the large males. I haven’t seen your dog since he was a little guy, but please take this very seriously and feed him the highest quality high protein diet you can. In fact, I never thought to invite you to try a new feeding program designed on my nutritional theories: it’s called Proportions and if you go to www.Proportions.com sign up for a free trial and put TRACIE in the code box, there is no charge for it. It’s going to blow your mind — and his!

3) After this breeding you must please neuter him immediately. I have learned of two dogs who died of prostate cancer recently who were not neutered and the incidence of this particular cancer is quite high in unneutered males. It’s just prudent.

Hope this helps. You & gayle will like each other and I hope make this work for everyone concerned (Gayle will also tell you if there is any bloodline genetic reason NOT to breed him.)

–Tracie Hotchner

New Shelter Pet Stamps Raise AWARENESS, not MONEY

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Do not be confused by emails urging you to buy those cute pet postage stamps from the USPS which claims the stamps raise money to feed shelter pets. No money goes to shelter animals — the stamps are simply a way to raise awareness of the need for more pet adoptions.

I have been receiving many mass e-mailings of the following email message which is incorrect:

“Starting April 30th you can buy stamps at the post office that help to buy food for shelter pets. You can pre-order them online. I think this would be a great thing to spread around. Could you please forward to your contacts? Please help spread the word!!!”

These stamps DO NOT help buy anything for shelter pets. I have gotten this message repeatedly and I can see it is “going viral” — I find it extremely misleading and want to tell you that purchasing the USPS’s very cute stamps does not trigger any donations. HALO is sending food to shelters.

One of my favorite website sponsors, HALO Purely for Pets, is the unsung partner in this postage stamp offering. Ellen Degeneres is part of the campaign to raise awareness of how many adoptable pets there are in shelters but it is HALO — the company she co-owns — which is the one working to actually feed shelter pets. HALO is going to donate 1 million meals to shelter animals with the social networking participation (not monetary donations) of the public — but it is NOT connected to the pet stamps. To find out more and how you can join in the campaign, go to

http://www.halopets.com/help

–Tracie Hotchner

Halo Makes Mary’s Night

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

It was a really emotional night on CAT CHAT® — a breed rescuer got a surprise $1,000 donation of food (i.e., Dinner Party and treats) from HALO — which I had no idea about! On an impulse I had asked Mary to call into the show. She runs a German Wire-haired Pointer rescue in Olathe Kansas (www.GWPRescue.com) and we had become pen pals.  I wanted her to explain what breed rescuers do and what happens to breeding dogs in puppy mills — she had written me about the emaciated, past-starvation dogs that have come in from puppy mills and abuse situations and how she needs to restore their health with good nutrition. I had gotten in touch with the Vice President, Marketing Communications of HALO Purely for Pets (one of my website sponsors and the company that makes the kibble my dogs eat) and asked if there was any discount for rescues and shelters to get HALO. Lo and behold there is!! (all you have to do is call 800-426-4256 and they will give a 35% discount to shelters and rescues). So I invited him on the show so he and Mary could meet on the air. She and I were both amazed because after the three of us had been talking for a little while David from Halo suddenly said that HALO was going to donate $1,000 worth of Liv-a-Little freeze-dried salmon treats and Dinner Party to Mary’s rescue!  She wrote in afterward:

Tracie and David,

Oh my goodness I am still shaking!

I cannot find words to express my appreciation and what a tremendous gift you have given our organization. I told my group I was speechless, (which was hard for them to believe) I was so touched I could hardly speak. Tracie, it was such an honor to be on your show.  David is right that you were the passionate force caring for the animals that put us together! Such a true Blessing! And we are forever grateful to both of you!

Our dogs come from extreme circumstances, and as I said seven out of ten come into our care in horrific condition. We will be looking at the same type of situation with the puppy mill dogs we are expecting from South Dakota as we did with the puppy mill babies in Missouri three months ago. We are so excited to have this opportunity to give our puppies/dogs a good diet, and build up their suppressed immune systems.

I will get the food ordered tomorrow… we certainly cannot tell you how this will help us in the coming days. There are no words to express what we are going into. When we went to the puppy mill bust in Missouri in May, I hyperventilated at the sight and smell which made me physically ill. The mothers and babies were locked in a complete darkness in a grain silo where they kept them. Some were so thin their systems could not ingest or digest food. But having the HALO donation will be one less stress for us to deal with, and we will distribute the food between foster homes.

This means so much…

Thank you, Thank you!!!!

You are too kind — I am only a bridge connecting people — and privileged to be one. My gift is having been there to witness The Moment of connection.  Mary you and your group are the ones doing the real heavy lifting — we are just cheering from the sidelines. Day in and day out you climb into the trenches and take in dogs who have been taken to the brink of ruin and you reincarnate them, in a literal and spiritual sense.

How thrilling for me to be associated with a company that shares my admiration of your dedication and my desire to support you in any way possible. You have earned it, believe me, and it’s an honor to help you.

Man upset he won’t be able to declaw his cats

Monday, July 6th, 2009

I got the following long, intelligent and yet deeply disturbing letter from Dominick, a listener in Palmetto Florida, after I denounced declawing on CAT CHAT®, in a discussion about how some vet students at U.C. Davis vet school had defended their “right” to declaw cats if an owner requested it. I pointed out that they would be taking an oath as vets to “First, do no harm” and didn’t understand how they could make an ethical case for the amputation of the first joint of every toe on a cat’s feet for the convenience of humans. And I said that then I found out their vet school doesn’t even teach it anymore — thank God — because I was explaining that the AVMA has come out against the procedure — which is outlawed as animal abuse in Great Britain and other countries which may be ahead of us in animal protection laws. I also said that the Humane Society of the United States would be involved in legislation to ban the barbaric practice of declawing and that their representative from the HSVMA (Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association) would be coming on both DOG TALK® and CAT CHAT® to talk about why declawing needs to be a thing of the past.

Dominic’s letter was so long that this is only the opening – the rest is in a PDF file that you may want to open and read.

I was very upset when you announced on your CAT CHAT® program, that declawing would be illegal in the next few years. All of my cats have been declawed for the last thirty-two years, including my current three. OK, before you take me out to the parking lot and beat me up, I would like to explain my position…

I wrote back to him:

I appreciate the thought and time that went into your letter and hope you will tune in to CAT CHAT® on July 22nd when I have the representative from the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA) who will explain further why I say that declawing (along with ear cropping and tail docking) are cosmetic mutilations of our pets for our convenience that must be stopped. She will also be guesting on DOG TALK® August 8th so you should sign up on my website to hear that podcast.

A few comments on your letter:

1) While I believe dogs and cats should not roam free, when you were a child 40 years ago, pets being free was the norm. There was much less danger to them than today when we have more cars and people, and we also have learned more about how cats die unnecessarily. Therefore, the fact that you proudly admit that you “stole their dogs and cats and neutered them before returning them” is a deeply troubling piece of information.

2) You sound like a dedicated and generous guardian of your animals, but despite that you have justified for yourself that clipping a bird’s wings (or keeping fish in a tank) is equivalent to removing the first joint of every toe of a cat’s paws, the most sensitive part of her body. There is no comparison between the procedures in terms of suffering or disability.

3) You say your cats all immediately ran, jumped and could still climb and “claw” with their toes the day after surgery — this is not physically possible and makes your argument about your own wonderful experiences ring false. The healing period is much longer than a day, and those cats would never be able to claw again, lacking claws. You contradicted yourself when you described Cleo sliding off you after declawing — which is what all cats who are declawed would do. They cannot climb without claws; they can only make the motions.

4) You wanted to know what to do instead of cutting off the tip of your cats’ toes? THE CAT BIBLE explains all this. I hope you have a chance to pick up a copy. First, you need to trim the sharp curved tip of a cat’s nail which is all that is needed to protect other pets and people from being hurt, and also furniture from being damaged since it is the sharp tip that allows those things to happen. You can trim it as often as you like, in a few painless seconds.

5) SOFT PAWS is an excellent product: they are nail caps which the vet can glue on (and then you can learn to do it) that remain in place for about a month. They cover the nail completely, but the cat still has total freedom to use her feet naturally

6) Statistics prove (as I point out in my book) that declawing does not keep people from surrendering their cats. In fact, 1/3 of the cats in shelters have been declawed and many are found running loose, in complete jeopardy with no way to defend themselves or even to be able to climb a tree to escape danger. So there are definitely serious behavior problems in many cats, who are ditched after the surgery. In any case, the whole idea that declawing saves cats lives is disproved by the fact of shelters being full of them.

I am sure you mean well in making the choices you have, but that doesn’t mean they are the right decisions for the cats, or a fair one. I respect your concerns and your experience, but I do hope you will listen on those dates and see if I cannot convince you to please stop doing this to the pets your clearly love so much.

Tracie

The Cat Bible

The Cat Bible

Dog Philosophy: Why Do We Chop off Puppy Dog’s Ears and Tails?

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

I wrote a Tip of the Day for Dogster.com called “Why Do We Chop off Puppy Dog’s Ears and Tails?” and it triggered many vocal and often angry response from those who shared my opinion that this mutilation serves no purpose, and those who wanted to hold on to the “tradition.”  The last comment posted on Dogster.com about this asked why I had written The Dog Bible and why people got dogs if they didn’t even know how to take care of them. This was my reply:

Good question – I wrote THE DOG BIBLE because no book existed that gave information and facts which people could consider and then use to make their own informed, responsible decisions about their dogs. (And if you DO get it for a friend, send me your mailing address so I can send you an autographed bookplate to put in it, inscribed to your friend’s dog). In response to your rhetorical question, nobody is born knowing how to treat a dog or train one or feed one – we’re all the product of our own upbringing and experiences and some of these things serve us well and others were misguided all along or have become so with more information and education. For example, there are many people in many states in the U.S. who chain their dogs outside 365 days a year with minimal or no shelter from cold and heat. It is legal and the accepted way of treating them. I now live in such a state – Vermont. It’s deeply troubling. But it’s part of an ingrained culture and history that is changing only very little and very slowly. I hope that practices and attitudes like surgically altering dogs for cosmetic reasons (with excuses about how it’s always been done that way or theoretically protects a dog out in the field) will also change based on logic and humane practice. It’s safe to say that CHANGE is threatening to people in any area of their lives – we are  creatures of habit and will defend what we do just because it’s how things have been. It’s great to open a dialogue – change happens from an exchange of ideas and a raised consciousness resulting from that – but as our wonderful new President says, it’s fine to disagree as long as we aren’t disagreeable about it. I think a safe yardstick for determining if what we’re doing with our dogs is good for them is whether it enriches or enhances their lives – because having them share our lives does exactly that for us. The least we can do is extend the same Golden Rule to them. It wasn’t that long ago that Chinese women had their feet bound and were purposefully crippled for life. Those who ardently defend doing this to their dogs’ ears and tails, please stop for a minute and really give this some thought.

Tracie

The Dog Bible by Tracie Hotchner

Guest Bows Out Because I’m Not On The “Right Side”

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

November 1’s DOG TALK® was an especially good show. My guests were wonderful, the topics were varied, and it just worked, which is always thrilling with the unpredictability of live radio. I had a renowned trainer, Martin Deeley, who owns the International School of Dog Training down in Florida, as my guest on the show. Martin is a co-founder of the IACP, one of the two reputable organizations that trains, tests and gives accreditation to dog trainers, with the goal being to set a high standard in the field. He was also given the 2007 U.K. Gun Dog Trainer of the Year and has written three books on the subject. He is humble and adores dogs now as he did as a young boy and he has devoted his life to helping people live harmonious, healthy and fulfilling lives with their dogs. I also had a breeder of Field Spaniels, talking about the breed, which is my way week by week for listeners to hear the seriousness of truly good breeders and always seek them out when they want to buy a puppy. My last guest was Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, the Official Vet of my other radio show on Sirius/XM, CAT CHAT® who talked about her new book Not Fit for a Dog and we debunked the pseudo-science and false claims of veterinary prescription diets.

So it was with amazement and no small amount of irritation that as soon as the announcement of the podcast went out I received an email from an upcoming guest that she wanted no part of my show. She was someone I had never met nor spoken to, but had heard about through the grapevine. Apparently her neighbor had stuck his dog outside on a chain when a baby was born and this woman had slowly but surely convinced him she would find a home for him outside his own town. I had been a recipient of her email appeal for a home for this chocolate Lab and I had made some inquiries but she had 75 immediate replies from people in the rescue community and found him a home instantly. Suddenly, she wrote to decline participating in the planned interview because of her concern about my values, for lack of a better word.  Here is her note:

I don’t think I’m the right person to be on your show. To be truly honest, I don’t think we have the same philosophies about dogs and I think it might end up feeling a little weird for me to be a part of the show’s community and promotions. For instance, I’m really against using dogs for entertainment — like gun dogging — and I’m a huge advocate of adopting rescue dogs vs. breeding pedigree pups. I kind of got the feeling that we might have different needs when you asked me not to talk about the issue of chaining dogs but only the rescue/placement event. I would have preferred the story could be an opportunity to enlighten people about the cruelties of chaining, but I’m guessing that might offend some of your audience. Not sure I feel comfortable just telling the story without explaining a reason for the dog’s predicament — chaining. I see too much suffering at the hands of hunters and breeders not to mention their responsibility in this cruel practice.

Hope we can agree to disagree and you can respect my sincere desire just to be doing the right thing for both of us.

So I wrote back to her and am putting this out there because I want anyone else to think twice before feeling justified in jumping to half-baked conclusions about me — or anyone else operating in the pet world. Everyone should be on the same side — we’re all trying to do our best. This is what I said:

Of course you shouldn’t do anything that makes you uncomfortable. I had invited you on DOG TALK® because you had been successful in convincing a neighbor into giving up his dog, which had been relegated to a chain, 24/7. I thought your courage, diplomacy and determination sounded as though they were worthy of public attention.

Unfortunately you seem to have misunderstood what I wanted you to talk about. Whatever made you think I didn’t want to discuss chaining? I have covered the topic extensively and passionately on the air and on my website. As a guest, I wanted you to explain how you put yourself out to intervene in a bad situation and come up with a solution, so that others could figure out how to do that someday themselves if they encountered cruelty to a dog.

As far as my opinion about chaining, it is one of the horrors against dogs I have given an enormous amount of time to. You offend my audience and me by suggesting that any of us would feel anything but indignation about a dog being chained. It is baffling where you would find the source of such a comment.

Maybe you should have taken a minute to inform yourself about me — and my books — and my radio shows, so you would realize I was offering you an opportunity to show a positive outcome to a seemingly hopeless topic.

I have had Tammy Grimes on my show and also had her PR person on another time, to publicize the work of her anti-chaining group, Dogs Deserve Better.

I specifically joined the Vermont Humane Federation because of my dismay that chaining is 100% legal in my new state of Vermont. There is no doubt on where I stand on any animal welfare issue, but chaining is especially disturbing to me.

I work tirelessly behind and in front of the scenes with the Humane Society of the United States against volume commercial breeding.

No one in the media has given small or large rescue groups the consistent attention than I have.

I have dedicated two entire shows to the underground transport people, encouraging their devoted efforts.

I have personally been instrumental in many shelters dogs being re-homed, including 3 in the past 2 months.

It’s really too bad you didn’t take a moment to either read The Dog Bible, look at my website or listen to any of my shows.

You clearly have no idea of what my philosophies are — you make judgments and jump to conclusions which does neither of us any credit.

Oh — and just so you know, the lovely breeder of Field Spaniels who was my guest on “Meet the Breeders” on the show you disapproved of, has exactly one litter a year — and even then, only when she has a waiting list that would guarantee every puppy has a home.

One of the social problems I am trying to solve in the “dog world” is that often people who identify themselves as being for “animal rights” dismiss all breeders as bad people doing something terrible. My intention on the air is help people with this uninformed prejudice understand the profound difference between responsible, devoted hobby breeders and mass-market, volume, commercial breeders. On the other hand, sometimes breeders defensively come to view anyone interested in animal welfare as being “anti-dog” or anti pet ownership and the hatred of the AKC for the Humane Society of the United States is deeply worrisome to me.

A letter such as yours shows me how far I have yet to go to serve as a bridge or conciliator between two factions, which really should be on the same side: the side of the dogs in our lives.

Tracie
The Dog Bible by Tracie Hotchner