Oh man, I can't agree more. I work in a salon, and I tell you...I've rescued two dogs now and will probably never do it again. I love them both, they are great dogs, and they have a list of health problems a mile long...EACH. They are train wrecks...my little tiny mixed dog is the epitome of terrible health, she is awfully badly put together, makes me crazy. I've spent thousands on her breakable little body...and my old Cocker Spaniel is generally ok but he's all messed up in other ways. He's permanently weird from strokes, for example. Also he bites.
Mixing breeds does NOT guarantee health, in fact many mixes are crappier than the average dog because the dogs used to make them (talking "designer dogs" here, not shelter mutts...I'll get to those in a second) are often from people who only care for money (THESE are the people who give good breeders a bad name!!!!) and so their dogs aren't screened or tested before breeding. I see so many "hybrid" breeds -Yorkipoos, Maltipoos, Shmorkies, Pomchis, Chiweenies, and of course the famed Labradoodle and it's mutant mat-prone sibling the Goldendoodle (as a groomer, that word strikes fear into my heart)-....and people pay THOUSANDS for these MUTTS!!!! People think you can take X breed and mix it with Y, and BAM, new breed! NO THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS. And they are not "hybrids" at all...hybridization occurs when you mix two totally different species, like horses and donkeys make mules, or tigers and lions make ligers. DOG + DOG only ever gives you A DOG, not some totally new species!!!!
As for shelter mutts...I do not believe in no-kill shelters. I think a good dog should be given a chance...I'm all for shelters. But life is like a tree...everyone starts out with all the potential in the world, like the trunk of a tree...as times go on, a mixture of the events that shape out our lives and the effects of our own actions cause us to take different paths, like choosing the branch of a tree. There is no going back, once a path has been chosen (willingly or no) you move ever onward...each crossroads in your life is like the branch of a tree, forking one way or another, to the tips of each "branch"...and while it is almost never the fault of the dog, once their paths are chosen, they often cannot go back. It is a shame, but there are so many good dogs, dogs who've often had a terrible life, who are in desperate need of help and love...and yet our shelters claim that every dog needs saving so they're overburdened and overstressed trying to save the bad ones. Not every dog can be salvaged. Now...my tiny health-screwed baby is a shelter baby. She has physical problems but no emotional or mental ones, and no behaviour problems. She's one of the sweetest, nicest, most well-adjusted dogs I know. She has a wonderful personality and if she weren't so physically screwed, I'd look into making her a therapy dog. She's amazing. SHE is one of the good ones, but...her sister from the same litter (the whole litter plus mom was surrendered when the pups were a day old) is a VICIOUS biter. She has a totally different personality...she is just rotten to the core, agressive by nature, and resistant to training. Thankfully after biting a few of the groomers (and the owner, and the owner's friend...) they don't bring her in any more, but...I'm shocked they'd adopt out that monster. She needs the needle, stat. That loving home could have been given to a dog with a heart of gold, not a vicious snarling monster!
As to breeders being the "bad guys"...I will say this, the AKC should take a lesson from the ARBA. Some unscrupulous people will get two poor-quality dogs who are registered, and breed them with no concern to the health of the dogs or inherited problems, and sell the pups way cheaper than the good breeders. People then get suckered into buying "pedigreed" dogs who are no more healthy than their unfortunate shelter mutt counterparts. Then folk claim that breeders are breeding sickly, weak and inbred individuals and they point to those craptastic "purebreds" as proof. My old Cocker Spaniel is an example of this...he's a piece of crap by Cocker standards, and he has the list of health problems (mostly genetic) to prove it. He's also HIDEOUS by the AKC breed standard. Yet his first owner bought him because he's "OMG PURE." He's a terrible Cocker and I warn everyone who meets him that he is not a "good" Cocker. He's a good dog (when not biting people) but he's a bad example of the breed. Purity means nothing when the breeder doesn't care about producing quality! Buyer beware...I've known people who balk at the price of a good puppy, but think on this: if you buy a dog who is guaranteed via parental genetic screening to be free of all genetic defects, you won't have to pay the price later for, say...sugery for dysplastic dogs or luxating patellas. Or deal with premature blindness. Or cope with the untimely death of the dog. It is a down-payment on the best possible dog you can get, health wise.
I wish the AKC was more like the ARBA...only allowing the registration of dogs that at least somewhat comply to breed standards.
People get stupid where dogs are concerned. They think of them as something they are not, and they get all holier than thou on others. They lose sight of what really matters, and they blame the wrong people for the problems in the world.
Worst of all, they lack the ability to stop and really think about things.
Where I work, there is a charity through our buisness. I do not donate to it, because it uses "end euthanasia" as a catchprase, and demands that all our money be geared towards stopping dogs from being put down. I plead for more rational approaches...I like our local Humane Society. They will euthanize a dog or cat who they deem to be dangerous or unadoptable, but will keep dogs or cats for months if not YEARS if that animal has a good disposition. My cat was from them...they had her for over a year because she's got a wonderful personality. Nevermind that everyone passed her up for being anatomically strange (she's a Munchkin who has deformed front legs) and a senior kitty (she's 13)...she's an abuse case (poor baby was beaten, had most of her teeth smashed!) who never let it get her down. It astounds me that after all she's been through...ear infections that scarred her ears and have left her nearly deaf...abuse that makes her drool and eat funny...life in a shelter after a life of hardship and starvation...and yet, every person she meets, she treats it like an opportunity to trust again. She loves and trusts every person she meets! Now THAT is a personality that needs saving...not some dog who has, again through no fault of it's own, learned to fear and bite whenever stressed, or a dog who viciously attacks someone over a toy or something.
Yet co-workers claim I'm not helping animals in need by donating to shelters who care more about giving the good ones a chance, than the shelters who waste space and resources on a dog or cat who isn't going to be salvageable.
tl;dr version: I think it far more humane to send a miserably fearful or vicious dog to the next world and end their fear and misery.
