People for being nice to Poor Sad Critters

I read an article this morning about PETA telling everybody that UGA needs to replace their live mascot with a robot dog. Their reasoning seems to be that purebred dogs are inbred, and since inbred dogs have health problems, people shouldn't have them. Or that they shouldn't travel to football games.

I know a thing or two about superstitions, and I have a feeling that an animatronic dog is not going to go over well with the university's football team. That's like telling actors to knock on particle board or plastic instead of real wood if they accidentally mention the "Scottish play" in a theater. I don't really suspect they're going to give in.

Going back to dogs, I've been hearing a lot lately on the morality of purchasing a dog vs adopting one from a shelter. People say with absolute certainty that they believe it is wrong to buy a purebred dog instead of adopting one of the millions of poor sad critters from a shelter. They are absolutely sure they're right. They even criticized the president for not picking a shelter dog for his family.

I have two dogs. One of them was adopted from the SPCA. She was one of the millions of poor sad homeless critters that need to be adopted. She's a lovely dog. She's also elderly when she was presented to me as only being an adult, and a little high maintenance. I have another dog I thought was not going to be a rescue dog but turned out to be a poor sad critter that would have been better off homeless than living with the person I bought her from. She was starving. I thought I was getting somebody's pre house trained pet but she was scared of everything and you could feel her bones through her skin. My conscience overtook my practicality at wanting a low maintenance non-damaged dog and I paid the redneck witch $250 to rescue the puppy she'd been starving.

Right after I brought her home, after a bath. . and recently after a few months of food and rotten dog training.


PETA, who I'm pretty sure think my dogs should have voter's registration cards, would tell me I was wrong to buy a puppy mill dog. On one level, they're right. It patronizes bad business practices and helps people who are mean to animals continue being mean. On the other hand, the dog wasn't washed up and groom to dupe me into buying a defective dog who was going to be sick and sad all her life. She was plainly starving. Even in the pictures, you can tell Madison's gained a pound in all of three months and she's still not overweight.

Let's say that Maddy wasn't a scared starving thing, and that she was a healthy, happy dog when I bought her. Let's say for a minute that I'm a person who isn't good with abused dogs, or that I have small children that I can't trust around animals that have been hurt. Yes, there are millions of homeless dogs and cats at shelters in this country and every last one of them is a high maintenance dog. Not everyone is cut out to own a high maintenance dog. Not everyone can handle it.

Getting a shelter dog is a wonderful thing. People who choose to do it are better for it. Buying a dog from a good breeder and being a responsible pet owner is a morally neutral thing. I just wish people would learn to understand the difference between something being a good thing to do and being something everyone should do. I know people, supposedly Christian people at that, who would have SHOT Maddy by now because of her little quirks. Her little quirks started with going outside the night I brought her home, pretending to pee in the yard, and coming back into my house and taking a crap under my coffee table. She's being "crate trained" now and it's getting much better but we aren't there yet. These "Christian" people shouldn't have dogs at all, honestly, but if they're going to own one, it shouldn't be one with mental issues.

The problem with the sort people I'm calling "supposedly Christian" is that they are the sort of people who do things because everybody says it's the right thing to do. It doesn't matter if it's within their means or if it's a good idea for them. They'll do it because it makes them look good. So stop telling them it looks good. Please stop telling them it looks good. Puppy dogs will die.

(By the way, Madison and Jasmine are both the best dogs ever and I wouldn't trade them for a thousand designer and non-defective dogs. A little extra trouble is worth it for those two.)

Can you imagine what one of them would do if the Vet suggested their little accessory purse dog needed to look like this for a week? I think she was pretty darn cute but the price tag was pretty steep and she did jump like something bit her if you came up on her blind side. She has her pretty brown eyes back now.