If The Were No Dog Breeders In The Country....

This post comes about due to a dream that started me down the thought path, pulling me out of the dream, into the twilight between being asleep and being awake, and then finally into full alertness.  I don't remember that path clearly, nor do I remember the dream at all, but I remember the feeling of sorrow that people....people know not what they do when they rally against ALL breeders, what that could lead to.

So, what could it lead to?

If breeding dogs/cats/whatever else was banned...

-Breeding would go underground.  Any time anything goes underground, it is harder to regulate, harder to find, harder to make sure the animals have at least the minimum of care.  Animals would be more likely to be used for profit without any care to their health or well-being by those who would break the law.

-Accidental litters could cost good people their freedom and more.  Do we really need even more good people with no criminal history or violent offenses taking up space and tax payer's money over such a small thing?  Aren't there more important concerns?

-Dog shows would pretty much cease to exist, dog shows which generate massive amounts of revenue, bring people together with old friends, and, despite politics and it's own variety of issues (like everything....find me one thing that doesn't have an issues across the board, I dare you), does help further breeding programs.

-Breeds would vanish from the country.  This means the Otterhound population alone would drop by around 300-350 individuals, out of a worldwide estimate of 800-1000.  It would bring multiple breeds closer to extinction, possibly bring some recently created American breeds to actual extinction, and cripple gene pools in a variety of ways. 

-Various lineages would be lost, never to be regained, the dog world, globally would lose a lot of variety as a whole, making it even more difficult to eradicate genetic diseases.

-Only those well off enough to afford to import would truly have a choice in being able to get a breed-if importation wasn't cut off.  Small farms scraping by wouldn't be able to get dogs that were more likely guaranteed to guard, rather than eat, their livestock for example. 

-^-Those with special requirements would be relegated to taking a risk on what is hopefully a small-type pup, but could get over their expectations, putting them in a bind with landlords.  Or someone could end up with a mixed that has a high drive, more than they can handle.  The rich would be able to truly choose what they want, the rest would have to deal with whatever was in shelters and rescues.

-Those dogs in shelters and rescues?  If breeding was illegal, chances are most of them, over time, wouldn't just be "street" dogs from other countries, but also flat out feral dogs.  And having known someone with a feral dog-most people wouldn't be able to handle the special requirements to keep and maintain a true feral dog.  Feral cats can at least be maintained on farms

-More "rescue" imports=more diseases coming over which may or may not be communicable to other animals and people.  A dog imported from Mexico exposed family members and dogs it interacted with at a training class to rabies in 2004: http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/article/thriving-animal-shelter-businesses-assure-more-rabies-in-american-pets#sthash.H1irkpvY.dpbs
Growing concerned over the Asian Canine Influenza outbreak, which may have been brought over with the recent imports: http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/canine-influenza-outbreak-caused-asian-virus-scientists-say

-To cease breeding of dogs, or any other animal, would be considered a win to animal rights activists, who want to see people cut off completely from nature, and it would steam roll from there, no more farms, no more meat, no more companions.  I would think that they expect us to start living underground or in bubbles there after.

There are those who would see all of this as a good thing, everything that we would lose.  Breeds, gene pools, companions, working animals.....they WANT them gone, they want us separated.  I truly believe that these people see us as cut off from nature, cut off from life and the balance.  The dogs that we share our lives with are a part of that balance, thousands of years of history together, walking, working, surviving.  It would be a crime to cast all the diversity we created aside so blindly because bleeding hearts can't see the positives that so many of us live every day.

Do not let them win.