My Daughter wants to breed them...

Ok, my rescue friend sent me an application today. Here are a few parts of the application:

*Describe a typical day in the dog's life with you and in your home:companion in my room and rest of home , travel with me, walks, runs toys to play with, regular schedual for food and outside toileting.

*What activities do you plan with this dog? described above, this is my little buddy.

*Do you intend to keep this dog primarily inside or outside? mostly inside

*Where will the dog sleep?my room

*Why have you decided to adopt a dog?I wanted to help give a home

Why did you choose this dog?both small, older, need little training , I need a smaller dog, not a big dog person

*Have you had a rescue dog before? If yes, describe your experience:Spike our german shepard is a rescue dog , met him in the pound, and just had a feeling he needed to come home with us. He's great, gentel, obediant,loves the kids , gentel with the cats,

*Please list the dogs and other animals currently in your home (age, sex, breed, temperament, socialization with dogs). This question must be answered in full

Spike 2 year old shepard mix husky male, gentle as described above, good with visitors, greets them then sets aside.

Luna 1 year old elk hound shepard mix, loves everything every one very playful, still in puppy stage ,neither dog has trouble with other animals in the park.

Jake stray kitten we adopted 5-6 years ago from lady in westlake, jakes is jake, scratch his head once in a while and hes fine

Balou 6 month old kitten my grand daughter brought home one day and hes been here since, in the p roc ess o fhaving him fixed.

* Are the animals currently in your home neutered or spayed?

just jake is fixed, balou in process, and the dogs no my daughter is thinki;ng of breeding them.

I asked my friend if I could PLEASE PLEASE respond to this lady. She said YES so this is what I wrote:


Thank you for your interest in adopting a homeless pet and I believe your daughters two dogs were also adopted from a shelter, Lorain County Dog Pound maybe? I just wanted to give you some information that maybe you aren't aware of. First of all Lorain County Dog Pound has a MANDATORY spay/neuter program which was instituted a few months ago. Why? Might you ask... well it seems that there were too many people not getting their dogs fixed which was creating more homeless pets. The entire reason Dog Pounds exist is because people allow their dogs to run free, don't take care of the pets and / or don't get their dogs fixed which creates unwanted puppies. Did you know that 6 MILLION dogs every year are killed in the United States because there are not enough homes for all the homeless dogs?

You may not be aware but in the city of Elyria there is a 4 pet maximum and most of the mobile home parks in Elyria there is a 3 pet limit. This does include cats and dogs. If you are going to breed you MUST have a kennel license but to get a kennel license you must have a business license. AND if you are going to sell the puppies you MUST report the sale of the puppies on your income tax, if you do not you can get in HUGE troubled with the government for tax fraud both with State and Federal.

That brings me to why it is VERY VERY important to have dogs fixed as soon as possible. Female dogs are more susceptible to mammary cancer (a.k.a. breast cancer) and also a horrible infection called Pyometra which is very hard to detect and usually by the time the owner realizes the dog is sick it is too late. The dog dies slowly in horrible pain assuming emergency surgery does not save her life and the surgery can cost $800 to well over $1,000. And now to male dogs... males dogs are very susceptible to testicular cancer AND a male dog can smell a female in heat over 50 miles away. Male dogs are more likely to leave home in search of a female in heat and if a dog gets 50 miles away they will not be able to find their way home. Hence the fact most of the dogs in shelters are males.... I was contacted by a man whose dogs ate through his garage wall to get to his female in heat. Male dogs can be very aggressive when trying to get to a female.... aggressive towards people and other animals and obviously go to great lengths destroying property to get to a female.

The entire reason that Gloria, myself and many other dedicate all of our free time and spare money (yea, like anyone has any of that with these gas prices and economy) is because it is not fair that dogs are killed in shelters, their bodies thrown into a dumpster and taken to the land fill like trash just because people OVER BREED their dogs creating more unwanted pets. We feel horrible when we walk into a dark, cold, damp pound knowing that today is kill day and we only have room for 2 dogs but there are 10 that need a place to call home. We have to decide who we can save and leave the shelter knowing that the dogs we left behind will not be alive when we go to sleep that night. It is not something we like to do and through education we hope to help reduce the number of unwanted pets. That is the reason for my email, I am pleading with you to please please convince your daughter to fix her dogs before it is too late and another litter of unwanted puppies is created. And if what I have said so far doesn't convince you that breeding two dogs with un known medical histories who are mutts isn't a good idea.... then let me tell you about what all goes into a litter of puppies.

First, sometimes male dogs will kill puppies. So, you are going to have to keep the mom and puppies separate from the male. As I stated above male dogs can become very aggressive when a female is in heat and living in a mobile home I am sure it is going to be difficult to keep them apart. Mom dogs go into heat a week after giving birth. Before the puppies are born you do have to get a high quality puppy food for the mom, which is expensive especially with large dogs. Puppies regardless of the health of the mom are born with worms. So at 2 weeks and usually 2 more times before they are 8 weeks you will have to get worming medicine for the puppies and MOM from your vet. If you give too much or too little you can make the puppies very sick. If you give the wrong wormer you could kill the puppies. Before the puppies are born you do have to get a high quality puppy food for the mom, which is expensive especially with large dogs. Then at about 2.5 weeks old the puppies start eating soft dog food and that means more poop and the mom doesn't always clean it all. So, you are CONSTANTLY cleaning up news papers and doing laundry to make sure the puppies are clean so they don't get sick and of course the smell. UGH! It could make a horse pass out! I just recently rescued a dog that was pregnant and she had 9 puppies (average litter for large breed dog) who eat $67 worth of soft dog food in 4 days! And it is middle of the road dog food...nothing special. AND to top it off it is ILLEGAL in the state of Ohio to separate mom dogs from puppies prior to 8 weeks old. AND TRUST ME by the time the puppies are 6 weeks old you can't WAIT for 8 weeks to come. You have done nothing but clean up poop. NOT ENJOYABLE and so much work. And this is assuming their aren't any complications.... umbilical cords wrapped around necks, feet, ect. when the puppy is born, the mom having dead puppies inside of her that can cause her to die from infection, having trouble with labor requiring emergency surgery and what if you have to bottle feed... forget sleeping or going to work b/c puppies need feed every few hours. Endless issues... just like humans.

Just food for thought to share with your daughter. Hoping she decides to have her dogs fixed there are SEVERAL low cost spay neuter locations near where you live.. there is one in Lorain on Rt 58 and one in Avon near the Harley Davidson.

Good luck and we will all cross our paws that the dogs get fixed soon. Once all the animals are fixed in your home Gloria welcomes you to resubmit your application. At this time she will be unable to approve your application

Thanks,