Saw a bumper sticker today which has me puzzled. Two lines of text accompanied by a cartoon drawing of a seated dog. It said “Pro Purebred … And I Vote!”
Is that something similar to the My Dog Votes thing? Or is it something else entirely?
Never seen one, but maybe the person was just voicing their opinion on the whole purebred vs shelter dog debate. Many people say it’s a very bad thing to pay through the nose for a purebred when there are thousands of doggies dying in shelters.
could it have something to do with the new surge in popularity of “designer” dogs? there’s a lot of demand lately for mixed breed dogs where the parents are specific purebreds. It’s gone way beyond cockapoos.
I constantly hear “did you buy your dog or get her from a shelter?” at the dog park - and I think it’s kind of a rude question. So I always answer, “Actually I rescued her from a burning building where she had been abandoned and was actually eating her own leg and drinking acid to survive. Did I mention she was totally blind and had lost all her hair from the stress when I saved her. Where did you get your dog? Oh, you rescued her from a shelter? Well, you know there’s a lot of great dogs out there that don’t have it as good as shelter dogs - maybe you’ll think about that for your next dog.”
I’ve seen this in response to several bills in a few states that are aimed at restricting/placing huge fees on small breeders or breeder/hobbyists that would make it impossible for them to survive as breeders. (Most folks lose money on breeding anyway, but these bills would regulate them out of existence.)
They are saying, basically, that you shouldn’t impose fees on people who are responsibly breeding dogs, when the average “oops, my uspayed female mutt got loose” story wouldn’t have any repercussions.
Does that make sense?
After I saw the title of the thread, there was a terrible visual collision in my mind between the Westminster Kennel Club, beauty pageants, pocket dogs, and prostitutes. I’m relieved to find out what the thread is really about.
Carry on.
Ha ha, sunspace
Fetchund, I guess I live in a place which is not all up in arms about that. I’d be interested to know more about it if you would care to elaborate. 
Doctor Who good one . heh.
Can I just throw this into the mix.
I hesitate even to suggest it, but is there a chance the bumper sticker was just horribly racist?
That’s my guess also. Many of these laws are aimed at dudes who breed pitbulls.
Perhaps a tiny chance, but in that case, the cartoon dog wouldn’t have been brown.
Sounds racist. Maybe pure bred is a code word used by them to spot each other.
Pro purebred? Dunno, but try saying it fast more than three times.
My guess is that it’s a backlash against ‘designer dogs’. Designer dogs are just a way for pet stores to cash in. I was in a local pet store the other day, and they had various designer dogs there, selling for outrageous amounts of money. Like, $1100 for a mutt that was crossed betweeen a miniature doberman and some other little dog.
The problem with ‘designer dogs’ is that their parents don’t have to have a pedigree, come from known stock, have genetic testing, or any of that. And since designer dogs don’t breed true, and there are no breed standards, you don’t even have to have purebred parents. Basically, any kind of mixed-breed dog that looks ‘cute’ can have a designer name attached to it and be sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars, whereas a few years ago those dogs would be ‘free to a good home’.
And unfortunately, the practice leads to backyard breeding, puppy farms, and other unsavory practices.
Mind you, breeding purebreds is no guarantee of healthy breeding practices either. Many purebred breeds have been almost destroyed through selection for certain properties - Bulldogs can’t breathe well. German Shepherds are susceptible to hip dysplasia. When you breed a dog for how it looks in the ring rather than for health or working ability, you create some fairly perverse incentives.
If you ever see a bumper sticker that says AYAK? or AKIA, the car’s owner is probably a Klansman.
My dog simply refuses to vote. I can’t even get him to register.
He says “all the parties are the same.” But maybe that’s because he’s a mutt, and a very haughty mutt at that. (Of course, he prefers that I call him a cur.)
Sounds like a dog breeder bumper sticker to me.
Ever since I saw the movie “Best in Show”, I’ve been hard-pressed to take the whole dog breeding thing seriously. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218839/
If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the rental.
That’s how you always answer? How charming you must be.
And how far into that do you get before the person starts looking for someone else to talk to?
Would you expect a raggedy mutt to have genetic testing? How are (relavitvely new) designer dogs different from other mixed breeds in terms of the ancestral genetic variety that leads to less chances of the defects found in purebreds?
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that.