~ The Questionable Breeder ~
Leave the War Behind!
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support Triangle Sheltie Rescue!
If it were in my power to do, I would see to it any- and everyone who has read, or is reading, my words, could understand them in the exact context in which they were written. It is unfortunate this is not something that will ever be, but I am ever hopeful, and so will remain hopeful perhaps some day this might prove reality, ending the confusion for all time to come.
I always receive much response from people when I stand up and speak out on various and sundry topics. Perhaps one of the most sensitive of those topics is rescue, puppy mills, breeders, and the cohesive interaction of these three. I am always amazed, when reading these responses, at who people really are, in the end.
This does not stop me from wishing others - all others - could understand I am no different than they. I am simply willing to share thoughts in a public forum that might otherwise be kept hidden away in privacy. I am simply willing to offer to the world another side to the story, and am - ultimately - willing to accept the consequences for my words.
You can trust I have been accused of many things. I have been chastised, thanked, cut down and blamed. I have been exalted and damned. Accepted and denied. I do not feel I am unique in that when I am cut down, I know how to - and do - pick myself up, dust myself off, and live to rant and rave another day.
I've been around the block a few times and know these things of Human Nature, but it never ceases to amaze me how others believe their words are the only words worthy of sharing.
We cannot learn to respond (rather than react) to sensitive situations or topics of discussion, nor can we gain insight and knowledge others may possess that we do not, without engaging in sensible discussion. Whether the topic be the color-headed-white sheltie, or a particular breeder whose morals we question, it is all for the better of us, and therefore, in that crooked way we hope, for the better of the breed as a whole. Are we not our own ambassador?
So question!
Learn!
Grow!
Gain strength!
Whether we question the puppy mill persons, a questionable "breeder", a person with no morals, I believe now and will always believe it is good we be reminded there are still folks out there who need our encouragement, our education, our wisdom, our understanding and, quite probably, our assistance. And if those people aren't listening to us screaming at them as we breeders so often do, I believe it behooves us to find a way and a means to help them hear us, and attacking them - which tends to be our first line of defense - is not the answer.
In the "heat of a moment" it is likely impossible to be consciously aware that with whomever we have chosen to embattle ourselves, whether it be in argument or actual physical confrontation, we are always going to the table ill-prepared. Entering into anything on the defensive never produces a good or sensible outcome. People who are attacked never hear the message the attacker is want to give - all they see, hear, feel, is the attack itself.
I honestly feel it is my duty in this present moment, to offer to the world at large that perhaps we need to stop and consider; maybe we need to recount our blessings, and remember exactly where it is we came from, way back there in the beginning. So many of us came to be breeders because we bought a sheltie from a pet store, or we bought a sheltie from a less-than-reputable breeder, or whatever. And though we may readily stand tall and accept it is here from which our beginnings hail, I believe it is our responsibility to make the honest attempt to provide education to those we question.
Who knows how many puppy-mill-like breeders we know or know of, are where they are doing what they are doing only because they know nothing different? Who knows how many whose morals do not pass muster, do not pass simply because they are ill- or uneducated? Does where we are today really and truly set us apart as being different? Didn't we change our own ways of thinking once we entered the realm with an open heart and mind? And I wonder, how many just simply stumbled upon an open or public e-mail discussion group and learned which category fits them best, and immediately did everything within their power to do, to alter their presence into one more befitting the title "breeder" as we know "breeder" to be today?
For more information, please follow any
of the links provided below.
A Breeder's Responsibility to Rescue
One (Former) Breeder's Opinion