Adoption vs Breeding
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One of the biggest decisions you will make when getting a new fur baby is whether to adopt them from a shelter/rescue group or buy them from a breeder. Before you make this decision, it is important to fully understand what adoption and breeding mean and their benefits and downfalls!
Adoptions
Animal shelters’ goal is to save animals’ lives and prevent suffering. Adoption means saving one of the more than 6 million cats and dogs or countless other animals who enter U.S. animal shelters every single year. Shelters take in unwanted, stray, or abandoned animals and provide them with veterinary care, food, water, and shelter and find them loving homes.
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Benefits
- You are saving not only one life but two lives! The life of a loving animal by making them part of your family, and opening up space for another animal who might desperately need it.
- It is less expensive to adopt than purchase from a breeder. Usually, when you adopt a pet, the cost of spay/neuter, first vaccinations (and sometimes even microchipping) is included in the adoption price! Depending on the animal, you may also save on housebreaking and training expenses.
- It is a way to protest against puppy mills. Puppy mills are factory-style breeding facilities that put profit above the welfare of animals. (If you buy an animal from a pet store, online seller, or flea market, you are almost certainly getting them from a puppy mill.) The moms of these puppies are kept in cages to be bred over and over for years with little hope of joining a family. After they are no longer profitable, breeding animals are simply discarded.
- Shelter animals are called rescues because they need a hero to save them. All you need to do to be that hero is to make one decision and adopt your next fur baby from an animal shelter instead of a breeder. Your decision will change the world for them!
Challenges
- Just like people, animals react differently when going through traumatic situations based on their personalities. Some pooches just roll with the punches while others suffer emotional scars from their abandonment or abuse. More sensitive animals may require extra patience to bring them out of their shell.
- You may not know exactly what breed of your fur baby. However, this is only a bad thing if you plan to show. Mixed breed animals are just as smart, capable and beautiful as purebreds.
Breeding
Bad Breeders’ goal is to make money. Breeding is the practice of mating selected animals with the intent to maintain or produce specific qualities and characteristics. Roughly 90 percent of animals sold in pet stores come from large-scale breeding mills. As mentioned above, the moms of these animals are kept in small cages to be bred over and over for years until they are no longer able to breed. While the babies from these factories come out looking pristine by the time they reach the customer, they start life in horrible conditions.
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Benefits
- You can find out what your fur baby’s parents look like which could give you a good knowledge of what your fur baby might be like. You can find out family history, health, and personality.
- You know exactly what you are getting in terms of the fur baby’s breeding and lineage.
- If you’re buying from a good breeder, the animals will already come socialized, be comfortable with household noises, and may even know some basic training commands.
Challenges
- You are responsible for the training of your fur baby.
- Puppies/kittens need multiple vet checks and vaccinations during their first year.
- Breeders are usually much more expensive than getting your dog from a shelter.
- Finding a truly reputable breeder that cares more for quality than quantity can be difficult.
In conclusion, there is no one right way to find a new family member. Adopting and breeding both bring different rewards and challenges.
Whether you choose to adopt or breed, the most important factor is that your entire family is prepared for the many years of responsibility of raising a healthy fur baby with lots of love!
Both options still provide the same outcome; an amazing family member who will in return love you unconditionally for the rest of their life!
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- Tags: Adoption, Blog, Blogs, Rescue, Store bought
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