Do What!
This is how many dog & cat breeders react to what I consider to be reasonable suggestion for change.
With FEAR & Hatred, and a load of unneeded wild emotion. With outrage at the mere sniff of the idea that they should ever have to change anything, no matter what harm they cause the consumer, the public, and the dogs themselves.
The truth has been there, in plain sight, the whole time - novices have dropped into a dog show for the first time, seen the truth and commented on it.
But the breeders either could not see the problems, or pretended that they could not notice the problem that they were causing.
I believe, based on my experiences, that SOME of the breeders, are like victims of a cult - they literally can't notice what is clearly there. If they arrive already 'educated' (indoctrinated into the ideas behind dog shows) or if they are naturally crowd followers, then they see what they expect to see.
Other people arrive for the first time, snicker at the dog show people & their dogs, and leave shaking their heads.
I was one of those who arrived already indoctrinated, and had been waiting until I was old enough to get my own car so that I could go to the dog show for the whole day.
I was raised on dog books, they didn't all say the same thing (some were European books), but NONE of them said anything bad about dog shows. People outloud said lots of bad things, but never my dog books.
I believed in dog shows. But I kept noticing things that I just couldn't understand.
Finally, I became convinced that, on a few points, the dog show was doing harmful things.
But when I would mention these things, the breeders acted like they didn't see what I saw - until I became one of them, then when I would tell a breeder about something, they would sometimes snap back that they knew that already, and also . . . then they would drop some info on something that I didn't know yet.
Piece by piece my image of the dog show fell, until I could face the truth - I had believed in a pack of lies.
The breeds are not being improved, they are getting more inbred.
The show doesn't honor the best pets or the best working dogs. Dog shows honor show dogs.
The winners aren't even always bred to be pretty - some are bred to be downright deformed.
Even the pretty ones are often mostly just hair.
And the people? Some are in it for the money - but not usually to make more money, but as a tax shelter.
The losing dogs don't always meet a good end. Retiring dogs often live in cages, are killed (put to 'sleep'), or sold into another situation.
Many of the dogs live in shipping crates (not even big ones), or cages.
And the vivisection and product testing industries overlap with the dog breeders!
All the related industries, from dog shelters, to groomers, to people who sell dog crates and ribbons, to veterinarians - they all are wrapped up with the status quo.
They fear change. You have to tell them:
Sell bigger dog crates, ones that can be added together to make a 3 room crate - one for sleeping, one for food & water, one for, uh, the newspaper.
Make them give ribbons for usefully trained dogs, or good pet dogs, or the whole card house will tumble very soon.
Breeders do a lot of veterinarian work themselves, shots, dewclaws, ears & tails - you are better off with each person having a max of 2 unfixed dogs, so don't worry, the reforms wont hurt you, they will help you.
And show people: once you get use to breeding towards better goals, it isn't that big of a change, just a change in direction.
photo:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OtAG.JPG
