When breeds go out of style


  • Thank you, Walt Disney and Paris Hilton. People just aren't thinking when they buy an animal because it's cool. Later, when the animal no longer matches their wardrobe, they break its heart by unceremoniously throwing it in pet prison for the heinous crime of being out of style. It makes me sick.


  • As tempting as it is to point the finger at Disney or Hilton, we can't blame them. They actually do seem to love their dogs/animals.

    It's the stupid people that don't think things through when getting a dog (or any other animal), that I want to dropkick…:mad:

    And from what I heard, when President Obama got his dog, that breeds popularity exploded....sigh...


  • @phoenix3:

    They also have a partner ship with a shelter in Puerto Rico and get dogs flown over from there also.

    This is actually one of the things that bugs me. Shelters importing dogs when we still have so many homeless right here in the continental US. Why not work with some of the underfunded over crowded shelters right here?

    One of the biggest issues in our "pet overpopulation" problem in the US is actually about "pet location". Rural shelters are full to capacity with a low number of adopters and then there are certain urban and suburban areas where the shelters have very few animals and an over abundance of adopters. Shelters need network to move the animals from the over crowded facilities to under crowded ones.


  • I asked them that. And the reason they do it is Very wise actually Most dogs from Puerto Rico are smaller sized to Med size and People are looking for those size dogs { not everyone but some people} And if they can place a dog from a fellow shelter rather then have that person that came in the shelter looking for that size dog go to a "pet shop" then it's a win win situation . I understand where your coming from about it . But IMO if they can help any dogs out that need homes while keeping people out of the "puppy mills" i think it's a good thing. Also they don't give the shelter they get them from money they provide spaying and neutering to cut down on there over population.


  • I am sorry but there are plenty of small to medium dogs here that are being euthanized because of shelter over population. We need a better system to help get animals out of the over crowded shelters and to the under crowded ones. Importing rather than looking to make those connections within our borders is not helping our situation. It may be easier because they can get from a single source rather than networking with multiple shelters but in the end we are cleaning up some one else's problem while we turn our back on our own.


  • In many forms I agree with Lisa. Even in Canada, we have dogs brought in from elsewhere. Here's an example. (there is no finger pointing to this, I'm not being vindictive and I will give two examples) The local Humane Society has the audacity to bring in a truckload (ie transport load) of 'Katrina dogs'. These are not first generation dogs as evidenced by the many puppies. Our own shelters are brimming with dogs and they have 'dog and cat reduction rates' every so often. We also had a bunch of dogs from remote northern communities also brought down for adoption-many had never been socialized. In doing this, they taxed every resource they had and again, the local dogs suffered. Wouldn't it be better to send a team of vets down for a couple of days or a week and spay/neuter as many dogs as they could catch? It's the same problem all over.

  • Houston

    Sad story..makes me mad to read…Since when is a pet an accessory? That is what brought most of this on..all the little dogs in purses..with clothes on, jewelry and polish too...sad.


  • The reasons I do point the finger at Disney and Paris Hilton are these:

    I saw first-hand the result of 101 Dalmations…the explosion of BYBs producing deaf, ill-tempered dogs who usually had to be put down because suddenly everybody "had" to have a cute Dalmation puppy. Disney's responsibility in this is glorification of have huge numbers of dogs without at least setting out a disclaimer about not adopting a dog if you can't take care of it.

    Ms. Hilton is so shallow that every item she comes in contact with becomes an accessory. "That's hot!" until it enters her closet and pees...then it's "out." Ms. Reese Witherspoon brilliantly showed our young people how to use an animal as a fashion statement in her film "Legally Blonde."

    My irritation is aimed at Hollywood in general rather than specific individuals due to its celebration of irresponsibility, ridiculous values and bad behavior. "Fad dogs" is a symptom of this.


  • I have loved, for more years than I care to count, the animated, original, Disney film '101 Dalmations'. It never made me want to, specifically, get a Dalmation, just a dog. I have never seen the newer, live action/CGI version. If that is the reasoning for some to get a dog (of any kind) than they don't have the right mindset for any pet. Same goes for those who's life model is Paris Hilton and her "purse dog".

    Come on, the 'twilight bark'? How can you fault that? In the original, the animals do more with sound than we can do, 45 years later, with our technology…..🆒


  • @AJs:

    The reasons I do point the finger at Disney and Paris Hilton are these:

    I saw first-hand the result of 101 Dalmations…the explosion of BYBs producing deaf, ill-tempered dogs who usually had to be put down because suddenly everybody "had" to have a cute Dalmation puppy. Disney's responsibility in this is glorification of have huge numbers of dogs without at least setting out a disclaimer about not adopting a dog if you can't take care of it.

    Ms. Hilton is so shallow that every item she comes in contact with becomes an accessory. "That's hot!" until it enters her closet and pees...then it's "out." Ms. Reese Witherspoon brilliantly showed our young people how to use an animal as a fashion statement in her film "Legally Blonde."

    My irritation is aimed at Hollywood in general rather than specific individuals due to its celebration of irresponsibility, ridiculous values and bad behavior. "Fad dogs" is a symptom of this.

    Well I strongly disagree, but I do understand you point of view, since so very many people feel that way.

    I sure don't, nor can I, blame movies/books/video games/actors etc for what people do. Sure they can inspire, and people idolize, but it's the person that acts on this "urge" whom is the one responsible for their actions.

    The disclaimer is a bit much. If we have to start warning "stupid people" not to do what they see…well....we will have to put disclaimers on everything! They are already on dangerous reality/stunt shows (as they should be), but once we cross over to animated Disney family movies...well then we might as well start putting them on everything.

  • Houston

    Here in the states there are disclaimers on everything…
    I once saw a disclaimer on a ladder..."not to place it in dogpoop before stepping on it"..I mean come on..is that really needed? But I guess it is..

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