File this one under “Missed Opportunities.”
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on Instagram recently to tell her 4 million-plus followers that she’d purchased a purebred French bulldog puppy, she didn’t do homeless dogs any favors.
That’s a shame, because shelters are bursting at the seams with loving pups who belong in happy homes. Chances are that when the New York rep posted, and the Fourth Estate swooned, most folks didn’t think about adopting. Instead, they jumped online or rushed to pet stores ready to buy a lookalike.
Ocasio-Cortez’s misguided choice wasn’t universally embraced, though.
The Guardian wrote that she set “a terrible example,” and PETA sent a letter urging her to visit a New York City shelter to see all the dogs who need homes, asking that she pledge to adopt next time—or, even better, to do it now so the two can keep each other company—and encouraging her supporters to “stick up for the underdog” by giving a homeless dog a new lease on life.
I second that emotion. Animal homelessness is a real crisis, and AOC isn’t the only one to compound it. Dogs in shelters lose out every year in the aftermath of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and they will again when the curtain drops this month at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
After poring over every inch of a dog’s body, the judges will decree that another living mannequin is Best in Show. Then, as the “winner” is paraded before the cameras, viewers will start their search engines because that’s the dog they have to have—not one whose life may depend on being adopted.
It’s all by design—literally.
The American Kennel Club (AKC), which stages the outdated beauty pageant, issues arbitrary “breed standards” that put a premium on dogs’ physical traits instead of their health and well-being. And breeders are only too happy to go along. Why? It’s good for business. The AKC has said that it is committed to breeders’ success, an uncharacteristically transparent concession by an outfit that in the next breath insists that it cares about the dogs it exploits.
That’s rich.
The AKC recognizes nearly 200 breeds. If it cared, dachshunds wouldn’t be bred to have elongated spines and short legs—making them prone to debilitating disc disease. Cavalier King Charles spaniels wouldn’t scream in agony because their brains are too large for their flattened skulls. Great Danes wouldn’t have long necks and large heads, which cause them to suffer from a wobbly gait, pain, muscle loss and paralysis, a result of spinal cord compression in the neck.
And dogs with flat faces and unnaturally short airways—like French bulldogs—wouldn’t labor to fetch a ball, walk or even breathe.
Breeders don’t want to roll the dice when it comes to pumping out puppies who conform to the AKC’s dictates. To keep the cash coming, they turn to inbreeding, increasing the likelihood of passing down recessive genes and turning out puppies who will suffer from serious congenital defects, including epilepsy and hypothyroidism.
If you’re dead set on a purebred, visit an open-admission shelter—that’s where the dogs promoted by Westminster or seen with a celebrity (usually purebreds) often end up once their would-be guardians realize that caring for them is a full-time commitment. Or try petfinder.com, where you can search for adoptable animals in your area by various parameters, including breed.
But if your search leads you to a lovable mutt, count your blessings. Not a day goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars for my three amigos—each one a rescue pup. Dogs are just like that, and we’re lucky they love us back.
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