Street Cents

Pedigree problem

If you're buying at a pet store or getting an unregistered dog from a breeder, you should question whether you want to pay purebred prices for dogs that are essentially mutts. If you're going to dole out the cash, you might as well get a purebred animal that has all its paperwork and a good record of genetic health testing.

Legally, there is no such thing as an 'unregistered purebred'; a purebred dog has to have papers, supplied by the breeder, that prove it has been registered as a purebred with the Canadian Kennel Club. That's what you pay the big bucks for.

Buying from your local Humane Society

Getting a dog from your local SPCA or from a humane shelter is a good option. The animals there all receive health checks immediately after they're taken in. And when you adopt a dog from a shelter, you help out with an animal someone else has given up.

Adopting a dog that's been abandoned helps lessen the demand for dogs from puppy mills since you're one less customer than they had before.

You may argue that by purchasing a puppy mill dog, you are rescuing it from those conditions. You are. But you are also supporting the industry with your purchase. They'll just breed more dogs to fill the gap you created by buying your puppy from them.

Stopping the cruelty

Legislators in Canada are currently debating making Canada's animal cruelty laws more strict. Some of the changes being proposed are to have tougher penalties for animal cruelty and to make animal cruelty a criminal offence, rather than an offence against property.

That means animals would no longer be considered te be property (like a TV or car), but rather that they deserve protection in their own right as living beings.

Right now, the maximum penalties are six months in jail and fines of up to $2,000. Under Bill C-10 (the one that's being debated), Canadians convicted of intentional cruelty to animals would face up to five years in prison and unlimited fines and could be banned for life from owning animals.

original air date: December 9, 2002

Page 1: Puppy mills and Pet store purchase

Page 2: Pedigree problem

Back: to Episode 08