Dogs, being lovable and loyal as they are, make fantastic companions for everybody looking for a pet. This unfortunately makes pure bred dogs, especially puppies, into a popular and valuable commodity that has led to dog breeding becoming quite a lucrative practice. Thankfully, there are many reputable dog breeders for people to adopt from that provide the appropriate care for dogs’ physical and behavioural well-being.
However, some breeders prioritise the potential for profits over the welfare of the dogs under their care. The scale of operations handled by these unethical breeders vary greatly depending on how much they can handle, but the smaller operations, called “backyard breeders”, are by far the most ubiquitous, especially in Sri Lanka.
Unlike the large scale ‘Puppy Mills’ that can breed hundreds of dogs at a time, Backyard Breeding, as the name implies, are small enough in scale to be operated out of a breeder’s home backyard. Backyard breeding operations can start out from a simple pet owner owning or has access to a pair of breedable purebred dogs, who figure they can turn a quick profit without knowing, or caring to learn, the intricacies of dog breeding.
Profit motive
Due to how easy it is to start these unethical breeding operations, and how small scale and private they are, it is difficult to detect. Also unlike “Puppy Mill” operations, backyard breeding is not always for the purposes of profit or even deliberate, with some pet owners simply allowing their dogs to mate, without considering the ramifications of doing so. This leads to severe dog overpopulation and contributes to the stray dog population when these dogs are inevitably abandoned.
Some of the deplorable practices that differentiate a common backyard breeder from a reputable one include very little actual genetic screening of the dogs being mated, and no concern for inbreeding, which can lead to health defects in puppies. These defects may not be immediately obvious either. A perfectly normal seeing puppy adopted from a backyard breeding operation can develop illnesses and defects later in life, such as skin diseases, vision or hearing impairments, and hip dislocation.
Quite commonly, dogs in the care of backyard breeders are mistreated and aren’t likely to receive veterinary attention. In the case of dogs not bred for the purposes of selling, they may get into fights with each other, or be brutalised by their owners resulting in untreated wounds that fester.
While these backyard breeding operations are virtually undetectable, as a potential dog owner looking to adopt, there are certain signs that can indicate an unethical breeder. For one, they will not be interested in screening potential buyers. Most reputable breeders care for how the dogs they sell end up, will seek reassurances of the good treatment of their dogs and usually are willing to accept the return of a dog regardless of reason.
Overbreeding
As backyard breeders only want to sell their dogs, they would ask nothing of the adopters and will want nothing to do with the dogs after the transaction. Another easy tell is the refusal to show customers where the animals are kept, as this would reveal the poor conditions of their breeding operations. A sign of a backyard breeder before even interacting with them would be if they have puppies available for sale, all year round, as this would be a sign of overbreeding.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of backyard breeding operations, it will be difficult to regulate or report these unethical practices. And as things are, Sri Lankan law isn’t capable of providing the proper regulations and protections for animals in breeding farms like backyard breeding operations. But while local animal rights activists and organisations such as ‘Tails of Freedom’ are doing their best to facilitate change and cultivate awareness, the responsibility still lies with breeders to be humane and empathetic towards the dogs that depend on them.
It is also vital that potential dog owners do their research when looking for dogs to adopt, and to consider non purebred dogs for adoption, as it is this unreasonable demand for purebreds that results in unethical profit minded breeding operations.