Pet Forum That Encourages Breeding!

[chocolatecoffee]

Argh! When I got my second dog (a Maltese), I researched the breed first and came across a Maltese website. I looked at it, thought it was okay but not exceptional, and moved on. I was back on it the other day and found a Maltese forum, and thought it might be a good place to go visit occasionally. Well first off, I guess the stereotype about small dogs and small dogs owner is truer than I thought it was. Some of the people on there just think that small dogs don't need training or boundaries ("Oh, my dog eats rocks too, I just hope she outgrows this habit soon!"), and rescues are unheard of there (although there are some well-informed people, most aren't and I haven't heard any "Don't breed your dog!" just "Now might not be the right time...")! The website doesn't help either, there's a separate section of the forum for Maltese breeders and they have a very nifty book you can buy that lists all the Maltese breeders (guaranteed to be the most extensive list! Great, a whole list of puppy mills and backyard breeders!). Moreover, if you try to talk about rescues or the stupidity of breeding for reasons other than betterment of the breed (quite frankly, I think that reason is pushed a little too much) on one of the countless threads about breeding ("Should I breed my Maltese? She's really cute!" or "Do you know of any stud services?" or, my favourite, "How many times do Maltese go in heat a year? I want to breed my male dog." If you don't know that, darling, I guarantee you you should not be breeding), they delete your post since it's OFF TOPIC! Sorry, but since when is the well-being of animals off topic on any pet forum??? It's a joke! Honestly, I don't care if their dog is just SO CUTE! I think that my dogs are the cutest things on this planet (in fact, I guarantee it ) but do you see them having litter after litter of cute little puppies that could very well be riddled with health problems? No! They're spayed and happy!

Any ideas? It's the forum on www.malteseonly.com. I think that getting good information on the internet, and forums especially since they're so interactive, is essential to stopping all this backyard breeding and all of the puppy mills. I don't post often on here but I visit daily and I think that if it wasn't for this website, my second dog wouldn't have been a rescue (and she's absolutely PERFECT in every single way). I think I'm going to pull my hair out!

By the way, I don't mean to offend small dog owners. I'm a small dog owner myself and have met some great ones out there, I just think that since they're easier to control (if they're misbehaving, you pick them up and walk away), misinformed people think they don't need training and they turn into little brats (of course it's not the adorable little dogs' fault though, its the owners...).