Thought for the day: if you don't know anything about it, why make more of it?

Last night, I saw an advertisement on a local classified website for "heeler puppies".  Not many stock dogs are advertised on this particular website, so out of curiousity, I clicked through.  They were blue heeler pups, about 4 weeks old, in that cute little ears starting to stand up, hair starting to blue-out stage.  They weren't registered and weren't "breed standard" - most of them had some body spotting. 

The ad text read that these were "the white kind of blue heelers and both mother and father have some of the white hair the puppies have."
Now, if you've never seen a blue (or red) heeler or aren't familiar with the breed, you probably don't know that the pups are born white and color within the first few weeks of life.  Blues will have black paw pads and skin; reds will have tan/chocolate colored paw pads and skin.  But, someone who has a male and a female that they clearly don't care to neuter and spay, someone who clearly intends to breedbreedbreed, should be aware of this very basic fact.  A "breeder" who doesn't know this, probably doesn't know what vaccinations to give a puppy or pregnant bitch dog, when do deworm them, doesn't know a good working dog (that has a chance at a good home) from a hyperactive, obsessive-compulsive house-destroyer that's going to sooner or later end up in a shelter or rescue or abandoned because very few people want to try to re-train a heeler that's been ruined by an ignorant owner.  Nor do they care whether they are breeding the former or the latter.

I use the heelers as an example for uneducated horse breeders.  Horse owner has a mare of no particular breeding that's been a big pet for 9 or 10 years; they decide to breed her because the neighbor has a stud that's a pretty color and it will only cost them $50.  They don't know about fescue toxicity, pre-natal vaccinations, confirming a single embryo versus twins...Mare foals out with complications.  Mare dies.  Now they are raising an orphan that grows up completely spoiled and becomes dangerous.  Now baby that was so important to make is dumped at local livestock sale for $30.

Or, mare foals out fine and has a colt.  Mare and colt live together, colt is never weaned.  It's so cute how much they "love" each other.  Owner never considers gelding the colt because he "wouldn't do that with his mother."  Two years later, colt starts running through fencing to get at other mares.  Colt is loaded up and sold at the sale.  Original mare has a foal in the dead of winter; it dies of hypothermia before owner notices mare has foaled.  Congratulations, owner of mare.  You are part of the problem.  Gelding is a cheap procedure.  $75 to $150, and you won't have to worry about any stallion "problems".  Not every stallion needs to keep his testicles, and not every mare needs to be bred.  Mares don't have human emotions; they don't need to "have a baby to feel complete."  Give me a break - ladies - don't put your human desire onto your horse.