O.K., the title is a joke.
But only barely.
Though show dog breeders may not be getting rich, many show dog people breed dogs to defray their show ring expenses -- payments to professional handlers, payments on motor homes and hotels, veterinary expenses, etc.
With "hobby" expenses of several thousand dollars a year, selling puppies is a significant part of the economic engine driving the show ring model.
The need for uninterrupted puppy sales is one reason the show dog world is so resistant to change.
If show ring folks could not sell their current crop of dogs because an AKC standard had been changed in order to improve canine health, that would be a serious economic hit.
There is another reason breed clubs are resistant to breed standard changes, and an increased focus on canine health issues; it is a negation of their own life and their own expertise.
What does it say about the breed club, and its breeders, that the dog they claim to love so much is now in such dismal shape?
Dogs are not dying young and in pain because they are committing suicide.
Entire breeds have not been wrecked by accidental vehicle impacts.
No, the story here is quite a bit sadder than that. It is a story about a lot of people with misplaced priorities intentionally breeding dogs, and the horrific results they have achieved despite decades and decades of putative expertise "in the breed."
For these folks to admit that the results achieved have been a collective disaster, has a huge emotional cost attached to it.
They are in the same position as the person who has given this or her entire life to a company only to be fired in humiliation, or the wife who has been married for 25 years who comes home to find her husband in bed with another man. Was the whole thing a joke? A charade? Did this investment of my life mean nothing?
Little wonder that a lot of people are willing to do almost anything not to have to face those questions!
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