Unintended Consequences

When laws are enacted based on emotion, and not on necessity, there are often unintended consequences. If you are a proponent of the new dog law, was it your intention that hobby breeders "put down" older dogs just to keep the numbers down? I think not. I think it was your intent that breeder would stop having young dogs. Well, one unintended consequence may just be fewer older dogs.

Here is a question that was posed on a list the other day from a hobby breeder in PA. "Where does that leave us who have Hobby Kennels who are not commercial.... . We breed for show. What should we do with our older dogs who add to the numbers but have lived here for 10 to 15 years? They are neutered, should we put them down to reduce our numbers? They have a right to live out their lives the way they were used to living."

No matter what your good intention (you person who insisted that Numbers of dogs are the manner for which Kennels should be defined)- all actions come with consequences. For one, the consequence of feeling pressure to keep the number of dogs within some arbitrary number (determined not by the person is is actually caring for the dogs, but by someone else who is judging that person by the number of dogs they have) is fewer older dogs.