A sad but all too common story

 I stood looking at the young Golden Retriever on my examination table. She was a product of undistinguished breeding, a rather shy puppy with an undershot jaw. She had come in for treatment of her skin allergies. As I stared at the dog, her owner spoke.

     “Yeah, Doc, I am gonna get Star spayed sometime. But first I’m gonna let her have a litter. There’s a guy down the street who has an old male dog. His dog can hardly get around any more, and he wants a puppy from the dog before he puts him down. That way, we’ll both get pups, and I’ll be able to sell the rest and get back what I paid for Star.”

     I cringed as I contemplated what Star’s owner had just said. All he could see was the opportunity to satisfy his and his neighbor’s desire for more dogs and to make a little money on the side. He did not see what I saw, the plight of the rest of his ill-conceived litter.

     The parents of this litter would contribute much to the next generation of Golden Retrievers- jaw and tooth problems, bad hips and personality problems, with shy, fearful  dogs. Assuming that this typical Golden litter was 9 puppies, that left 7 pups to be sold to unsuspecting buyers. I envisioned the pup with the undershot jaw its mother passed to it, its teeth wearing on each other, breaking and causing pain. I imagined the 3 pups which people bought on impulse; these pups would probably be taken to the gas chamber at the local shelter when they got to be too big and active for their new owners. Those were the lucky ones. There would be another pup, dumped in the country by an apathetic owner, certain to be hit by a car or attacked by coyotes. I hoped someone would find this unlucky pup and bring it to me to be put out of its suffering. Then there were the last three pups. At least one of these would certainly inherit its mother’s temperament. This pup, if not adopted to the right home, would surely end up biting someone, probably a child. The new owner would bring this “vicious” dog to me to be euthanized. The last 2 pups, like many of their littermates, would probably have inherited their father’s bad hips and their mother’s allergies; their mother may also have contributed to their bad hips, since hers were never x-rayed. Their lives would be a constant battle with pain, until their owners finally would have to have them euthanized before their time.

     Seven lives, all wasted so that one person could get their dog’s son. So that another could make a few dollars back on his investment. I hoped it would be worth it to them, because it was going to make me, 7 pups and several families suffer unspeakable misery.

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