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Top 4 to 6 Million Reasons a Year Why You Should Not Start a Dog Breeding Business

That's how many cats and dogs are put to sleep every year in the US alone. Compared to the 10,000 people that are born every day in the US, 15 dogs and 70 cats are born. How many people do you know who live with 15 dogs? And that's if they live alone. To have homes for all the dogs being bred, the average family of four would have to feed and house 60 dogs. Not even mushers in Alaska need that many dogs.

All these "extra" dogs usually start out as abandoned puppies, shivering and starving in a vacant lot somewhere. Eventually they are found, sometimes by nice people, sometimes by not so nice people. Some are used in lab experiments, some are just ignored and starve on their own or get hit by cars or die of disease. Some are "mistreated" by people in ways I won't get into. Most others are captured by animal control and sent to the local dog pound.

At the shelter dogs that are sick or aggressive or just have the bad luck of being born a Pitbull are euthanized. Other dogs typically have anywhere from a week to a month adoption window before the shelter has to give up. Many metro area shelters are so overwhelmed with animals that the adoption window is less than a week. A small fraction of lucky dogs (less than 5 percent) do end up in "no kill" shelters. The Maddies Fund, which established a $250 million grant to support no-kill shelters in the US, is trying to increase that percentage by working with cities across the United States. Letting or not letting animals die in such huge numbers does not necessarily have to be a financial issue -- in some cases the decision is made because of a cultural belief system. Interestingly enough, India leads the world for its no-kill shelters.

Not only are very few of the stray dogs in the US adopted, but most of the lucky pets that do find homes are not from shelters. The Maddies Fund estimates that only 20% of existing household pets are from shelters. The remaining 80% are from breeders and other sources. Many people select dogs that are pure-bred, or are bred by friends, or they simply succumb to the natural human tendency to believe that something that is "new" is better than something that is second-hand.

Unless you have a very long history with dogs and have a true dedication to a specific breed, breeding dogs simply to make money is immoral given how many dogs are put to sleep each year. Not only are you harming all the dogs that will lose homes as a result of your new puppies, but the puppies you are breeding have a high likelihood of never finding homes. What's more, dog breeding really is not a great way to make money, unless you cut out vet bills and feed bad food and breed dogs that are not breeding quality to begin with.

There are hundreds of terrific dog-related businesses to start. Skip dog breeding.

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