Reading the thread title, I first thought the WKC had finally figured out that Pedigree is crappy dog food. But so is Purina, so that's not it.
I just find this difficult to believe - are they really that out of touch?
99%+ of purebred dog breeding should not be taking place by the ethical standards of quality hobby breeders or kennel clubs. Good breeding is not sticking some random purebred pets together and selling the resulting puppies to whomever can read a newspaper ad. Good breeders only breed show- or working-dog competition champions for the purposes of creating new potential champions. They sell the pet-quality pups with spay/neuter contracts (as well as many other contractual terms) and keep the potential champion-quality dogs or sell them on limited contracts to new upcoming breeders. They don't breed until they have a waiting list for their next litter; they perform genetic testing to ensure that they won't be passing on genetic defects to future generations; their puppies come with a health guarantee; etc., etc.
The purebred dogs you find in shelters did NOT come from quality breeders (with very rare exceptions), because a quality breeder will take a dog it produced back at any time in the dog's life, for any reason. Also, good breeders are almost always, at least at some point, involved in their breed's rescue efforts. People who know what good breeding is and only buy purebreds from good breeders are also often the same exact people who participate in rescue and adoptions.
Bad breeders - the kind who just breed their own pets - are what contributes to the dilution of the breed standard. They are the ones whose puppies end up in shelters, because they fail to do the necessary investigations of potential buyers to ensure that they are responsible people who are serious about the commitments involved in pet ownership, as well as seeking the right breed for their lifestyle. They are the ones who result in some breeds' bad reputations, by breeding dogs whose personalities should not be passed on and by selling puppies indiscriminately to idiots who are unable or unwilling to raise and train dogs properly. They are the ones who are contributing to massive shelter overpopulation, by allowing their buyers to let the puppies reproduce willy-nilly a few years later.
In other words, the goals of quality breeders and kennel clubs and the goals of animal rescue are the same. Or at least, they should be. WKC should have no part in the promotion of bad breeding, but it looks like that's what they're after, which just makes no sense to me.
