“Room for Debate” at NYTimes is a commentary blog which allows outside contributors to post their stances on a particular current issue. With the dog show and PETA’s cockamamie protest on my mind (and as someone who’s owned both mutts and purebred dogs), I was glad to stumble upon this edition: Feeling Guilty About Your Purebred Dog?

They really did a fine job getting people to speak from across the board: there’s a case for purebreds (the predictability of personality traits inherent to a breed increases chances that the dog will be a good match for the owner and thus not end up in a shelter) and a case for mutts (many pure breed puppies come from exploitative breeders who perpetuate genetic deficiencies; mutts come with built-in “hybrid vigor”). But to be honest, the statement that took an entirely different approach was the one that really struck home for me.

Ted Kerasote’s “Assigning Blame is Hard to Do” takes the stance that in this debate, we’re not looking at the real issues: careless breeding and an outdated, inefficient shelter system. Kerasote points out that striving for a specific appearance through drawing from a small gene pool has compromised breeds’ genetic health (e.g. 60% of Goldies in the US die of cancer). He goes on to say that the way our shelter system is currently run, with inconvenient hours and a lack of proactive community involvement, it’s no wonder that more dogs aren’t getting adopted (and are euthanized instead).

Protesters interrupt Sadie's victory march.

Two PETA protesters (thankfully not dressed in KKK regalia) held up signs that said, “Mutts Rule” and “Breeders Kill Shelter Dogs’ Chances.” While I would agree that mutts totally rule, is it really necessary to put all this heat on breeders and others who love a specific make and model? Kerasote wraps up his statement beautifully:

Assigning blame to one or the other won’t do much to bring more genetic diversity into the world of purebred dogs or help shelters operate in more diverse and life-saving ways. Nor does instigating guilt give the slightest nod toward the magic that happens when a person and a dog, purebred or not, fall in love.

Amen, brother.