Friday 20 March 2015

The Finns can teach us something about our mutts

Val says When we first got Bonny nine years ago I wanted to breed her, she is so lovely. Then I started going to walk dogs at Figeac refuge, and saw all the dogs incarcarated there. I thought why on earth would you keep breeding dogs when thousands of lovely dogs like these need homes. Until the problem of over stretched refuges is solved I would say " no more breeding"  Most dogs are lovely pets and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Kenza over the road is the sweetest girl but no one would call her anything but a Heinz 57 but as she is often at our house we really love her. I am with the Finns in that we need to change the mind set of having a "posh special breed dog" and enjoy the mutts about. I have recopied the Finland approach, where their refuges are practically empty.. so it can work, changing mind sets.
In Finland
One important part of our work is the international adoptions. Although our main priority is to permanently reduce the number of stray animals, we also want to recognize the dogs as individuals. According to WSPA there are about 475 million homeless dogs in the world, which accounts for 75% of the whole canine population. In Finland many people wish to adopt a homeless dog, rather than buying a pure bred puppy and (thankfully) Finnish shelters cannot meet this demand.
We always encourage people to adopt homeless animals in Finland, but if there isn't a suitable dog in the Finnish shelters, then adoption from abroad is a very good alternative.

- See more at: http://www.koirienystavat.com/en/projects-adoption#sthash.aPUXQWE2.dpuf
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