posted April 10, 2009 09:45 PM            

Fifteen minutes of fame turned into four months of bitter remorse for the Chester County woman who sold the Bidens their adorable little German shepherd puppy.

Linda Brown's been investigated, scorned and had her life threatened.

"I thought when Joe Biden bought a puppy from me, what an honor," Brown told the Daily Local News. "Out of millions of breeders in the country, in the world, he picked me."

That was December.

When the story got out, Brown faced backlash from pet lovers who thought the Bidens should have opted for a shelter over a breeder to find their new puppy.

PETA seized the moment as an opportunity to blame the killing of shelter animals on people who buy from breeders. The organization's TV commercial, "Buy One, Get One Killed" ran in Delaware after the Biden puppy story made headlines.

Dog wardens from the state showed up at Brown's Wolf Den kennel, repeatedly, for inspections.

"I was cited for a piece of kibble on the floor and five strands of dog hair. They took a picture of that, they walked around, snapped pictures and don't tell you why," Brown told the newspaper.

She was found "not guilty" for each citation, but hiring a lawyer for the court hearings has cost her $4,000 so far in legal fees.

Brown says she and Biden both received death threats from animal activists.

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"Never, never, never again," Brown said about selling a dog to anyone with a high profile.

posted April 10, 2009 10:00 PM            

I don't care whether or not people want purebred animals. I really don't, it should be a personal decision.

My issue with people having an issue about breeders is as follows ....

Take puppy mills/pet shops. Horrible, right? Absolutely despicable. But it's not the animals' fault what those people do to them. The reason these places are so awful is that they encourage the continued practices of puppy mills because of the profit made from selling those puppies.

Then you have shelters. Again, what has happened to those animals is not their fault and I applaud people who work taking care of those poor animals. However, the existence of these shelters also increases the bad behavior on the part of owners. Get tired of your dog? No big. Just dump him at a shelter. Someone else will deal with it. Were too lazy to get your dog neutered/spayed or to keep them in a safe, enclosed place? Just drop off their babies at a shelter. Many of these places rely on donations and volunteers and abusing them selfishly is just unacceptable.

IMO, the only responsible way to go about getting a dog is from a reputable breeder. Not necessarily a pure bred breeder but someone who does not want to profit off the dog, who is limited in how many litters they produce and who actually takes care of the animals include socializing, house training, medical issues, etc.

So although I think it would be noble to adopt an animal for a shelter, I think the most responsible choice is to buy from a breeder and make sure that you have proper responsibility for your dog so that they don't end up contributing to the problem of overful and underfunded shelters.

Anyway, I don't think threatening responsible breeders does anyone any good and neither do I think it's anyone's business what kind of dog you get. Wherever they come from, the animal itself is blameless and just needs love and a safe home.

posted April 10, 2009 10:18 PM            

But that compassion statement may not always be true. What is true though is that Obama and Biden are fake creatures. Its my opinion anyways , yours may be different.

posted April 11, 2009 12:59 PM            

These clowns waxing hysterical about animal rights is akin to Hitler lamenting the killing of Jews in Germany.

This is the group which takes dogs, puppies, cats and kittens from animal shelters and private parties promising to find them good homes....then kills them and leaves their dead carcasses in dumpsters behind shopping centers.

Likewise, there is no excuse for "puppy mills" who will breed any dogs to produce a litter of puppies for sale. That would include some of the worst examples of the breed standards as adopted by the AKC..American Kennel Club.

I agree with Eleanore. Those wanting a pure breed puppy should go to a reputable breeder who elects to breed for temperament, fitness and adherence to the AKC breed standard.