I love dogs. I really do. My family owns two dogs: a chocolate lab and a yellow lab. Their names are: Maizy, which is our older, yellow lab and Kona, our younger, chocolate lab. We got both of our dogs via breeders. Yes, we went to breeders to get both dogs. A lot of people say that one should "adopt and not shop" for dogs, and that one should get their dog from the shelter, because those dogs deserve a nice family to take care of them. While I agree that dogs at the shelter need homes, I agree with my mom that breeders are the safest way to get a dog.
When someone is adopting a dog, they're adopting everything that the dog has. Which means that they may not know anything about the dog's parents medical history. There could be a chance that the dog's parents could both have had a sickness that could've passed down. And if the dog eventually gets the sickness and passes away, and the owner had no idea that the reason the dog, let's name him Rex, had died because of a hereditary disease, then she could've chosen a dog that probably wouldn't have passed away soon.
Overall, I believe that if someone plans on getting a dog, then they should be aware of the dog's parents medical history. Because when you go to the shelter to get a dog, you don't actually know anything about the dog except for the information that the shelter tells you. When someone is adopting a dog, they are also adopting the dog's parents too. In simpler terms than that, when someone is adopting a dog, they are adopting the whole dog, genetic diseases and all. Just like when someone is adopting a child, they find out the mother and father's medical history, because it is implanted in the genes and the DNA.
As I said before, my family got both of our dogs from breeders. And when we were adopting Maizy and Kona, four years apart, we met the mother dog both times. Not only that, but we saw each puppies temperament. If a dog that someone adopts, is vicious and bites others that he does not know, then maybe a person who hangs out with different people every day should not adopt it.
While this is just my own opinion, I understand the other viewpoints as well. I understand that adopting a dog from a shelter is just as good as getting one from a breeder. All dogs should have loving homes, but how they get there, is based on us.
