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The adoption of a designer dog
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It was a déjà vu scene from a month ago when the Swedish home furnishings store, Ikea, opened its doors in Tampa, Fla. People lined up, camping overnight and forgoing ordinary amenities, in order to get the best bargain. This time, they had lined up for the best bargain on a designer dog.
Last week, people waited in front of Hillsborough County Animal Services for hours ahead of the shelter’s opening time in hope of adopting a pricey designer dog for a small adoption fee. Hillsborough County Animal Services had put 23 Yorkshire terriers up for adoption, confiscated from a puppy mill in Seffner.
According to a St. Petersburg Times’ story by Kim Wilmath, Hillsborough County Animal Services found adopters for all 23 dogs within a short period of time, and most of the people who had waited for hours in line but did not get one of the Yorkshire terriers walked off disappointed without looking around the shelter for another dog.
It is honorable and caring of people to succumb to the drudgery of spending the night outside a building and endure Florida’s scorching heat to adopt a dog rescued from a puppy mill. However, the fact that people find the time and effort to wait for hours to get their hands on a little dog, offered for a pittance of a price that otherwise would be a fortune, but don’t bother to look at any other of the numerous dogs desperately waiting for adopters, dogs that face imminent euthanasia, renders their action self-centered, if not suspect. All those people waiting in line were ready to open their homes to a new furry family member but evidently, only designer dogs caught their attention or fit their lifestyle.
People, attracted to owning a pet solely by the offer of getting a dog for $65 that has a resale value of more than $1000, seem to fail to differentiate between objects and living creatures. Apparently, either greed or vanity drives them to treat the acquisition of a pet like the purchase of a consumer article. Pets, no matter where they come from or how they look, do not fit the definition of a commodity. They are living beings, and each one is valued for its own self and possesses its own distinctive personality.
While volunteers at animal shelters only get occasional calls or visits from potential adopters but have to reject endless calls from people wanting to drop off unwanted pets because of lack of room, many people are craving designer dogs. They will go out of their way to acquire them, competing against each other for a bargain. If they fail, they will keep their eyes and ears open for the next opportunity when officials raid another unethical breeder.
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