Editorials / Opinion

Seattle Times letters to the editor

Dog show promote an unhealthy business

French bulldogs Bump, on the bottom, and his daughter Fergie, top, during the agility competition, along with owner Tom Hopkins, Saturday at the annual Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show. The event, which took place at CenturyLink Field Event Center, included about 1,700 dogs. (ALAN BERNER/THE SEATTLE TIMES)

My love for dogs cannot in good faith support and celebrate dog shows [“It’s showtime for canines,” NWSunday, March 10].

Because of breeders we still have too many puppies/dogs in shelters who need to be adopted to good homes. This includes purebred dogs. Dog shows promote horrible puppy mills because selling purebred puppies is a very lucrative business.

For this 75th annual Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show, I was appalled at the sheer number listed in the article, “1,700 dogs representing 156 breeds”; it is not just a question of pride for the owners but it is a business, an unhealthy business, very costly for the dogs’ welfare.

Furthermore, purebred dogs often have health problems caused by overbreeding. Mutts are much healthier.

It is time to ban or at least boycott these canine shows where purebred dogs rule for all the wrong reasons.

Animals are not ours to use or abuse in any way.

–Claudine Erlandson, Shoreline