Anyone who gives a damn about dogs should read Patrick Burns' recent posts, here and here, on the American Kennel Club's recent contract with a puppy mill distributor. As Mr. Burns points out repeatedly, this is not really a new development, just an explicit clarification of the AKC's longstanding ethical position. Some of the most cutting excerpts:

As for the AKC, their longterm business plan is not much of a secret. The AKC has teamed up with the Humane Society of the United States and PETA to push for legislation mandating the microchipping of all pets. This is a great idea as far as the AKC is concerned, as they happen to own one of the most popular microchip products around. PAWS legislation would, in effect, be a multi-million dollar subsidy for the AKC...

At the same time that all this is going on, the Humane Society, PETA and other lunatic fringe "animal rights" groups have been successfully pushing legislation that would require all non-show dogs to be neutered or spayed. These laws are ostensibly designed to reduce the number of "unwanted" puppies in America, and mandatory spay-netuer laws have already been embraced in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and are under consideration in places as diverse as Sacramento, New Jersey, and Virginia.

Is it just a coinicidence that these mandatory spay-neuter laws will have a very positive benefit for the AKC? After all, if enough of these laws are passed, the end result will be that almost every dog in America will come from a show breeder (most of whom will be affiliated with the AKC) or a commerical breeder (with whom the AKC will have a licensing contract). How perfect is that?

The AKC is a prime example of people claiming to have animals' best interests at heart, while their actions inflict drastic harm on untold numbers of animals. Read the whole thing!

Update: Patrick has a third post up on the subject. Also, I neglected earlier to mention the video he links to of the living conditions for puppies at Petland (not a political video, it was taken taken by some audibly vacuous pop-tarts). The AKC approves of this! Leaving aside the issues of bad genetics, these are not healthy, happy dogs.