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Designer Dogs
DESIGNER
DOGS
an exposé
Inside the Criminal
Underworld of Crossbreeding
MADELINE BERNSTEIN
Foreword by Dr. Phil McGraw
Designer Dogs: An Exposé
Inside the Criminal Underworld of Crossbreeding
Copyright © 2018 by Madeline Bernstein.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be sent by email to Apollo Publishers at [email protected].
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Rain Saukas.
Print ISBN: 978-1-94806-206-0
Ebook ISBN: 978-194806-213-8
Printed in the United States of America.
To shelter pets everywhere and to those
who selflessly care for them.
Contents
Chapter 1: The Designer Dog: Name-Brand Purebreds and Custom-Designed Dogs
Chapter 2: Dawn of the Frankendog
Chapter 3: Where Babies Come From: Poorly Bred versus Purely Bred
Chapter 4: The Perfect Storm: It’s Pouring Designer Cats and Dogs
Chapter 5: How Much Is the Lemon in the Window?
Chapter 6: Welcome to the US of A
Chapter 7: How Much Is That Doggie in the 747?
Chapter 8: Subprime Puppy Mortgage to the Rescue
Chapter 9: Breeders Gone Wild, to Go Where None Have Gone Before
Chapter 10: Myths and Magical Thinking
Chapter 11: Where, Oh, Where, Has My Designer Dog Gone?
Chapter 12: There Ought to Be a Law
Chapter 13: Give Genes a Chance
Foreword
by Dr. Phil McGraw
I have spent most of my life, actually since I was twelve years old, focusing on and studying why people do what they do and don’t do what they don’t do. Think about that concept for a minute. If you have real insight and understanding into what motivates people, you have the ability to influence their thoughts and behaviors—not in some nefarious evil way, but just by talking about things that matter to people who care.
That is exactly what Madeline Bernstein does in her groundbreaking, “call to action” book, Designer Dogs. Madeline talks about things that matter to those of us who care, and we all should. We can all have a role, whether passive or active, in the lives of millions of innocent and loving puppies born in America every year.
I jumped at the chance to write this foreword because I want to challenge everyone who picks up this book to ask himself or herself, and implore friends and family to ask themselves, why they are acquiring or considering acquiring a dog. There are right reasons and wrong reasons. And your selection of which dog to add to your family is just as important as the decision to get a dog at all.
Be honest with yourself, weigh the decision carefully. If you are acquiring a dog as you would an item of jewelry or to complete your macho image, and you are making your selection based on what is in at the moment because of some movie or because some person you admire has one, here is some advice: don’t do it.
Furthermore, if the dog you think you want is some high-priced designer dog, then acquiring that dog is nothing short of an act of cruelty and abuse. That dog has been unnaturally forced into existence and is very likely unhealthy and unhappy. For every designer dog purchased, a mutt in need of adoption is left in a cage wishing someone would scruff up his ears and take him home.
Thirteen years ago, I had the privilege of adopting my “shadow,” Maggie. She was an eight-week-old “snowball,” thought to be a Lab/husky mix. spcaLA found her under a foundation at a commercial building site. I think she grew up more Jindo than anything, but it made no difference. When I picked her up and we got in the car, she climbed up on my shoulder and wrapped herself around my neck—and my heart!
For the last thirteen years Maggie has devoted her entire existence on this earth to being by my side. If I go upstairs, she goes upstairs. If I go to the studio, she goes to the studio. If I travel to Europe, you guessed it, she goes to Europe. That’s all she asks, just to hang around where I am. She is the gentlest spirit you could ever imagine, until she perceives a threat to anyone in our family. You don’t want to be that threat! She would fight Bigfoot if he had a chainsaw! Just little Maggie, the mutt.
She won’t fit in a teacup. She has never been in a movie or a TV series. She can’t seem to get both ears going in the same direction at any given time, but she is the
