#showanimals

As September roles around and I am now unemployed and a fulltime college student I find that I want to write more. Not in my required mood journal but blog to a nonexistent audience on tumblr ;-;

I digress, I wanted to discuss my hatred for the Westminster Dog Show and showing dogs and the animal showing community overall. TW to those who are in or support show animals. 

I had worked at an animal hospital for over 2 years and over the course of my job experience there I had realized that I had been completely misconstrued about what I had signed up for at the time of the interview. I had applied for a position as a kennel attendant at this animal hospital in the hopes of caring for boarded and treated pets at the hospital, and then getting experience and a paycheck at the end of the week. Though when I started my first day, I had realized 90% of the animals we would be caring for throughout the shift would be the owners 14 Great Pyrenees dogs. Yes, I am not kidding. 14 Great Pyrenees. Not only are these dogs giant, white, fluffy beasts; but they are all the owners. Now when I state “the owners” I should only be stating the wife in this situation. As the husband mainly is a veterinarian who is passively in a relationship with a animal hoarding, obsessive wife. The man is a kind hearted and cares for the animals he treats dearly. But the wife owns 14 massive canines. Why? Yes, I asked the exact same question. The employees that were already working there and were training me stated that the reason that all 14 of her dogs were living in the hospital were because “where else would she keep all her show dogs” and “how can you loose when you are the competition.” As it came to working there for over 2 years, I had gained more and more insight into the medical world of animals and also the deep problems that came with showing animals. These dogs were kept in 7x4 ft cages for a majority of their life, and the only human contact that they had were us. And as I continued to work there, my supervisor who had been working there for much longer than myself states that it is not uncommon for people to keep show animals at such a capacity. The anger for showing animals only become stronger after that conversation. Breeders continue to breed tons and tons of animals to reach near impossible show standards. And many of these animals are not even given proper homes after becoming retired after showing. This reality is not uncommon for show animals.