Rant!!!!

I am a member on several Border Collie (rescue) boards.

In the section where BC's in need of rescuing are posted, I've noticed that people make a big deal about reds and merles. It drives me up the wall.

Example: There were 4 BC's in a high kill pound. Two reds and a merle were saved. The black and white boy is still there.

And no one has even backed up with a reason WHY they take the reds over the blacks. One I've heard before is reds get adopted faster. It may be true, but NO ONE should buy a dog based on it's colour.

Maybe I'm just crouchy because it's almost 2 AM. But still.

:mad:

So your breed has the opposite of mine? The red Dobies stay and the blacks move.

Drives me crazy too, but without education people won't change. :(

Thats pathetic, the Black one might be a sweetheart and the other one a evil little thing but they take him/her only for the color? Thats completly WRONG.

Ive noticed that with Dobermans too, Dr Goodnow. Its part of the reason why my dads boy, Max was going to be PTS the SAME day my dad contacted the breed rescue about him.

Now, what is so unadoptable about THIS boy?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...TwitandMax.jpg

The pup in front is my moms mutt (you tell me what she is lol) Twilight.

The harsh realities of rescue work.

They don't want to be mean, but they have to allocate their resoureces as best they can. It is like a 'no kill" shelter realizing they can't take in anymore for a few weeks until they complete some adoptions. Fair? NO WAY. Forced by the overwhelming numbers.

I think of black & white as the classically beautiful border collie. Maybe people just want the "new" model? I think Shelties have the same problem - everybody wants a merle. I'd never even seen merles till a few years ago!
Makes me crazy with my breed too - some people are obsessed about wanting blue-eyed huskies, like having brown eyes makes them a less desirable husky. It's always a key point with advertisers who are in it for the buck -- "We breed for BLUE-eyed husky puppies.", when they should breed for "great confirmation & temperment".

That is sad! :(
The breed is the same no matter what color they are.

the rescues are taking merles over a black and white? thats very odd, most rescues have a h*ll of a time trying to place merle BCs, black and whites are WAAYYY easier to adopt out then a merle...

That's just awful! Kinda like how a lot of black dogs don't very often get adopted! How horrible.


DJFyrewolf- I would snatch up that beautiful Dobe in a hearbeat! I LOVE Dobies- any color! :)

That's strange, and you're right, not at all fair. I'd tend to think that blk/white would be more wanted and adopted out quicker, but reds are definitely getting to be more popular I've noticed. Colour popularity shouldn't matter though. I personally prefer reds and sables, but that doesn't mean I'm going to choose a dog based on colour if I wanted to adopt a BC. Are you sure they're purposely pulling reds and merles? Maybe lately the blacks just don't have nice enough temperaments or something?

It is unfair and sad, no doubt.

However, it all comes down to supply and demand. It's a reality.

If a shelter or rescue has space for only three dogs, they would be wiser to take the three dogs that are most likely to find homes in a reasonable length of time. Given, of course, that they have good temperments, etc.

A simple mathmatical example ... if you pull three highly adoptable dogs from a kill shelter, and those dogs find homes in a week, then a week later you can go back to the kill shelter and pull three more adoptable dogs, etc. Therefore, in a year you have saved over 150 dogs from death.

OTOH, if you pull three dogs from the kill shelter the first week that are difficult to place ... size, color, breed, whatever ... they may not get adopted for months. Yes, you've eventually saved three dogs that would otherwise die. But, in the mean time, in the three months it took them to find homes, 36 other dogs died while the space was occupied. So, you might end up finding a home for twelve dogs instead of 150 during the course of a year.

That's aweful :( It seems very unfair to adopt a dog just because one is "prettier" than the other. I agree with you completely. I hope the black & white doggie finds a home soon :(

Farmers used to, and some still do, cull any bc puppies who weren't black and white. It was thought the black and whites were better workers or something of the sort. Either way, that's the reason the other colors are not as common, and the reason they stand out at all- because the black and whites were chosen over them for the longest time. Personally, I'd pick the one with the best temperment.

What really blows my mind is that these are RESCUERS. If our fellow rescuers are like this, what can we expect from the world?

I am still curious about the rescuers taking merle over black and white, I mean here is a quote from a BC rescue herself:

Quote:

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I can place a traditional looking dog with issues up the wazoo a lot faster than a perfectly stable merle border collie.

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and severl BC rescue folks agree'd that they have a very difficult time trying to place merle BCs because people want the tradistional black and white..

Quote:

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Farmers used to, and some still do, cull any bc puppies who weren't black and white. It was thought the black and whites were better workers or something of the sort. Either way, that's the reason the other colors are not as common, and the reason they stand out at all- because the black and whites were chosen over them for the longest time.

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your history is a little off here, there are not many coloured BCs because the genes are recessive, so if you are breeding only for working ability the chanced of puting 2 dogs together that carry the recessives are pretty slim. farmers didnt need to cull cooured pupsbecause it was very rare to get them in the first place. then there is the probability that of one coloured pup in the litter growing up to be breeding worthy. when their are 8 pups in a litter and say only 1-2 of then grow up to be breeding worthy and only oe of those pups is coloured, the odds are not in favor of the coloured pup going on to be bred. what farmers culled were the dogs that couldnt do the work, coloured or not. thats not to say their isnt a bias toward black and white dogs, there is, but that not WHY there is so few coloured BCs.

It is very frustrating to breeders im sure....As you know i have two traditional Black and Whites,To be 100% honest i have been looking for a red for a long time now,But you are right The reds are spoken for before there even born it seems.

But on the same page,alot of people want what they want,And Reds seem to be it these days,Regardless in Maggy's littler there was a red i wanted her so badly,I never even took a second look at maggy she was coward in the corner not wanting any attention,(the red pup)was right over to me and wanting all attention,But Hubby seen Maggy and that was it she was the one!

And to this day 4 years after,she hardly comes to me she is a one person dog and spends her time with Jamie.

Although I don't think it's fair to pull a certain colour from a kill shelter I certainy don't see a problem with choosing a dog you like the colour of if you still like it's personality.

There are alot of people who prefer certain colours of their breeds or just like certain colours in general.