Wag the Dog

It truly was a sad day in Mudville today when I opened my issue of Dogs In Canada. I really miss all the stats that DIC used to print in their monthly ‘Official Section’ and because of this I look forward to the ‘Dog & Litter Registrations’ issue and this month was it.

It was (to me) so sad to read that in 2008, in all of Canada, there were absolutely no registered American Staffordshire Terrier litters. Zero, zilch, nada!!  The smaller in stature cousin to the AmStaff, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, is still hanging in there with 21 registered litters in 2008, an increase from 20 in the previous year.

I wonder what’s going on with breeders across the country, in provinces where it’s still legal to breed AmStaffs?  We need those breeders to keep their lines going, to help ensure that the breed doesn’t die off in Canada! We need actual breeders who know what they’re doing to make certain that temperaments are sound and stave off the backyard breeders that don’t care about temperament or the people buying their puppy mill puppies.

I enjoy reading statistics, but I’m really scared that my breed of choice, the AmStaff is on it’s way to becoming a statistic.