Back yard breeding and animal hoarding has always been around but with the internet making it so easy to sell animals quickly and anonymously, this unethical practice is booming. In the city, where one can only have three or four dogs, this type of operation requires keeping the dogs hidden from neighbors. The breeder doesn’t want to risk detection by taking the dogs to the vet so the animals continue breeding – brother to sister, father to daughter and so on – until there are dozens of sick dogs living in filth.
Rosie was born on Valentine’s Day 2010. At birth, she had congenital deformities of the face, jaw, spine, and legs. By adulthood, twice the amount of teeth was crammed into her long, skinny, misshapen upper jaw. Oversized curved teeth hooked up from a half-sized lower jaw preventing her from closing her mouth. To eat she had to scoop food backward into her mouth and roll it back and forth because her tongue was trapped in the back part of her mouth – there was no room for it to stretch out beyond her teeth in that crowded little mouth and there was no way to chew. (…READ MORE ABOUT ROSIE)
If you use or wear a Rosie item, there’s a chance a friend or a co-worker will ask you about her and you have the opportunity to educate them about hoarding, unethical breeding and the joy of caring for dogs with special needs.