Her.meneutics: The Problem with Westminster Kennel Club's View of Pet Adoption

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The Christianity Today women's blog provides news and analysis from the perspective of evangelical women. We cover news stories and books related to international justice and evangelism, pregnancy and sexual ethics, marriage, parenting, and celibacy, pop culture, health and body image, raising girls, and women in the church and parachurch.

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February 15, 2012

The Problem with Westminster Kennel Club's View of Pet Adoption

The annual dog show could have served as an imperfect model of the love the Church could offer.

Caryn Rivadeneira

In some ways, the story made a decision much easier for me. No longer would I be tempted to duck out of a family birthday celebration early to catch Westminster Kennel Club’s (WKC) 136th Annual Dog Show. Now I would gladly miss it.

Why? The WKC’s decision to part ways with longtime sponsor Pedigree. The reason? Because the ad campaign famously highlights and encourages the adoption of shelter dogs in its often sad-eyed—but beautiful—commercials.

“We want people to think of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show as a celebration of the dogs in our lives,” David Frei, the club’s director of communications and the host of the show, told The New York Times. Frei felt the Pedigree ads shamed people (a technique I have also criticized) instead of celebrated dogs.

The Pedigree folks see it in a different light, of course. Melissa Martellotti, a brand communications manager for Mars Petcare US, the makers of Pedigree, told The New York Times, “They’ve shared with us, when we parted ways, that they felt that our advertising was focused too much on the cause of adoption and that wasn’t really a shared vision.”

That the WKC didn’t share a vision with rescue organizations is something I have long realized. Where humane societies urge the adoption of homeless dogs of all ages and stripes, sizes and mixes, the WKC encourages the purchase of purebreds from reputable breeders or adoption of purebreds from reputable rescues. Where humane societies rightly celebrate the wonder of all dogs—purebred or pure mix—the WKC dog show celebrates the best of the best: particular, specific, Kennel Club–ordained breeds.

Having the pro-adoption Pedigree ads appear during the show helped me make peace with these discrepancies of “vision.” It made me believe that dog lovers of all ages and stripes, sizes and mixes could maybe come together in a shared love of both the dog show world and the rescue world.

While my dog-loving heart will always belong first to those involved in animal welfare and rescue, I always had an affection for the dog show circuit—even as I’ve always found plenty to criticize about dog shows like Westminster Kennel Club’s. I hold them somewhat complicit in the over-breeding of dogs and even the abuses at puppy mills, and I certainly scoff at some of their ridiculous frivolity (for more on this, see Christopher Guest’s hilarious Best in Show).

But still, there’s something I love about these dog shows, something the “celebration of the dogs” that WKC’s David Frei spoke of. There’s something quite wonderful about a competition that doesn’t focus on appearance for appearance’s sake and that doesn’t really even make participants compete against one another. Instead, in a dog show, the dogs (and bitches, since, of course, dogs are technically only the boy ones) compete against their “breed standard.” The breed standard holds the ideal specifications for coat, teeth, gait, size, temperament, and so on that presumably ensure that breed can best do what it was meant to do. The dog-show world groups and judges according to gifts and purpose and doesn’t put one set of gifts or purpose or even gender in competition with the other ones. Each dog is judged against its ideal.

Part of what I love about dog shows is that I wish the human world was like this—or at least our churches. Imagine if instead of wasting our time fighting over who was allowed to do what, we simply celebrated the gifts we’d each been given. Imagine if instead of judging ourselves against people created with different gifts and purposes, we focused on the gifts we’d been given and judged ourselves against our own “breed standard.”

Of course, our breed standard shouldn’t be anything a committee or clubs debates and decides. Instead, our breed standard can be found in the life of Jesus Christ and in the Word of God.

In Romans, we read: “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”

In short, whatever we were “bred” to do, we should do it—and do it as Jesus would. Not measuring ourselves against each other, not comparing ourselves to the different “body parts.” We are to measure ourselves only against the standard of Jesus—with a heaping helping of grace, that is.

Of course, one of the areas where this analogy falls apart brings us back to the WKC’s desire to keep viewers from seeing the sad reality of millions of dogs living in shelters.

In the Christian arena of life, though we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, this shouldn’t ever blind us from needs of the world. In fact, keeping our eyes on our own Breed Standard means we must keep our eyes on what we Christians were made to do first and foremost: love our neighbors. And loving one another means remembering one another—staying mindful of those who are suffering, lonely, or who are waiting to be loved and rescued. Even, especially, when it interrupts our celebrating.

Comments

"Part of what I love about dog shows is that I wish the human world was like this—or at least our churches. Imagine if instead of wasting our time fighting over who was allowed to do what, we simply celebrated the gifts we’d each been given. Imagine if instead of judging ourselves against people created with different gifts and purposes, we focused on the gifts we’d been given and judged ourselves against our own 'breed standard.'”

Love this Caryn. What truth found in such a creative reflection.

"In the Christian arena of life, though we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, this shouldn’t ever blind us from needs of the world." What a great way to describe the awareness we are to have in Christ, an awareness both of him and of those around us. Nicely put, Caryn.

I'm right there with you on rescue dogs too. We adopted one, a Rottweiler and Australian Shepherd mix as best we could tell, and couldn't have asked for a better dog.

Cheers,
Tim

This may be stretching the analogy a little bit too far, but I think that often we run into problems with what we think the standards should be. Our understanding of who we should be is flawed. English bulldogs have been bred selectively to the point where they can not naturally reproduce - all of them have to have c-sections to deliver the puppies. German shepherd dogs now slink so low that many "high quality" GSDs have to be euthanized years earlier because of joint problems. Our "standard" for these breeds has lost the functional aspect, and with that, we have bred the purpose out of our purebred dogs. I would argue that in the church as well, we focus on appearances, and neglect the functional aspect of who we were meant to be. Like I said, I could be stretching the analogy, but I think that it is worth thinking about.

Nice column.
Your analogy to the Christian life aside for the moment, I think that companies like Pedigree should be encouraged and applauded for their principled stand (by everyone who loves the animals God created, and therefore particularly by Christians). I just wrote a comment on their website "contact us" form telling them that. I've had a problem for a long time with groups like the WKC who essentially ENCOURAGE the breeding of deformities into dogs-- many of which cause pain and illness to the "designer" animals -- merely for appearance's sake. It's most certainly a form of abuse. And they supposedly love dogs. Tell me God approves of treating any of his animals creatures in that manner....

Great thoughts, Caryn. I had not heard about the WKC/Pedigree split. That's troubling, especially for the reasons you mentioned. We've never bought a "real" dog from a pet store or a breeder. Every single dog we've owned, and will ever own, has been rescued from a shelter. And love has abounded, both ways. Thanks for shedding (pun intended!) light on this.

Gosh, I love dogs, and I love this piece! I have three purebred dogs, but each one falls far short of the breed standard and found their way to our home for being "misfits."

I, too, have always loved the way dog show competitions judge each dog against their own breed standard. I never, ever thought of how that can (and should!) apply to our individual gifts and callings in the church.

Love this post! Thanks, Caryn.

I realize that my comment is unrelated from your point in this article, but I would ask you to give it consideration.

As an adoptive mother, I am disappointed to see you using the terms "adoption" and "pro-adoption" in regard to dogs. I understand that companies like Pedigree and organizations like the Humane Society regularly use such terms, but as Christians, we should understand that the term "adoption" signifies something far greater than what takes place when we rescue an animal.

Melissa, the word adoption has more meanings than a human taking a child as his or her own. It is even used ot inanimate objects and amorphous concepts. For example, a person can adopt an idea. So applying it to animals is not linguistically suspect nor ungodly.

Blessings,
Tim

As a purebred dog owner, dog show exhibitor and Christian, your article offends me and I find that your perspective is narrow and does not see the full picture as to why the Westminster Kennel Club chose to drop Pedigree as their sponsor and allowed Purina the opportunity to celebrate the dogs we have in our lives. Did you watch the commercials that played during the broadcast? If you were drowning in a lake or ocean and a Newfoundland jumped out of a helicopter to rescue you, you'd be thanking your lucky stars that dog willingly did his job for what he was bred to do.

Pedigree has fallen way to animal rights activists pushing us as a society to only support shelter dogs and making them seem they are the ONLY dogs to "rescue" and own. "Adopt, don't buy a purebred dog. Breeders are evil" is the mantra of animal rights. The true agendas of organizations like PeTA and the Humane Society of the United States are to legislate us all into no longer owning pets, eliminating agriculture and farmers and we would be doing exactly the opposite of what God commanded us to do. He commanded us to have dominion over the animals and to care for them for their purposes in our lives. If laws continue to push through that say we have to spay and neuter every single dog, you will never be able to own another dog again. We won't be able to breed any pets. And the animal rights agenda will have succeeded. You won't even be able to adopt a dog. No dogs will exist. And if you think I'm being over-dramatic, do more research. Dogs are being shipped from shelter to shelter in the U.S. to make them appear as if they have more animals than usual to keep their funding. God doesn't say to eliminate animals and not subject them to man. He clearly states the opposite.

Dogs serve a purpose in our lives and the people (like me and my husband) who own and breed a litter every 1-3 years are doing exactly what God commanded us to do.

Dog shows are meant to serve the same type of judgement as livestock shows - judging the breeding quality of livestock for their job. Their form and function is judged at a dog show. A few examples: terriers were bred to help keep down vermin; sporting dogs were bred to help hunters; herding dogs were bred to help shepherds.

To say purebred dogs can't really function, I have major issues with that statement. We care the most about our dogs health and what kind of a life our dogs have whether they are in the show ring on weekends or never hitting the ring. We spend thousands of dollars on health testing before ever breeding a litter IF we breed a litter.

Our dogs spend every day going on walks, playing with their toys, working sheep when driven to a pasture with a herding instructor, sniffing out rodents in our yard or in "earth dog" trials, educating children about responsible behavior around dogs, bringing smiles on elderly faces when visiting nursing homes and, on the weekends, they participate in dog shows. They are the finest examples of the canine companions.

The Westminster Kennel Club spoke to Pedigree about their advertising and asked them to consider changing their messaging to support the pure bred dogs. Pedigree didn't want to. Westminster decided that if Pedigree wasn't going to support the efforts of all the breeders and owners and exhibitors that care the most about health and function of the dogs that are shown at Westminster, they needed to change sponsors.

To try to say that Westminster's choice to drop Pedigree as a sponsor is about "adoption" and being a Christian and how God loves all of us and we need to be more open is a narrow-minded angle. It should be about recognizing that God made animals for a reason, every animal has a job, every dog has a job and has been bred for that job, and the Westminster Kennel Club supports those of us that love our dogs enough to take the responsibility to keep them around for the love and enjoyment of every owner - breeding/show quality or not. We love them and take responsibility for their entire lives should something ever happen to the owners. That is what the Westminster Kennel Club asked Pedigree to support and Pedigree has turned their back on the very foundation of why we have dogs as pets in our country.

Do more research on the true agendas of PeTA and the HSUS and you'll see that they are going against what God commanded us to do.

Pilar, methinks you protest too much. As an owner (and previous shower) of three purebred, AKC registered dogs myself, I love the purebreds for the very reasons you describe.

But this, much like the law and grace, judgment and grace, is not an either/or situation, but both/and.

We can celebrate the breeds and adoption. The point is to love and care for ALL of God's creatures humanely and compassionately (which is, by the way, the EXACT mission of the HSUS, conspiracy theories aside).

And let's keep things in perspective: God created the species; man made the breeds. His design is perfect; ours are imperfect--but worth celebrating, nevertheless.

I know many good purebred dog owners, breeders, and exhibitors. I have never seen any of them begrudge adoption or the humane societies that want to end cruelty in any form. Celebrating and protecting ALL dogs should be our common goal.

That is the point of the post and a point I would think any dog lover would agree with.

KSP, you got the balance just right, as did this article. We have a friend who breeds purebreds who are internationally recognized. She also runs a large rescue operation and places dogs for adoption constantly. The two pursuits are extremely compatible.

Tim

Melissa, as an adoptive mother myself - and a Christian - I agree that to say one has adopted a dog bares too much similarity to the way we use it to refer to the adoption of a child. It is not like saying "I have adopted a habit," where clearly the object is inanimate and the word is being used rather figuratively. A hundred years ago if someone said "we're adopting" no one would ask "a dog, or a child?" You never could adopt a dog. Yo rescued a dog, or bought a dog. Dr. Russell Moore in his book "Adopted for Life" makes this same point. Many people are blurring the lines between their "animal children" and their children, and as Christians I think we should stand up for adoption as the special privilege of being the children of God, bought for us by the blood of Christ. It is that eternal adoption that we image when we adopt a child who is not of our own bloodline and make them equal heirs with our biological children, as we have become heirs with Christ. I think it is far more respectable to say that you have "rescued" a dog, but "adopted" a child. I encourage my entire family not to refer to acquiring a new pet as an "adoption" because think about the message that sends to my adopted son.

That aside, I loved this article. A very interesting parallel!

Great article! I love purebred dogs and I love watching dog shows. However, I think it is imperative that we never allow the value of dogs as conscious beings to be eclipsed by their physical shapes and colors. As much as I love celebrating the beautiful, specialized dogs in the show ring, I think that ensuring every dog has a chance for life, love, and happiness is far more important. Surely we don't suppose that God intended us to preen and dote over a treasured few of His creations, while quietly discarding the others because they weren't "fancy" enough for our tastes.

To Pilar: although I have no desire to eliminate pet ownership, I would support restrictions and perhaps even a *temporary* moratorium on deliberate pet breeding. I don't think we should be making more dogs when there are literally millions of them dying in shelters for lack of homes. (The majority of these animals are "adoptable" -- no severe health or behavior problems. They just need someone to choose them, instead of a puppy/kitten from a pet store or breeder.) The current situation, in which unlimited breeding and unlimited euthanasia are allowed, makes animals into disposable objects. This isn't responsible dominion; it is an expression of our selfish, careless consumer culture.

Finally, I'm sure that you are very concerned about the welfare of your animals, but that doesn't mean that every breeder is, not by a long shot. There are absolutely breeders out there that only care about making a buck, and don't test their stock for hip displasia and other inheritable health problems.

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