Joe lives on a completely isolated island where he has the only dogs—a nice, happy, healthy, beautiful, unrelated adult male and female. Joe asks everyone on the island, and 4 of them would really like a puppy and are committed and capable of providing a great home and life. Should Joe breed?
- NO! Joe should NOT breed because he might produce more than 4 puppies. It is better to let the species go extinct than risk having a surplus.
- YES! Joe should breed so that there are future dogs, 4 of whom have great homes. If there are more than 4 puppies, he should place the healthiest, nicest, best structured puppies in the 4 homes, house any extras humanely (in a shelter or with Joe) until a home becomes available or they die of old age.
- YES! Joe should breed so that there are future dogs, 4 of whom have great homes. If there are more than 4 puppies, he should place the 4 healthiest, nicest, best structured puppies in the 4 homes, and try to place the others, but if after all reasonable efforts have been expended there remain any surplus puppies, their lives should be ended as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Which of these do you believe is the right choice and why?
(Of course, this is not intended to be read literally—it is ridiculously inaccurate and oversimplified. And I am sure many people will point out the many complications that prevent this question from being applied to reality… It is intended as a thought experiment—a small isolated question to think about that might help to clarify an underlying core notion. In my opinion, anyone who is going to contribute to discourse on the topics of breeding and rescue and reducing shelter populations ought to have thoroughly considered this question.)
4.) Yes. Joe should breed the dogs. Puppy wanting families will have to commit to more than one if there’s a surplus. Who doesn’t want at least two dogs?!
I agree. Why are they limiting it to one dog per home anyway when Joe has two?
I’m with Joasia. There are no guarantees when breeding dogs – not on number of puppies, or on health or soundness of said puppies. Extinction is permanent, better think that through on option #1 – a few too many temporarily is preferable to none at all forever. There is nothing about sex of puppies, or color, or personality mentioned, so having 4 homes for 4 puppies is just too simple, too mechanical. Choice is good, right? And puppies aren’t widgets off an assembly line, all the same.
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I would chose the 2 yes he should breed but keep any he didn’t get a home for until they do
Yes! He should definitely breed his dogs! Although, I’m not set on one of the answers. He may have found 4 owners ahead of time, but once the puppies are here more people will want a dog. If there are no other dogs on the island he probably won’t have any trouble getting rid of them.
Not to mention the fact that nowadays we can ship dogs.