Every once in a while, you run across a headline that makes you go “hmm.” The other day I ran across the following gem: “Pet Store Bans Drunken Puppy Buying.” After I looked twice to be sure I read it correctly, I realized the headline makes a lot of sense. After all, how can a puppy make a good owner choice if it is drunk? And if drinking and driving is bad (and it is), how can you condone drinking and selecting an owner?
Coordination is an issue too. Puppies have a hard enough time walking and navigating around a room to begin with; imagine the effects with alcohol added. Our first dog, Shadow, as a puppy, loved to run through tunnels she had made under the bed between storage boxes at night at full speed – until the night she made a wrong turn and slammed into the bedroom wall. (We didn’t see it, but we heard it.) How much worse if she had been drunk.
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| Shadow and Woof: Always Crazy, Never Drunk |
We all know that alcohol impairs judgment and a puppy’s judgment is questionable at best; I suspect with alcohol it would be nonexistent. The first week we had our gentle giant, Darwin, aged one year, he tore out our porch screens in three days. (He liked the ripping sound.) With one or two daiquiris beforehand, not only screen replacement, but also a vet visit would have been in order, since his lack of balance would have precipitated him over the 15-foot drop between the porch and the ground. (Vets are much more expensive than screens, for those of you keeping score.)
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| Darwin, Our Gentle Giant |
And let’s think a minute, people – is it really a good idea to give a mind-altering substance to an animal that loses its mind when it experiences its first car ride with the windows down or its first potato chip? For that matter, how exactly do you give a puppy a breathalyzer test and what is the legal limit for puppies? The enforcement issues are mind-blowing.
So, kudos to the pet store for the courage to take a stand and here’s hope for the rehabilitation of all those drunken puppies!
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