I can see where longdogs is coming from and I appreciate that dog rescue compounds have far far too many dogs but, if you take longdogs argument to the limit, you could equally argue that we should adopt children before 'breeding' our own or not have children at all because there are too many living off of rubbish heaps in Indian slums. Its sort of an anti capitalism argument also (not that I'm any great capitalist) but dog breeders breed dogs that people want to buy don't they? They are satisfying a demand. And surely the biggest problem with regard to dog rescue centres is that people get dogs but then can't look after them. Anecdotally I suspect that a high proportion of people that pay a lot of money for a dog will not be the type of people who can't look after them. In Skipton recently for example three working border collies all sold from specialist breeders for upwards of £4,500!!