Dear President Obama,

About six months ago, I signed a petition asking, no begging, you to get the dog you promised your children from a shelter. You agreed to do this, and could have done this with ease. There are thousands of purebred dogs, non-allergenic “purebred” dogs and other non-allergenic dogs, in shelters around the country.

These dogs need homes, you had a wonderful home to give. These dogs are as much your responsibility as are all the human animals in this country, and yet, this morning I find out that you spit in their faces and in mine, and in the hundreds of thousands of other people’s faces who asked you to please, be responsible and pick a dog from a shelter instead of supporting a dog breeder who is directly responsible for contributing to the deaths of millions of canines per year - dogs that are “euthanized” in shelters around the country because someone like you went out and bought or got a dog from a breeder instead of going to the shelter.

Perhaps you think that because the dog you selected was “returned” to his breeder, you were somehow “rescuing” him - indeed, I keep seeing the synonym “re-homed” used. However, I think you and I both know that these “prestigious” breeders would not have killed this dog, nor would they have dropped it off at their local shelter to have someone else do it for them. Someone else would have come along for the dog (maybe even the Kennedys, gasp) and while I would have had some choice words for them too, and the breeder, they pale in comparison to the sinking feeling in my heart that you,  the President of the United States, would lie about doing something good, and instead promote something so horribly, horribly wrong. In fact, by taking this dog, you are making it easier for the breeders to breed more! If someone comes along and rescues them from their actions (i.e. choosing to breed the dog) by taking responsibility for them, why think about the consequences?

By choosing to get a dog from a “prestigious” breeder, you are throwing your support behind the continued use of these animals as mere commodities, and you are promoting the over population of dogs by breeders, which directly leads to the deaths of over 5 million animals per year. You knew (I know people have told you) that by doing this, you would promote this. You knew that by choosing not to get a dog from a shelter or rescue, you are telling MILLIONS of people that it’s okay to run out and purchase a dog from a breeder at the expense of one who needs a home.

Perhaps you studied the economics of supply and demand in college, or are familiar with them from the economic disaster we’re currently experiencing? Your actions are going to create a vast amount of demand, which will increase “supply” and the increase in “supply” will result in an surge of dogs in shelters, dogs who will be killed. That’s on you.

I cannot personally fathom why you felt it necessary to lie to the American public about this dog. Perhaps those figurative snakes at the AKC bribed you into changing your decision - they’ve been all over you for weeks. Perhaps you decided you wanted to be more like the Kennedys and hey, when Ted Kennedy offered you figured the American public would never figure out the difference between rescued dog and breeder’s dog. Do you want to emulate the prestigious upper class that badly, really? I though you were supposed to be a man of the people, not a member of the rich upper class. By choosing not only a breeder, but a “prestigious” breeder, the Kennedy’s preferred breeder, you are splitting yourself off from the rest of the nation and ascribing to a tradition employed by the same class of people who probably enslaved people not so dissimilar from you. Why? You can’t have it both ways - either be a man of the people, be like us and get your dog from the shelter, or be a Kennedy - and I don’t mean that in a good way. Your choice is a representation of everything that is wrong with the social class to which people like the Kennedys belong, and I have to say, I thought you were better than that. I thought you’d at least pretend not to want to be part of the American aristocracy, but here you are. Next thing you know you’ll be out hunting pheasants and going fox hunting.

When I first heard that your family had agreed to get a dog from a shelter, I was overjoyed. Finally, I thought, we can start on the path to promoting the well-being of animals as a nation. Like most of the country, I believed that you would do the right thing, the thing you had promised us. I guess you really are a “Washington” politician after all. So much for change.

Yours truly,
Jennie Ruff