A new English documentary covers the problems associated with breeding purebred animals. The documentary even covers how these breeds have changed in the last century as long as the breed-specific diseases associated with many breeds. The show will be appearing on BBC America for those who are interested in watching it.

The recession has led to tons of animal surrenders and more shelter pets than ever before, but you can help. PetFinder has a great list by location of rescue groups in your area that are participating the Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays program. The goal is to provide even temporary loving homes to dogs, cats and other animals in need. –Of course, organizers are secretly hoping that you fall in love with the animal and keep it after the thirty day foster period, but even giving these pets love for thirty days can help, so look into helping out a critter this month.

If you’ve ever wondered why you will almost never see a mix with a puli (that’s the rasta-looking dog to the right), it might surprise you to learn these guys almost were erradicated in World War II. Aparently there was less than 100 at one point and thanks to selective breeding they’ve been able to bring the numbers back up.

That fact and more are some of the fun things you might learn from this blog post on Interesting Facts About Unusual Dog Breeds.

It’s not every day you get a win/win opportunity like this one…only every week. Puppynamer has a great website where you help to name the dog of the week. When your name is picked, you get $10. For every name submitted, an animal charity recieves $.50 and for every vote on the names, the charity earns another $.25. What a great and fun charity idea!

I like the idea of niche dog blogs…I mean, this is a bit niche itself right? But at the same time that Muttskis and Fuck Yeah! Animals With Casts work becauese they’re niche, Ican’t help but think that DogBlog, which specializes exclusively in dogs in San Francisco that are tied to things, might be a little too niche. There are some cute dogs here, but surely the being tied to things is going to get old. Thoughts?

First off let me say that Bo looks like a great dog and I’m sure the Obama family will have years of happiness with their new pet. That said, the president missed a few great opportunities by adopting a pure-bred dog from a breeder.

The breeder the family’s dog came from sounds like a reputable and legitimate pet breeder, which is good. The bad part is that it will open up the door for back yard breeders and puppy mills to start selling Portuguese water dogs and average families are likely to be too poor and/or too ill-educated on the dangers of these puppy factories to say no.

Everyone is expecting the popularity of this dog to sky rocket and not adopting an animal from a shelter could be a crucial blow to rescue centers that are currently over-full and under-funded. Now, more than ever, shelter pets could use some extra love and this was a big opportunity for the Obama’s to help out.

As far as the breed itself, Obama initially said he was interested in getting a mutt “like himself,” which he seemed to go back on completely. The advantage to the family doing this is that a huge surge of popularity for “mutts” could benefit all mutts -particularly if the dog’s heritage itself were hard to identify. This could really help out shelters who are loaded up with tons of mixed breed dogs. Many shelter pets will be put to sleep this year and the first family could have made a huge difference in the number of euthanized pets.

The dog choice of the president may be good for his family, but it’s quite disappointing to our nation as a whole.

New Orleans has recently announced plans for the city to celebrate a Week for the Animals. This needs to be a worldwide holiday. Muttski’s readers, thank you pets and all animals in this world on the week of March 21-29.

Think of everything animals have done for us and let’s lend a helping hand to make their lives better in return. You can volunteer at you local shelter, donate blankets to the shelter, donate money to an animal charity or just take your pup on an extra long week, just celebrate!

As much as I love tripeds, it sincerely saddens me to know the spunky pups that survive so well without one of their limbs are doomed to die a very untimely death. It’s great to hear about advances like this one that help dogs who are handicapped due to accidents or birth defects live normal and lengthy lives.

Petside has a great contest where you can choose your favorite of 15 shelter animals. Every shelter included in the contest will be recieving a donation and the shelter that houses the winning pet will recieve $2500 towards vacinations. One great thing about the contest is that you get to see how many of the 15 have already been adopted.

Purebred mutts have been bred for their looks for so long that they are now starting to become more stupid and less agile as a result.

Score one more point for little mutts in the world.

Link Photo Via Andy Flisher [Flickr]