Page 314 - ShowSight - December 2019

1. Tell us how you got started in dogs.
2. What made you know that this was what you wanted to do?
3. Who were your mentors?
4. What’s the best thing about being a breeder?
5. What’s is the toughest part about being a breeder?
6. Do you work outside of the home? Does this make your hobby that much more challenging?
7. Is your family involved?
8. Are you involved with a breed club? An all-breed club? Have you held positions within the club(s)?
9. Describe your kennel/exercise areas (optional).
10. How did you come up with your kennel name? Is it registered with AKC?
11. Do you co-breed and co-own with others?
12. Is your breed easy to place? How and where do you advertise available pups or stud service? Anything that would make it work better for you?
13. Some organizations have launched “Breeders’ Showcases” as a special event at their site. Do you think this will give breeders the recognition they deserve?
14. What can AKC do to help breeders attain great results?
15. Much of a breeder’s knowledge is gained by Trial & Error. Any hint or trick you can share with fellow breeders?
16. Do you show your own dogs?
17. And for a bit of fun, what’s the most amusing thing you’ve ever witnessed (or heard about) at a dog show?
JENNIFER E. EMBURY, DVM, JD
When I look into the faces of my clients and see the love and pride that reflects back into their eyes as they proudly show me their beloved animals, I see the face of God and know He feels the exact same way about each one of us.
I’ve been a practicing veterinar- ian for twenty years. I graduated from the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1998 and have lived in the Gaines- ville, Florida area since 1992.
Recently I received a law degree from Western Michigan Univer- sity’s Cooley Law School in Tampa, Florida and am waiting to take the Florida Bar Exam in February.
I was born in 1960 in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in the sub- urbs of Detroit. I had an early and intense interest in animals and biology. I nearly memorized the Encyclopedia Britannica’s sections on dogs, horses and birds. There was no conscious effort involved. I was so focused it absorbed into my mind as a natural process. I often buried myself in my room reading horse stories such as Black Beauty and the entire Misty of Chincoteague series by Marguerite Henry and any animal stories I could find.
When I was about four years old, our first dog was a white Min- iature Poodle named Tutu. One of my books I had was about a Cocker Spaniel that was trained to be in a dog show. I decided I wanted to train Tutu to be in a dog show after reading that book.
Also, my Uncle Bill raised German Shorthaired Pointers and he hunted with them. During my intense reading about Poodles, I learned they were originally used as hunting dogs in France. I called my Uncle Bill on the phone and asked him if he could take me and Tutu hunting the next time he went!
As a teenager, my dad had a Boxer named Rocky and always talked about him. When I was eight years old my mom bought a fawn female Boxer puppy for my dad’s birthday and we named her Roxanne or “Roxy”. When she grew up we bred her to a brindle male and she had three puppies. The entire process fascinated me, from breeding to whelping to caring for the puppies. I was capti- vated and enthralled how one puppy looked like her mother and the other two looked like their father. I’ve had Boxers ever since and I still breed and show Boxers nearly 50 years later.
I became a scientist and veterinarian because science allowed me to live in a world of perfect order. It protected me from the disturb- ing and chaotic world that I lived in during my teens and twenties. It also provided me with a means to make a living wage my entire life and allowed me to survive. God gave me a deep love of science and animals that I expressed at an early age. He knew I would be able to use it as an anchor and a life raft to navigate my way across the tempestuous seas of my life. Science was God’s birthday gift to me.
I see that same deep love in every one of my client’s eyes that they have for every single one of their dogs. They cry when their dog is in pain and they are happy when their dog feels good. There is such an intense bond that every dog owner has with their dog— no matter how rich or poor they are. As a veterinarian, God has entrusted me with a sacred responsibility to preserve that bond.
My interest in law has developed over the past several years and is now merged with my work as a veterinarian. I have been horri- fied to see animal rights groups paint people who love animals and people who work with animals as cruel and morally deficient. It is not wrong to make a living working with animals and something this nation has done with pride since its inception hundreds of years ago. These animal rights groups have made a subjective moral deci- sion that animal enterprises and the character of people who make a living working with animals are cruel and ethically immoral. I have been working with animals and have sacrificed my entire life to their care and welfare and do not consider myself cruel or mor- ally deficient. They attempt to shame us and embarrass us for our love of animals to the point of impotency but we must fight back. They surreptitiously and underhandedly introduce animal legisla- tion that violate our constitutional rights.
As Mindy Patterson from “The Cavalry Group” so eloquently states: “We must protect animal owners and animal-associated businesses against the onslaught of animal rights activism that has infiltrated into local government, state legislature, and congress. We must advocate for animal ownership and animal enterprise which is the cornerstone of private property.
The animal rights activists pass legislation masquerading as being against animal cruelty. We do not have an animal cruelty crisis in this country and we already have laws in place to protect against that. They prey on people who genuinely have a love of ani- mals like we all do. The embed language in the legislation that chips away at due process and ultimately our Constitution by such actions as allowing animal control to peek over your fence and steal your property at their sole discretion.
THE
BREEDERS
310 • ShowSight Magazine, DeceMber 2019