Alert! For anyone thinking of adopting a pet from a rescue organization...

[moriah]

43. A pet *should* be like a child and not be "owned". It is a living being, not a piece of furniture.

As for kids going to the park unsupervised, I hope DU learned the tragedy involved in those cases when the neighbor kid murdered an unsupervised child in his trailer park this summer. You're risking your kid's life leaving them unsupervised, and there are laws against it for a reason.

There's no law against letting a dog be unsupervised in the back yard (except for obvious neglect cases where the dog is left without food and water), but if the dog gets out, you're responsible for what happens to it and any damages it does to others. I don't know how I'd feel signing a contract that said a large dog had to be supervised inside it's fenced-in back yard, and I'd probably ask for clarification on the issue, explaining for example that I had to work and would prefer my dogs to be able to get exercise while I worked rather than be cooped up inside, bored and stressed, all day.

How would you be a "bad guardian" by letting a dog play with toys?

And you should understand, that whole possessiveness (my puppy forever) of being responsible for them for the rest of their lives is how animal shelters feel about the animals they adopt out. They want their dogs and cats to have "forever homes". Why do you deny shelters the same rights you claim for dogs you breed?