No, but they are more likely to have bad things happen to them.

I have met and loved and spend my Saturdays helping to get adopted many mongrel dogs. Most of them are great dogs... but I worry.

• I worry about our lack of ability to predict what traits our mongrels puppies we adopt out will have when grown - will they fit this carefully screened family? It's a crap-shoot. What kind of suffering and frustrations will the family and the dog face if they end up with the "wrong" set of traits for that situation? This first one is why about half of mongrel dogs end up in a different home than their original placement before they are two years old.

that is, I worry about the ability to properly place a dog with unpredictable traits.

• I worry about brains and bodies with incompatible parts - to themselves or to each other. I worry about dogs with the energy level and instinct to run of a Beagle coupled with the flat face of the Pug. I worry about dogs with the nipping/herding instincts of a Border Collie and the size of a Great Dane. I worry about dogs with the gripping instinct of a continental shepherd breed and the worrying instinct of a terrier. I worry about the dwarfism of a Dachshund with the weight of an American Staffordshire Terrier trying to be supported by it.

that is, I worry about dogs who have the wrong combination of traits to be perfectly placed in any home

• I worry about all poorly bred dogs' health and soundness - but particularly about mongrel dogs. I worry about easty-westy fronts prone to arthritis, I worry about recessive traits found in many breeds like PRA. I worry about deep-chested dogs being bred to broad-chested ones and the resulting danger of bloat if the offspring gets both.

that is, I worry about the health problems all poorly bred dogs are prone to

All of that to say - I am very against the breeding of mongrel dogs but it is not because I "hate" dog the dogs, but because I hate the bad odds such dogs get at leading a long, happy, healthy, low-stress, low-pain life. For the already born mongrels I will continue to volunteer and work hard to get them placed, but I have nothing kind to say to breeders making dogs destined to suffer through ignorance or greed (including crap-bred purebreds as well as mongrels) or to the ignorant or uncaring folks who create the demand for more and more such dogs through their purchases - craigslist "rehoming fees" for puppies, pet store puppy mill dogs, newspaper ad or sign-at-the-end-of-the-driveway "Labs no papers $300" purchases, etc.

I care too much about dogs suffering to condone or support breeding that will almost certainly result in suffering.