I became aware of an unethical incident within the dog breeding industry in 2013, after I adopted a Japanese Shiba Inu named Goldie. Originally a French dog-breeder named Cathy Louche purchased Goldie for £1,200, from prize-winning breeder Liz Dunhill. Although, months later Louche requested compensation, asserting that a veterinarian had discovered a hereditary condition affecting Goldie's knee. Consequently, Dunhill sent a replacement dog whilst Louche shipped Goldie back across the channel.

However, following Goldie’s subsequent adoption and assessment by a vet, no heredity problem was identified. Instead, her knee problem was a result of trauma, likely a dog-attack, which was left untreated thus lead to malformation and rheumatism. Therefore, …show more content…
Similarly, a Kantian perspective would support this view. Kantianism is a deontological theory that judges morality by examining the motive and rationalisation of actions, rather than the consequences (Crane and Matten, 2010). In Kantianism a lie such as Louche's can never be justified, it violates humanity as it treats Dunhill as a means-to-and-end without intrinsic value. Additionally, this is especially true when applying Kantian thinking to Louche's disregard of Goldie's well-being. Her actions treated Goldie as a commodity without concern of her suffering. Though, Kant claimed humans “have no direct duties to animals” and they are “things we may dispose of as we will”, ergo there is difficulty in applying Kantianism to animals (Wood, 1998). However, I reject Kant's notion and believe humans do have a duty towards animals. Especially for domestic dogs since humans created them through artificial selection, so surely we have a duty towards them at least. Therefore, with some extrapolation, Kantian philosophy chastises Louche's behaviour as morally wrong to two …show more content…
One issue is that the theory is optimistic, as it asserts that humans act according to self-imposed duties; yet in practice it seems as though Louche did not possess a sense of duty towards others (Crane and Matten, 2010). Additionally, two further issues are the theory's complexity leads to difficulty in application and that people tend to make exceptions of themselves in practise (Crane and Matten, 2010). Kant details three multifaceted maxims for ethical decision; even if Louche considered the theory she may have struggled to apply the theory to her situation or may have been able to frame the dilemma to make herself an