Paul - The conclusions you stated, based on the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science article, are faulty. You state that "24.2% of all dogs in shelters are purebred, AND,that 50% of the total dogs in households are purebred. That means that if you buy a purebred dog, it is less than HALF as likely to end up in shelter, or, basically, you're TWICE as likely to want to keep a purebred dog vs. a mixed breed. And, if you buy a dog from a breeder, your are MORE THAN TWICE as likely to keep it." Correlation does not equal causation. You are attributing to a cause (purebred owners want their dogs more) from a mere correlation (the percentages,) but that's not necessarily the whole picture. These statistics are only relevant to those dogs relinquished to a shelter. Owners of purebred dogs who choose not to keep them may be privately selling them, giving them away or turning in their animal to a limited admission shelter. From these statistics you can NOT conclude that a purebred dog is twice as likely to stay in a home. Dogs are simply changing hands that these statistics don't reflect. So your conclusion is faulty.