The White House goes to the dog -- or is it the other way around?

So, a particular dog is having its day -- specifically, the Obamas' new dog, the Portuguese Water Dog named Bo (after 10 actress Bo Derek).  And this is, of course, a good thing for the two little girls who wanted a dog.  However, I cringe at the thought of the impact Bo's arrival will have on the pet world.

A few years ago, Finding Nemo created a world-wide demand for clownfish as the worlds' children clamored to their parents to get them their very own living, breathing Nemo for their home fish tank.  As a result, the gentle, colorful clownfish was desperately pursued by an army -- or navy, rather -- of greedy, amoral tropical-fish hunters, their eyes only on profit.  The clownfish was fished to the brink of extinction, and the coral reefs they live in were irrevocably damaged by the rampaging hoardes of fishmongers.  (Coral is a living thing, and a vital component of the reef ecosystem.)

Now we have a similar problem looming with the Portuguese Water Dog.  Just as, last November, millions of American babies (and Kenyan, no doubt) were christened "Obama," the pet world must now gird its loins for the impending demand of millions of Portuguese Water Dogs.  The business of the breeding of dogs is as cutthroat and short-sighted as the business of fishing, and the over-breeding of a dog often leads to the breed's demise.  Who can forget the Akita distaster of the 1980s?  Akitas were sold by corrupt breeders to nouveau riche New Yorkers as "the perfect Yuppie Puppy," and the subsequent demand for the animal corrupted the breed almost to its extinction.

President Obama promised at one point to obtain a shelter dog for his new home, and a mutt at that, as a symbolic gesture to his heritage and to the bright beacon of hope he brought to tens of millions of Americans.  How I dearly wish he had remembered and kept that promise -- it would have saved millions of mongrels from our nations' shelters.  This was one of our new President's earliest challenges, and in this instance it appears he has failed his principles.