Ugh, No: Usher Wins a Goldendoodle at Auction

Usher wins a $12,000 Goldendoodle at a charity auction. How many things are wrong with that sentence?

This weekend, at the Pencils of Promise gala in New York City, Usher bid $12,000 in a celebrity auction to take home an adorable and "coveted" Goldendoodle, beating Justin Bieber's manager and former Gossip Girl actress Jessica Szohr (Vanessa from Brooklyn), and everyone went home dumb and happy, according to US Weekly.

All well and good, right? Wrong.

Our biggest issue: Dogs should not be prizes in anything, even if people such as Usher and Justin Bieber's manager are involved -- especially if Justin Bieber's manager is involved.

Here's what Dogster writer Anneli Rufus had to say about puppies as prizes horrorshow on Toddlers and Tiaras, and it's just as valid here: "Excuse me, but randomly matching a dog with whoever happens to win? On how many levels is this wrong? Human-dog chemistry is almost as complex as human-human chemistry. Winning a puppy is like being forced to marry your blind date."

Next: a $12,000 Goldendoodle? So the $0 rescue dog you were going to save from a local shelter and give a great life to fell through, huh? Shoot, and all that great publicity you were going to get for your charity, Pencils of Promise -- a charity dedicated to educating children -- for doing the right thing and raising a rescue out of poverty is now going to get berated by someone from Dogster. Win some, lose some.

"We are proof that a generation empowered will empower the world," says Pencils and Promise founder on its website. Okay.

Finally, you had to go with a hybrid? If you weren't going to save the life of something, couldn't you have prevented another round of dumb fascination with designer dogs? Not that we dislike hybrids -- we dislike the cult of hybrids, which sends backyard breeders into fits of bad decision-making. We dislike celebrities such as Kim Kardashian buying a teacup Persian kitty and then sending the tweet “My new baby Mercy! #TeacupPersian,” making the phrase "teacup Persian" rocket up Google rankings and leading Phil from Arkansas to rejigger his backyard kitten-mill operation in the dead of night into something even more unholy.

To the charity's credit, though, Usher's Goldendoodle is freaking adorable. We hope he and his kids give the dog -- named Poppy Raymond (Usher names all his kids Raymond) -- a great life.

What do you think about charities auctioning hybrid dogs? Let us know in the comments! 

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