We already spend government money on this - animal control, pounds and euthanasia. Not to mention prosecuting animal cruelty cases and following up on reported animal cruelty.

A regulated system that ensures responsibility would actually reduce the amount of taxpayer money spent on these systems and less dogs would find their way into pounds (3.3 million last year in the US alone).

It seems many Americans are averse to government intervention, but these sorts of things work well overseas (which is why you don't see school shootings etc elsewhere - in the UK, we trust our government to regulate things in our best interest and we have 0 school shootings a year, no illegal wildlife trade compared to the US, and a better universal healthcare system).

If everyone had the attitude that there are "bigger fish to fry" than animal rights, then we wouldn't have animal rights laws at all and dog fighters (e.g.) wouldn't get prosecuted.

Having said all that - duly noted - the dog overpopulation issue and and the fact that millions of dogs are dumped every year is not important to you. I'm actually surprised that in a sub called r/dogs there is so much indifference. But it also clearly illustrates why millions of dogs are dumped at shelters every year - because even dog "lovers" don't seem to care.