I think it is the people who love their breed that do :)

>Do you think the General public would be less inclined to buy poorly bred pups, given that in popular breeds there seems to be a ready market for pups without any registration..

To be honest I think the general public who just want 'a pet' don't care two hoots about registration, or there'd be no market for the currently popular crosses. The majority think registration is only important if you want to breed or show.

To be honest I think the general public who just want 'a pet' don't care two hoots about registration

I don't think it is so much that they don't care - after all there are so many people who have KC registered dogs which are poorly bred as seen from discussion in this thread- I think it is more a case of they don't understand  how it all works.

The best people to educate the public is the KC which even the "general" general public recognise as an authority on dogs. I would guess if you asked Joe Public to name one organisation that was associated with pedigree dogs the KC would be top of the list, in which case they need to be educating the pet dog owning public as to the need to buy from reputable breeders with health tested, well bred lines.

Yes there would still be people who would buy whatever was cheapest regardless of quality but average pet owners such as myself would certainly take note. I can't see the KC ever doing this though all the time they continue to register dogs which are not bred in a responsible, healthy manner. How can they discourage something that they  themselves are endorsing through their own registration scheme. :(