[ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: Commercial breeder bills
- From: "Ginger Cleary" <cleary1414@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:16:28 -0400
Cross-posted with permission:
I've spent some time talking to commercial breeders who were hit with
the Virginia commercial breeder bill. Here are a few of their stories:
1) One breeder had 63 dogs when animal control arrived to tell her she
had to cut down to 50 immediately. She called the local shelter who
said they would be happy to help. She groomed her older bitches, who
were mostly no longer being bred anyway, and took them down to the
shelter. She said very tearful goodbyes and came home depressed, feeling
as though she had let down her old girls. She got a phone call that
night asking her how old the girls were -- she said they were nine to 12
years old. The shelter worker said, "Wow, they seemed much younger than
that." Two days later she called to see how the girls were and if there
had been any placements. She was told they had all been put down
because they were "too old to place." I had the unhappy job of telling
her that those dogs would not have fallen under the law anyway -- it
reads "50 breeding dogs." If they were retired, they were not supposed
to be counted in her limit. No regulations were written for the law, so
it's up to local animal control to interpret however they want and this
one apparently decided to ignore the part that specified the limit was
for breeding dogs only.
2) Another breeder has 24 dogs, which puts her well below the "30 dogs
= commercial breeder" threshold. She was harassed repeatedly by a
"humane investigator" who insists he has the right to come onto her
property to "count her dogs." (He does not have that right unless there
is a complaint.) When he eventually wore her down, he agreed she did not
have enough dogs to constitute a commercial kennel, but wrote her up for
having weeds in the dog yard. I have no idea what part of the law weeds
in the dog yard would be under, but she now has a "complaint" listed in
her county. Incidentally, the weeds he complained about were trees
called Tree-of-Heaven or China Sumac. We have them in our dog yard too.
They are considered weeds by horticulturists and will grow anywhere
(even through graveled dog yards). They provide shade in the summer and
virtually disappear in the winter. Now this breeder has to put up tarps
for shade...much more attractive (not) She said wistfully, "I think the
dogs enjoyed having the trees."
3) A third breeder had a visit from animal control a couple of weeks
ago. He and a representative from the state vet's office inspected her
kennel and found nothing wrong except some tartar on some dogs' teeth.
(The vet asked her if she brushed them every day.) She had 50 dogs the
day they visited and as they left, the ACO asked, "So are you a
commercial kennel or not?" The breeder just smiled and said "You tell
me." Seems like a harmless enough exchange, but if she IS, she has to
comply with a whole lot of regulations she does not have to comply with
if she is not. And animal control apparently does not know whether she
is or not.
4) One exceptional commercial breeder whose set-up would put many show
breeders to shame is not able to get a waiver to allow her to have more
than 50 dogs. (The law allows counties to hold hearings to allow
exceptions) The reason? Because her county is afraid of the mobs of
ARs who would show up at the hearing and "give the county a bad name."
Just because I am so impressed, I have to tell you this breeder keeps
about 100 dogs, (or did until now), has a staff of four in addition to
herself and her husband, has a groomer who comes four days a week, a
standing Friday appointment with the vet, will take back any pup she has
sold, places her bitches at age six, and if any of those placements
don't work out, the old girls come back to her to stay for life. She has
also taken in old bitches from other breeders and chastised them for not
placing those girls when they were younger. This same breeder was
visited by animal control two hours after she called the sponsor of this
bill to voice her concerns. He looked around and told her she had been
set up, and left. The last time AKC inspected her, the inspector looked
at all the empty pens and said, "What have they done to you? You were
one of the best breeders we had."
5) Breeders who used to skip seasons on their bitches now have to breed
them every season because they have half the number they had. Breeders
who once took back puppies who didn't work out are now afraid to because
it will put them over the limit.
And we won't talk about the "puppy moonshiners" who simply moved their
dogs out of sight and are thus now out of reach of the most basic animal
welfare laws.
Yeah, go for it North Carolina. It has really helped the dogs of Virginia!
Sharyn
Sharyn Hutchens
Timbreblue Whippets -- http://www.timbreblue.com
Legislative Liaison:
American Whippet Club
Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders
Shenandoah Valley Kennel Club
Stonewall Kennel Club
------------------------------------
Ginger Cleary, Rome, GA
http://www.rihadin.com
All dreams of fairness, become dreams of tyranny..Andrew Klavan
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