[ SHOWGSD-L ] the new law in Pennsylvania..from Lancaster Online.com
- From: Peggy <pmick12@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Showgsd-l <Showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:46:58 -0500
Kennel owners let out a yelp
Proposed Pa. rules to crack down on 'puppy mills' will also bite them,
they say.
By Gil Smart, Associate Editor
Sunday News
Published: Jan 28, 2007 12:01 AM EST
LANCASTER -
Nina Schaefer's favorite is the one about "lateral recumbence."
Buried deep in 67 pages worth of new dog laws proposed by state
officials to crack down on Pennsylvania's "puppy mill" problem is a
provision governing the size of "primary enclosures" for kennels. They
are, according to the proposed rule, to be big enough so that a dog may
lie in a "lateral recumbence" -- on its side or back with legs fully
extended -- without any part of its body, tail, feet or head touching
any side of the enclosure.
"Haven't they ever seen a dog lie down?" asks Schaefer, president of the
Pennsylvania Federation of Dog Clubs. "Any time I've ever seen a dog
lying with its legs sticking straight out, it's dead."
It is, she said, all too typical of the proposed new rules, which she
and other critics say appear to have been written by those with little
background in animal husbandry, in the intent of putting breeders out of
business.
"Honestly," said Schaefer, "you don't know whether to laugh or cry."
Instead of doing either, breeders, dog clubs and others have gotten
angry, deluging the state Department of Agriculture with comments and
complaints about the new rules, which could go into effect this year.
Officials who back the new regulations -- part of a broad effort by Gov.
Ed Rendell to reform the breeding industry and rid Pennsylvania of its
reputation as puppy mill capital of the Northeast -- say some things
should and likely will be tweaked. But the state has long needed better,
stronger, more specific laws regarding the treatment of dogs, and the
proposed new regulations provide exactly that.
"This is an attempt to improve conditions at large commercial kennels,"
said Jessie Smith, special deputy secretary for dog law enforcement in
the state Department of Agriculture.
Series of raids
Smith, hired last fall to oversee a revamped and strengthened state
Bureau of Dog Law, has begun to crack down on puppy mills. A series of
high-profile raids has taken place over the last month, with one, on
Dec. 21, resulting in the seizure of 23 sick dogs from Long Lane Kennel
in Narvon.
Last week, a state dog law officer charged a Cumberland County couple
with 139 counts of animal cruelty for allegedly keeping more than 60
dogs in unsanitary, makeshift pens. Investigators said most of the dogs
were malnourished, and many were matted with mud and feces.
Animal lovers have cheered the crackdown. The dog industry has been less
thrilled. More than 200 people packed a Dec. 13 meeting of the state's
new Dog Law Advisory Board -- Rendell fired the old one -- and many
attendees were Lancaster County dog breeders, worried that the new laws
might shut them down.
"I think [the draft regulations are] written to put kennels out of
business, not to make kennels better," said Nathan Myer of Lititz,
according to a report in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
Anyone who wishes to comment on the proposed new regulations has until
Feb. 14 to do so. Then the Agriculture Department's Bureau of Dog Law
must respond in writing to each of the comments, before any proposed
regulations can be submitted to the Legislature for review.
Lancaster County has 275 licensed kennels, the most in the state. Many
of the breeders here are Plain -- Amish or Mennonite -- and the
emergence of dogs as a cash crop has helped keep Plain families down on
the farm. Without the income from dogs, "many families wouldn't be able
to pay their mortgages," said Ken Brandt, a former state representative
who's now a lobbyist for the breeding industry.
Brandt said Myer's fear is widespread. The proposed new rules, he said,
"read as if [the state] doesn't want any more breeding in Pennsylvania."
He cited one that stipulates that outdoor facilities where dogs are kept
"shall be kept free of grass and weeds."
"So now dogs aren't allowed to be on grass?" Brandt asked.
Another stipulates that if an outdoor area for dogs is constructed of
gravel or stone, "it must be constructed in layers to provide proper
drainage and footing that will not cause injury to the dogs."
"So now Dog Law's in the construction business?" retorted Brandt.
"Whoever wrote this is obviously far removed from animal husbandry," he
said.
"They're treating the dogs like they're human."
Other side
But that's hardly the point, said Sue West, a member of the Humane
League of Lancaster County board of directors as well as the governor's
new Dog Law Advisory Board.
"The draft of the regulations is meant to add more detail in areas that
are currently subjective," said West in an e-mail. For example, she
said, current law doesn't address the temperature inside a kennel; the
only requirement is that ventilation be added should the inside
temperature reach 85 degrees.
"In other words, it could be 102 degrees with high humidity in a barn
full of dogs, but if a fan system is running they are within the current
stated regulations," said West.
And while the breeding industry, pet store owners or dog clubs might
object to various aspects of the proposed new laws, "We need to be able
to have measurable standards that hold up in front of a court or DJ, and
we need to be sure that dogs are receiving care that is going to meet
all their needs, especially if kept in a facility for a long, long
time," said West.
"Yes, some of the changes will cost money ... [but] why is it asking too
much for them to put something back into the business for the sake of
the very animals which are making them money?"
But Schaefer and other critics of the proposed new rules say many are so
vague they pose insurmountable obstacles to licensed kennels. One, for
example, would require that each establishment have a big enough
facility not just for all the dogs currently on the premises, but all
dogs to be kept on the premises -- meaning, Schaefer said, that someone
with a "class I" license to keep or breed 26 dogs per year would have to
have a facility big enough to handle 26 dogs at one time, even though
the license holder may never have more than five or six dogs at any
given moment.
Many small or "hobby" breeders who hold kennel licenses -- seeing them
as the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval -- might be
prohibited, by local zoning ordinances, from building such a large
facility in the first place.
And what she suspects is that many license holders will simply give up
their licenses -- but "do not, for a minute, think that those people
will give up breeding dogs."
Brandt, the breeders' lobbyist, also suggests the tough new rules could
have the opposite of the intended effect, driving breeders underground
in an attempt to evade laws with which they can't afford to comply.
"There's a demand out there for dogs," said Brandt.
"And that demand will stay."
uote: "Anyone who wishes to comment on the proposed new regulations has
until Feb. 14 to do so. Then the Agriculture Department's Bureau of Dog Law
must respond in writing to each of the comments, before any proposed
regulations can be submitted to the Legislature for review."
This is the contact information:
Mary Bender
Director, Bureau of Dog Law
2301 N Cameron Street
Harrisburg, PA 17110
Email: mabender@xxxxxxxxxxx
Ph: (717) 787-4833
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