I made the mistake earlier of getting caught up in a notice about some legislation without knowing what I was complaining about. I live in the puppy mill area of the country, and people here have been fighting disreputable breeders for years. I read a very brief synopsis of HB 2525, looked into it, and fired off a note to our wonderful representative, Steve Barrar, asking him why he wasn't co-sponsoring it. He very quickly sent back a kind note saying that he wanted the puppy mills out of business too, but this is a complex, 92 page bill that a lot of reputable breeders have said will put them out of business. He was also kind enough to send me what I think was a full copy of the bill. I've only skimmed it at this point, but here is my note to him about the first thing that caught my attention:
Steve,
I've skimmed this (I read pretty fast), but haven't read it thoroughly yet. I haven't yet seen anything objectionable, but the statement, "All dogs in commercial kennels must be euthanized by a veterinarian," is semantically odd. I understand the intent, but as this is written now, this bill will make it a crime not to euthanize any dog that is born in or kept in a kennel. I can see how that would put breeders out of business
I think this would be better reworded to something like, "When euthanization is required, the procedure must be performed by a veterinarian.
Would you mind sending me some of the specific complaints (without names of course) so I can better understand which areas to focus on?
Thanks!
Gina
For any of you who are in PA, please read the full bill and send comments to your representative. We all love our pets, and it's easy to get caught up in the, "Stop the abuse," thing because we want the real abuse stopped. However, I'm now embarrassed by the fact that I supported euthanizing any dog that is born or kept in a kennel simply because I hadn't taken the time to read the bill and read only an announcement of success that there finally was a bill. That's completely not like me, but I've seen so much of this that I get a bit emotional over it and sometimes jump the gun.
Best to all,
Jade/Gina