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Originally Posted by yorkiekist  Why should more legislation be passed if there arent enough people to enforce the laws we already have? I think this problem should fall at the USDa's feet. Maybe they need to hire more people! They chould be held accountable and fix this problem. If Walnuhill says they do a great job, than what seems to be the problem other than hiring more people? |
Hiring more people would certainly help, that's for sure.
Another thing that could make a difference is passing a law to stream-line the process of revoking licenses. It shouldn't take someone 3 years of blatantly disobeying the rules in order to get shut-down. (Not that removing a license will shut them down, but it will make it harder to sell puppies -and certainly not to brokers or pet stores). And, the ability of the inspector / humane society to remove animals from awful conditions in a timely manner - it shouldn't take years to revoke a license, and it shouldn;t take weeks to seize dogs that are in immediate danger.
As far as the minimum standards are concerned, though I think they should be raised, that will be fought to the death by commercial breeders, and it will take many years for that to happen. So, in the immediate, what should be done is hiring more inspectors who actually have something that can
force people to comply with the already MINIMAL standards.
New laws are just lip service if there isn't anyone to enforce them. People can say anything they want in legislation, but if no one is doing anything about it, then it's completely pointless. (We still have a law on the books here that says it's illegal to spit on the sidewalk.... no one has been cited with that violation in my lifetime, for sure - the law is there, but no one pays any attention). The law doesn't mean any behavior has changed, and unless anyone is doing anything about it, laws are just polite sugestions. The only people who will comply are the ones that care (and were complying before). The con-artist, criminals, puppy mills, will still continue to mistreat their dogs and make money at the expense of the helpless babies.