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Originally Posted by FlDebra  I personally would not want to have more dogs than I could have in my home. I do not want to make my dogs into livestock. But I know there are many outdoor kennel set ups that are humane and sanitary, where they let the dogs out for daily exercise and personal time with people.
There are laws in the works that could use our support along these lines. The Illinois Chloe Bill is one of those. It limits breeders to 20 unspayed/unneutered animals. That is a doable number to realistically provide nurturing. Any more than that, I do not see how they could provide any quality time with their dogs.
On a national level, there is H.R. 6949, the Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act was co-sponsored by Representatives Sam Farr (D-CA), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Lois Capps (D-CA), Terry Everett (R-AL), and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) -- it got introduced late and no action taken yet. Among other things, it requires that all dogs being used in breeding be allowed out of their cage for daily exercise. It requires breeders to get a license from the USDA if they raise more than 50 dogs in a 12-month period and sell directly to the public and sets forth reasonable standards of care for commercial breeders. Enforcing those reasonable standards of care could go a long way to improving the lot of puppymill dogs. Enforcement would be crucial to make it worthwhile though.
I send out periodic emails in support of these intiatives. I basically say the same thing each time, but I figure one in a thousand emails ever really get read by the pol I am sending them to. So, I just keep on sending them. |
i agree with you that 20 dogs is a good number to limit the breeders to keeping. my only concern was not that the number should be limited but that having the animals in your home doesn't always make practical sense. think of having even just two st. Bernard dogs and their litter of puppies inside the house, it's just not practical when they can be outdoor dogs anyways, so enforcing a nation wide law about keeping dogs in the breeders house makes no sense, and you can't separate the toy breeders from the large breed dog breeder either because that wouldn't be fair to force half the breeders to keep the dogs in the home and half of them not to
that's all i'm sayin, i support home breeders, but there really can't be a law that forces them to keep the dogs in the house