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2010-07-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

07-05-10 -- PA's 2008 Dog Law Subverted by Enforcement Bureau
By: Laura Allen, Animal Law Coalition

In June, 2010 the Pennsylvania Canine Health Board unanimously rejected a proposal to allow Class C commercial dog kennels to use wire flooring or "hog flooring". The Board also rejected use of plastic flooring that has "paw-and-claw-grabbing" holes.

The Canine Health Board was created as part of a number of changes made to the Pennsylvania Dog Law in 2008. The Canine Health Board is authorized to determine standards for ventilation, humidity, ammonia levels, and lighting and has limited authority to determine flooring and exercise options. 3 P.S. Sec. 459.221

Class C commercial kennels are those that keep or transfer at least 26 dogs each year and either (1) breed and sell or transfer dogs to a dealer or pet store, or (2) sell or transfer more than 60 dogs per year. Most of the changes made to the Dog Law in 2008 applied to Class C commercial kennels. Under the new law Class C commercial kennels cannot use "metal strand whether or not it is coated" for flooring and even slatted flooring can have spaces no more than 1/2 inch between them and slats must be at least 3.5 inches wide and "run the length or the width of the floor, but not both."

It is clear dogs held in Class C puppy mills are not supposed to be on wire flooring or any flooring with holes all over it. The Canine Health Board confirmed as much with its decision last month.

The new law banning wire flooring in Class C puppy mills does not apply to puppies up to 12 weeks of age, however.

The PA Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement decided on its own that pregnant dogs within a week or so of giving birth can be placed on wire flooring and then be left there with their puppies for up to 12 weeks. A dog that is forced to breed twice a year could be on wire flooring up to 6 months each year depending on when they are moved to wire flooring before giving birth and then when the puppies are removed from them or sold.

Jessie Smith, Chief of the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement, points out, "Puppies are weaned from their mother between 4 and 6 weeks of age. They leave their mother after they are weaned, and may be sold when they are 8 weeks old." She estimates a breeding dog could spend at most 3 1/2 months on wire flooring per year.

Experts say, however, some breeds are not weaned until they are 8 weeks old and many of the breeders leave the puppies that don't sell with the mother dogs until 3 months of age and older.

Regardless, why should the dog spend any time on wire flooring in view of the law's clear mandate? Also, enforcement will be difficult. How will a dog warden know when the pregnant dog will give birth or when the dog is placed on wire flooring or how long she is kept there? Note the dogs at a Class C commercial kennel standing on wire flooring in the photos that accompany this article. The dogs do not appear about to give birth; nor do they have nursing puppies with them.

This new policy will only encourage the breeders to leave at least one older puppy with the mother to circumvent the requirement for solid flooring.

Jenny Stephens, founder of North Penn Puppy Mill Watch, http://www.nppmwatch.com/, asks, "Wasn't the whole purpose of the 2008 changes to the Dog Law to improve conditions for the breeding dogs trapped in puppy mills by making it clear they are not to live on wire flooring? Wouldn't a more reasonable interpretation of the law be that the mother dogs cannot be kept on wire flooring and so the puppies must be kept with her until they are weaned?"

The Dog Law Enforcement Bureau has effectively eviscerated the ban on wire flooring for breeding dogs for a significant portion of the year, the very dogs that are supposed to be protected by this law.

That's not all.

Class C commercial kennels are supposed to have exercise areas that allow for "unfettered clearance for dogs from their primary enclosure." "The exercise area must be at least twice the size of the primary enclosure". The Canine Health Board has authority to change this on a case by case basis for a breeder that "presents the board with a plan that ...is verifiable, enforceable and provides for [the same or more] exercise".

The Dog Law Enforcement Bureau has decided not to enforce that requirement. Specifically, the Bureau has decided breeding and nursing dogs in Class C kennels are not required to be provided exercise except as specified for other kennels including those non-Class C for profit kennels that sell less than 60 dogs each year directly to the public. The only requirement for exercise for those kennels is that the breeder "must develop and follow an appropriate plan..with an opportunity for exercise" that is "approved by a veterinarian." Not nearly as strong and enforceable as the requirement of an exercise area to which the dog has "unfettered clearance".

Again, Class C commercial kennels are made up of breeding dogs, dogs that are pregnant and nursing most of the time. It is these dogs this law is supposed to protect. Yet the PA Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement has rewritten the law to exempt from flooring and exercise requirements the very dogs protected by these laws.

Jessie Smith claims it can be dangerous for puppies to be in an enclosure where there is "unfettered clearance" to an exercise area for the mother dog. She points out the puppies may get trapped in the door or stuck outside in inclement weather. But others say it would not be difficult to place a board or some obstruction blocking the puppies' access to the exercise area but that would allow the mother to exercise. Puppies can barely see let alone move much during the first few weeks anyway.

The lesser requirement will be difficult to enforce. Breeders will likely keep a puppy with a breeding mother to circumvent the exercise requirement for a Class C commercial kennel.

Besides, the law requires the breeding dog to have "unfettered clearance" to an exercise area. It is not for the Bureau to change that.

What other legal protections for these dogs in Class C commercial kennels is the Bureau failing to enforce?

Thousands of dogs in Pennsylvania commercial kennels are not reaping the benefit of the more humane requirements provided by law for the Class C commercial kennels.

Breeding kennels that keep or transfer less than 26 dogs and/or sell less than 60 dogs per year directly to the public over the internet or through newspaper ads and the like are not regulated as Class C commercial kennels in Pennsylvania. A big concession in the 2008 law to the somewhat smaller breeders who breed for profit, considering there are approximately 900 for profit kennels in Pennsylvania that escaped the "C" class designation. It is unknown how many breeders keep or transfer less than 26 dogs annually and are not regulated at all.

Stephens points out that in those for profit breeding kennels "not falling into the 'C' class designation, breeders may still keep dogs living on wire and keep dogs in stacked cages and allow gravity to perform the removal of body waste:

The laws for these for profit breeders kennels that are not designated as Class C also (1) do not require any mandatory vet checks or physical examination during inspections, (2) have no established minimum age when a dog may begin breeding, (3) do not require resting periods between litters or limit the number of times a dog may be bred, (4) do not have any prenatal feeding or prenatal veterinary requirements, (5) do not require monitoring of genetic defects, (6) do not require human socialization for dogs or their puppies, (7) do not require running water, (8) do not require actual heat, cooling or other environmental temperature controls, (9) are not sufficient to require ventilation to control ammonia levels, (10) do not have sufficient lighting requirements even in windowless barns and sheds, (11) do not have strong requirements for the disposal of solid or liquid dog waste, and (12) do not require dogs to be removed from cages for cleaning."

Stephens also points out, "All kennel owners that aren't designated Class C may still shoot their dogs versus having them humanely euthanized."

Actually, for profit breeders that keep or transfer less than 26 dogs are not regulated at all in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania still has a long way to go to protect the thousands of dogs still trapped in puppy mills or backyard breeding facilities given the limits of the 2008 law. It doesn't make sense that the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement would relax, even eliminate requirements of the 2008 law for those commercial breeders the law did target.

REMEMBER DOGGIE AND TAMMY GRIMES

2009-02-22T18:31:00.000-08:00

WATCH THE WONDERFUL VIDEO PUT TOGETHER BY SHARK. This is the true story. Only in PA can someone be guilty of helping a dying dog and the owners not charged. Please please watch this video and ask the DA to charge the owners of the dog with animal cruelty. Don't let them get away with this.

http://www.dogsdeservebetter.org/truthisfreedom.html

Puppy Mill Awareness Day

No surprise at all...

REMEMBER DOGGIE AND TAMMY GRIMES