Tougher laws are coming to New Jersey and Pennsylvania to help stop puppy mills. This article comes from, The Lansdale Reporter Online.
She also says he's friendly, and makes for a good watchdog.
Buddy is paraplegic and uses his front legs to push himself around on a cart. He's a mixed breed or, as Brim described him, a "designer dog." He visits a veterinarian almost once a month, she said. In the two years she's owned Buddy, Brim estimates she's spent about $4,000 on vet bills - a large sum for a dog that is only about 5 years old.
When Buddy's previous owner grew too ill to care for him, Brim adopted him through an animal rescue group in Maryland. During the adoption process, Brim learned Buddy had been purchased originally from a pet store. She's not sure which one. "But I'm 90 percent certain he came from a puppy mill," said Brim, a retired psychiatric nurse clinician living in Upper Salford.
Pennsylvania has been called the "puppy mill capital of the East Coast." However, that unfortunate designation could soon change. Proposed legislation circulating in Harrisburg would toughen the state's dog laws and apply other regulations designed to improve conditions under which dogs are bred and sold.
Stephanie Shain of the Humane Society of the United States, in Washington D.C., said Pennsylvania is making strides in solving what she calls "a national problem." "Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas, they're some of the worst states" for puppy mill offenses, she said. Pennsylvania is "not at, but near the top" of the list, according to Shain. She credits Gov. Ed Rendell for taking action last year.
In October, Rendell fired all 17 members of the Dog Law Advisory Board. At a meeting in December, before the newly appointed board, he urged its members to push for tougher laws and regulations. Rendell also expanded the Department of Dog Law Enforcement.
Shain said the governor's actions are a welcome change, albeit overdue. It shows other states Pennsylvania is serious about the humane treatment of dogs, she said.
Another state waging its own war against "puppy mills" and the pet stores that allegedly sell these dogs is New Jersey.
Libby Williams is the founder and president of New Jersey Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse.
Williams, a former Lansdale resident, said she started the nonprofit organization "to help consumers when they've unwittingly purchased sick puppies from pet stores, breeders, kennels, Internet sellers and other dog dealers."
"We receive complaints from many people in Pennsylvania," she said. The most common complaints are from owners who've purchased puppies from pet stores, Williams said. These dogs are most likely to suffer from a series of ailments brought on in part by the unsanitary conditions of the breeding kennels, Williams said. Such ailments include kennel cough, upper respiratory infections, pneumonia and "parasitic infestations."
"With absolute certainty, I say that all puppies sold in pet shops come from puppy mills," she said.
Shain supports these allegations against pet stores, though with less finality. "We don't like to say something is 100 percent," Shain said, "but the majority of pet stores buy from puppy mills."
Mark Arabia is someone who knows the argument well. He owns the Pets Plus store on South Broad Street in Lansdale. In the last several months his store has been the target of protesters claiming the Pets Plus franchise buys its dogs from "puppy mills." Arabia said these charges are untrue.
"Our inspector from the Department of Agriculture, who makes regular visits, always says our store is one of the best," he said. Outside his store in Lansdale there have been incidents of "violent yelling" between the protesters and customers, Arabia said. "We figure just ignore them and they'll go away," he said.
Williams said her organization has received complaints filed against two Pets Plus stores in New Jersey. In both cases, the dogs required extensive veterinary care for illnesses such as kennel cough, hookworms and other "bacterial diseases," Williams said. Arabia doesn't own any Pets Plus stores in New Jersey.
State Rep. Robert Godshall, R-53rd District, said he wasn't that familiar with the "puppy mill" issue; however, he recalled a conversation he had recently at the quarterly meeting of the state Game Commission. During a break in the meeting, Godshall said he was in the hallway talking to several "small, legitimate" breeders of "mostly bird-dogs," who were concerned about how the negative publicity surrounding this issue might adversely affect their business.
"There's abuses in everything," he said. "A lot of pet stores buy from legitimate breeders." Pennsylvania residents have until March 16 to submit a letter to Harrisburg supporting the new kennel regulations, said Shain. After that the proposed legislation will undergo further revision based partly on the public's input.
"This is an opportunity to make a difference for dogs in Pennsylvania," she said. "These are dogs who spend most of their lives in cages." Shain stressed that although the legislation would improve the conditions under which dogs in Pennsylvania are bred and sold, it stops short of eliminating "puppy mills" altogether.
"It's less inhumane," she said, referring to breeding conditions that could result from the legislation.
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