By JOANNE BOURBEAU (reprinted with permission)

(The Vermont puppy mill bill did not make it out of committee this year. Click here for more on that bill and the politics that helped defeat it.) 

Last August 250 dogs and puppies living in deplorable conditions were rescued from a large-scale breeding operation in Maine. It is a story repeated time after time in states across the United States. Unfortunately, these so-called "puppy mills" have been have been spreading misery and suffering for decades. Today, they continue to thrive because of unwitting consumers who are smitten by too-cute-for-words puppies in pet store windows and on fancy Web sites.

Puppy mills are commercial breeding facilities that mass produce puppies for sale in pet stores and over the Internet. Puppy mills commonly house animals in overcrowded, filthy and inhumane conditions with inadequate shelter and care. The puppies that survive these conditions are taken from their mothers for sale to pet stores when they are about 8 weeks old, when they are especially susceptible to contagious diseases and very sensitive to behavioral stress.

Left behind are the hidden victims of puppy mills - the mothers and fathers- referred to by the operators as "breeding stock." These dogs live their entire lives in cages. Typical puppy mill conditions include cramped and filthy cages with no comfortable place to lie down, and inadequate shelter from blistering hot or freezing cold temperatures. Many dogs are in poor health with genetic and behavioral problems yet are forced to continuously churn out litter after litter for their entire lives. Such repetitive breeding is an enormous drain on the mother dogs' systems - and they are commonly forced to do this on a minimum of quality food and clean water.

Treated like nothing more than factory equipment or a means to a "crop" by the operators, these parent dogs languish for years at the puppy mills without human companionship and with little hope of ever becoming part of a family. Often, they are cruelly discarded once they are no longer profitable to the operator.

And though Vermont legislation that would prevent mass dog breeding operations from selling 20 or more litters or 100 or more puppies per year to address this problem did not make it out of committee this year, The Humane Society of the United States will continue to lobby for passage of such restrictions.

Puppy mill operators are out for profit and nothing else, they are not hobby breeders. Reputable hobby breeders and breeders who sell less than 100 puppies or under 20 litters of puppies per year are exempt and would still be able to operate. By limiting the size of breeding facilities, this legislation will enable humane investigators to more effectively and efficiently deal with complaints about dogs living in squalid conditions and receiving inadequate care.

Luckily, Vermont doesn't have a puppy mill problem. So why is legislation necessary? Because we want to keep it that way. Many people know that states such as Pennsylvania, Missouri, Oklahoma and Ohio are centers for large puppy breeding facilities, many of which house more than 500, or even 1,000 dogs.

But puppy mills exist all over the country and the business in many other states is growing. The rescues of nearly 1,000 dogs from a puppy mill in Virginia and 250 dogs in Maine last year are just a couple of examples.

By supporting this legislation, we have the opportunity to make it harder for these facilities to open up and operate in Vermont. Already, the state has a kennel permitting process that allows enforcement officers to do inspections at reasonable times.

Opponents of this approach to dealing with puppy mills say that it's anti-commerce and unenforceable, but I disagree. The bill does not affect the right of responsible breeders to breed and sell dogs. They will be able to continue doing business as they have in the past. Only puppy mill breeders would be outlawed here - and that would be no loss at all.

Yes, consumers need to do their part by not purchasing dogs obtained from puppy mills. But we also need good public policies to stop the worst abuses.

We urge legislators to push for a law that targets mega commercial breeding facilities and keeps them out of Vermont to prevent the spread of unnecessary suffering.

________________________ 

Joanne Bourbeau of Jacksonville, Vt., is the New England regional director of The Humane Society of the United States.