Professional Dog Breeders Advisory Council, Inc., representing puppy millers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Carl Gilgore have sued the PA Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement and Kristin Donmoyera, a Kennel Compliance Specialist or dog warden.

The puppy millers claim Gov. Ed Rendell has unfairly and arbitrarily and irrationally targeted puppy mills in Lancaster County with a "swat team" of dog wardens charged with enforcing the state's Dog Laws.

Commercial breeders or puppy mills selling more than 26 dogs each year must be licensed by the State.

Although the state has regulations for kennels of commercial breeders, the plaintiffs claim there is no "dealer manual of inspection guide".

The lawsuit appears to stem from inspections conducted at the puppy mill owned by Ervin Zimmerman, who shot all of his 70 dogs this past summer apparently to avoid criminal charges for the deplorable conditions of the dogs and their kennels. Click here for more on that.

The suit alleges that Donmeyer appeared one day to inspect Zimmerman's kennel and his volunteer, Plaintiff Carl Gilgore, began videotaping her. Donmeyer reportedly threatened with arrest under Pennsylvania's Wire Tap Act if he failed to stop videotaping the inspection. A call to special prosecutor Jeff Palladino confirmed Gilgore would be arrested if he continued videotaping. Gilgore turned off his camera and now complains in this suit of violations of his First Amendment rights.

The plaintiffs then claim the dog wardens inspected the kennels of Zimmerman and other millers in Lancaster County multiple times, more so than commercial breeders in other counties and non-profit kennels. 

The plaintiffs concede Lancaster County has nearly twice as many kennels as any other county. They also agree numerous violations were found at Lancaster County's 302 licensed puppy mills which resulted in 329 warnings and 76 citations from 2006-2008. Zimmerman, in fact, has surrendered his license to operate a kennel because of citations for conditions found before he cruelly shot all of his dogs. 

Nonetheless, Plaintiffs claim the numerous inspections violated their rights to equal protection and substantive due process.      

Let's hope the State can be reimbursed for having to defend this lawsuit.