I attended the first hearing of the Senate Committee for Ohio Senate Bill 173 (the Puppy Mill Bill) today. This hearing was for proponent testimony only; the Legislature is going on summer break next week, so opponent testimony will be scheduled once the Legislature resumes in the fall. Three proponents of the bill testified vividly against puppy mills. Two senators, Mumper and Cates (the Senate sponsor of the Bill), both have dogs from puppy mills and are committed to passing 173. As the Bill stands, it regulates breeders who have more than eight breeding dogs, stud dogs or brood bitches, who have each produced a litter in the previous year; those breeders then fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture requiring breeders to be fingerprinted, have background checks, pay licensing fees, and procure a vendor’s license. For example, in 2006 there must be eight different dogs who produced a litter; if a dog has not produced a litter in the previous year, that dog does not count toward the number of eight. If I have three stud dogs and each of those dogs are bred to a bitch owned by someone else, then those stud dogs count toward the count of eight. Breeders of toy dogs may have several litters a year due the small size of the litter. Sporting dogs, herding dogs, hounds, and working dogs produce usually large litters giving the breeder several puppies from which to chose for the show ring. Toy breeders do not always have that luxury of choice in a litter.

While the Bill is not all bad, it does allow the state of Ohio real control and leaves it usually to dog wardens, operating as agents under the department of Agriculture to enforce the Bill. Dog wardens are seldom trained in animal husbandry and breeding practices; moreover, some dog wardens may not be reasonable in enforcing the Bill. This Bill gives dog wardens also the power to seize the kennel’s dogs in there are infringements of the bill; under the Ohio Revised Code, only local humane society humane agents can seize a dog because of neglect or abuse.

This Bill gives the director of Agriculture’s authorized representative the power to enter a kennel facility without prior notification to “inspect and investigate and to examine and copy records.” If the breeder refuses to allow the representative to inspect premises and/or records, the breeder then will be required to pay the inspector’s salary for the number of days that the representative is not allowed to do his or her job of inspection. The legitimate breeders will easily be found; I do not think that all the puppy mills, especially the Amish some of whom keep their dogs in dark barns with no visible evidence that the barns house dogs ,will be so easy to find and inspect. Many show breeders’ dogs live in the house. There must be a way to develop criteria to distinguish legitimate show breeders from the commercial breeders and puppy mills who sell to pet shops; meanwhile, we show breeders must find a way to work with the Legislature to change the language in the Bill or if necessary totally defeat the Bill. As previously stated, the Bill has merit for Ohio has many, many horrific puppy mills that desperately need to be shut down. While there were only a few breeders at the hearing, not counting an Amish contingent, the hearing was called with no lead time to arrange to be there. We will be better organized next time I hope. I reiterate, in my opinion this Bill as written gives too much power to the state. I do hope that the Senate and then the House allows us to work with them to change the bill. Meanwhile we are working to defeat the bill as it is written. Big Brother will certainly be watching if this bill as written passes.