The following information concerns a very serious piece of legislation totally backed by the animal rightists, HSUS, to control breeding so that breeders such as I will be regulated out of breeding.  None of my top breeder friends will go on with the restrictions which will be imposed on them by the USDA which should be regulating only the commercial kennels.  Please take a moment to read through and then write your congressmen/women.  Meredith

[Friday, March 1, 2013]

http://www.akc.org/press_center/article.cfm?article_id=4867

Federal “PUPS” legislation (S 395/HR 847), sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Jim Gerlach has been reintroduced in the U.S. Congress and assigned to the House and Senate Agriculture committees. The bill is substantially the same as previous versions introduced in 2011 and 2010, which never received committee hearings.

The AKC continues to express grave concerns about this measure. The AKC believes that all dog breeding programs should be undertaken responsibly and does not oppose the concept of regulating high volume breeder-retailers.  However, as currently written, the definitions proposed in this bill are misleading, overly broad, and potentially damaging to small responsible breeders who individually maintain and breed only a few dogs in their homes.

Although the stated purpose of PUPS is to regulate internet sales of puppies, S 395/HR 847 as currently written would require anyone who owns or co-owns even a few female dogs that collectively produce 50 or more puppies offered for sale in a year to be regulated under existing USDA dog "dealer" regulations. These regulations are designed for high-volume commercial kennels that produce puppies for wholesale or research, and require a USDA commercial license, maintenance of specified commercial kennel engineering standards and regular inspections. These requirements are not appropriate for small breeders who may keep only a few dogs in their homes.

AKC’s specific concerns with PUPS include the following:

• Defines “high volume retail breeder” as someone with “an ownership interest in or custody of one or more breeding female dogs”. This definition is overly broad and does not take into account co- and joint ownerships common among dog owners, dog show participants, hunting club members, sporting dog trainers and other hobbyists. This would hurt many small hobby breeders who keep or breed only a few dogs in their homes by subjecting them to commercial standards of regulation as a result of agreements they maintain with other small breeders.

• Defines “high volume retail breeder” as someone with “an ownership interest in or custody of one or more breeding female dogs”.  Because the threshold for regulation is based on the number of dogs bred and sold, any reference to the number of dogs owned or in custody is unnecessary and potentially misleading.

• Defines “breeding female” as an intact female dog aged 4 months or older. This is misleading and implies that a female dog may be bred at 4 months. Female dogs are not sufficiently mature at 4 months of age to be bred and should not be deemed “breeding females”.

• Exercise language should be clarified with respect to the terms “solitary and goal oriented” to ensure that the daily exercise requirements do not preclude training that involves other types of wholesome activity that could fall under this definition (e.g.,  playing fetch, field training for hunting dogs, or the responsible use of treadmills for keeping canine athletes in top physical condition).

• PUPS would exponentially expand the pool of breeders regulated and inspected by the Animal Care Division of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal, Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS).  However, a May 2010 audit of this program by the USDA’s own Inspector General demonstrated that the existing inspections program is insufficient to carry out current responsibilities. AKC believes these issues and full funding for the current program and enforcement of current laws should be addressed before attempting to exponentially expand the program’s responsibilities and workload.

AKC encourages you to respectfully share these reasonable concerns about the potential damaging consequences of this bill with your member of Congress.
To contact your Congressional representative, visit www.house.gov and enter your zip code in the “Find Your Representative” box at the top of the page.

To contact your two Senators, visit www.senate.gov and select your state in the “Find Your Senators” box at the top of the page.

AKC and AKC’s federal representatives will continue to closely monitor and keep you up to date on this measure.

Health and Health Care:  My blogging has slowed way down for a variety of reasons: 2012 was a rough year for me health wise due to back surgery, the arrival of a heart condition now under control, and a major bout of diverticulitis.  Last spring I was put in the position of a needing to offer a place to stay to a young man from the dog show world who had nowhere else to go. So he came into my home to help with the yard work and the dogs. He was good with the dogs and not so good working in other areas, but I grew to love him and wanted so to help him, but unbeknownst to me he was an addict and the ten months of trying to “save” him created so much stress that my heart decided to begin to throw out major extra premature ventricle contractions. I finally had to put my young friend out and as no one else would take him in, he landed in a homeless shelter and then jail. He was born heroin addicted and has major organic reasoning problems though very bright.  I have done all that I could to work the system to get him help and he is finally getting the help he needs in a major rehab center if only he will put forth the effort to get his act together. The sad thing is that those with mental illness leave jail or rehabilitation facilities with nowhere to go for continued help.  Years ago, our state mental hospitals were closed and those patients who were mentally were released with no plan for their future.  As am officer of the court told me this summer when I was trying to get my young friend psychologically y tested while he was in jail: there is really nothing out there for the mentally ill.  When the I realized and realize that he can never come back to live in my home because all my efforts to help him really only enabled him, but do so much want him to have salvation here in this world and more than that, salvation in the next world that I thought I could reach him.  

I have learned so much about addiction.  I did a lot of reading about addiction that helped me so much in the months of living a nightmare of trying to get him to meetings, getting him tested, getting him in to rehab which did not help him at that point, and trying to help him center himself on God. The most helpful book I have read on addiction is A Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff; this book is harrowing in its depiction of a lovely young man’s sinking into meth addiction.  My young friend’s problems were pain pills and alcohol and while meth is much more damaging in so many ways, no addiction is without pain. 

My heart itself is great, but its electrical system sucks causing a pacemaker to be inserted in April of 2011 because my pulse was lurking in the fifties. That coupled with the PVC problem that showed this July really took a toll after my back surgery in June and then two bouts of diverticulitis, one of them putting me in the ER in Seattle after I judged there in September and the other putting the hospital for five days before Christmas.  I was always an advocate for my late husband in the health care system; I knew that I had to be no less an advocate for myself.  It is sometimes too easy for the health care system to dismiss health complaints so I find myself always geared for battle when I have a health problem; most often my attitude is not necessary but sometimes one has to go on the offensive to ensure that one is taken seriously.  I am so grateful that I have excellent health care thanks to a life time working in Ohio’s public education, but I am seeing more and more that far too many others are not as fortunate. 

I judged in China in December, more about that later in its own category, and hobbled back with my left foot three times its size.  Cortisone shots no longer helped my poor arthritic foot so I had fusion surgery on February 13 and will not be able to put any weight on my foot for eight weeks—a looong, looong time.  I am in a skilled nursing facility so I can get the physical therapy I need to walk well again.  After the foot surgery, I immediately went into my first skilled nursing facility which was not very good despite the show and dance I got when looking at it as a possibility.  Not very good at all as I cannot say a good word about it! The day after I entered I got another bout of diverticulitis; I asked for a squad and was taken to the hospital where I spent five days post op for my foot and on antibiotic drips for my gut.  In the short time that I was there, I was really worried in the first skilled nursing facility, really worried and a bit afraid of the conditions.  I am now in a wonderful facility, close to home, really well staffed with caring professionals unlike the previous facility.  Why am I going into all this?  Because my eyes are really open to how well my health care plan provides and how fortunate I am and how unfortunate so many others are especially older people with very limited resources on Medicare and without family to act as advocates for them as I can act for myself and as I acted for my husband.  I was a bit fearful in the first facility where I was admitted because I felt no warmth or caring from the staff.  I asked an aide for a cup of cocoa and was refused not because I was not allowed to have it, but because he did not wish to get it for me.  There were real staff language barriers which I could overcome because I can communicate usually, but what of others who cannot communicate and express their needs or even have their needs noted.  Nothing must be scarier to an older person than to feel alone without resources, kindness, and without family to advocate for their needs.  Now with all the federal cuts being discussed, the cuts will hit the poor, the elderly, and children.  What a crock that our country does not take care of those who need care the most.  That first nursing facility opened my eyes personally.  The facility where I will be residing for the next few weeks is Country View Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center north of Sunbury, Ohio, and it is a caring, well-staffed, professional, and very pleasant place to be.  I am so happy to see the level of care that the longtime residents enjoy; believe me there are too many rest homes where the residents are just stockpiled without their humanity really appreciated or considered.