Most of us have seen the cute puppies for sale, wagging wildly in boxes or cages near shopping centers on the outskirts of our communities. They also are offered on the Internet, on posters and sometimes as "pets for sale" in local newspapers.
What so many of these innocent pooches have in common is that they were raised in inhumane puppy mills by humans who breed them strictly for profit.
The results often are pitiable puppies with compromised health and personality defects that often remain hidden until buyers get them home and discover they don't want the responsibility for raising them after all. Then we all know where they too often wind up: Abandoned along dirt roads, often in shelters, or dead.
This also often affects people who purchase puppies from these mills, thanks to worms, disease, temperament problems from inbreeding, and inadequate early medical care.
It's been estimated by groups who regularly battle this scourge that Arkansas has about 500 such puppy mills scattered across the state.
The Humane Society of the United States, local rescue organizations such as Arkansans for Animals in Little Rock, and concerned pet owners are solidly behind Rep. Jim Sorvillo's House Bill 1620, which would hopefully end the wretched practice by requiring standards, inspections and fines for violators. Its official title is the Arkansas Commercial Breeding Kennel Act of 2015.
I'm certain some will oppose Sorvillo's bill under the misguided argument that, by protecting these innocent puppies from mistreatment and insisting on accountability, it creates a supposed "slippery slope" leading to similar laws affecting other animals raised by humans (think farm). Under this rationale the entire animal-rearing industry will eventually fall prey to humane requirements. I believe these would be the same agginer folks, by the way, who would support putting a hog factory in the precious Buffalo National River watershed for the same irrelevant reason.
For me, Sorvillo's bill stands solely on its face and should become part of what we expect as caring citizens and morally responsible human beings, period.
The bottom line for introducing HB1620 is to ensure consistent proper care and treatment for dogs raised commercially while ensuring they are healthy and fit as companions. This would include the requirement that female dogs not be bred to deliver more than two litters every 18 months. It also would pertain to kennels with at least 10 female dogs of at least six months old held specifically for breeding purposes, with their puppies to be sold as pets.
Those who've regularly profited from the existing mills would be forced to perform all sorts of "controversial" acts to benefit their dogs, including serving proper nutritious food on a regular basis, clean water, a hard floor rather than dirt or wire, proper veterinary care, and temperature-controlled kennels. Just imagine how onerous!
If enacted, the law also would require that any group or individual who raises dogs for commercial purposes register their operation, become licensed within three months and renew that license with the state each year. They would be expected to maintain specific standards in the way dogs are fed, sheltered and maintained each day.
Profiteers who insist on conducting business as usual in cramped and filthy kennels would be subject to fines. If they are caught violating the law more than once, those penalties would increase substantially.
There are understandable exemptions to Sorvillo's proposed statute, such as for those raising hunting dogs, humane societies, groomers and canine shelters. You can discover more at the Arkansans Against Puppy Mills Facebook page. And the Humane Society, in its report "A Horrible Hundred," lists three in Arkansas (Russellville, Marshall and Charleston) repeatedly cited since 2010 for mistreatment.
Gerald Weber of Mountain View sent me an argument that reiterated the valid reasons our state badly needs this legislation: "The overwhelming majority of Arkansans are cognizant of irresponsible breeders who breed dogs as soon as possible after delivering a litter, that are kept in inhumane conditions where access to food and water are often limited, are often covered in their own feces and urine, including that from other animals caged above in open wire-bottomed stacked cages. ... They live out their lives in small cages where they can barely turn around and are finally dumped or killed as soon as they can no longer be bred.
"They seldom if ever are allowed onto grass or other surfaces. ... Some never see open space or are able to play in the sunshine as they are raised in semi trailers or shipping containers. Their offspring are also subjected to the same deplorable and inhumane conditions, sold as pets often with diseases due to ... [improper] veterinary care, and with physical and emotional problems stemming from conditions under which they were born and raised.
"Many times these animals are sold at remote locations from where they are bred. Buyers are typically and intentionally denied access to the site where the puppies are bred and raised because this would likely discourage the sale. Buyers from puppy mills later learn of their pet's physical and emotional problems and are left to face the consequences. Arkansas is one of the few states that has failed to address this inhumane breeding and rearing of their offspring."
What say we remedy that shortcoming?
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 03/14/2015