I am appalled. This is the most rediculous bill I have ever seen. Do you even have a clue what the difference is between a puppy mill (whom you are supporting) and a small breeder. A small breeder takes time and careful consideration when selecting breeding stock. This is the ones you need to support not the mills grinding out more and more substandard breeds. This will negatively effect future quality. You are making a huge mistake.
The comments of S. Alexander completely echo my own so I will just repeat them!! "I have family members who fought in wars to ensure our freedom and freedom of others and my own govt. is taking away my freedoms one by one. I can't believe AKC is endorsing this. Who has the right to tell me that I HAVE to allow USDA into my home? That my puppies, raised in the home, now have to be kenneled outside!!! That I have to go against my own beliefs and research and have surgeries done on my senior dogs in order to be able to keep them and let them finish their lives being couch potatoes and not chewed up by concrete and arthitis from being on that concrete!!! I can NOT believe AKC is doing this!!! What will happen if people start registering over in other registries that are fighting for the rights of their breeders? How many can AKC stand to loose honestly?
How much longer will we be the LAND OF THE FREE ... become the LAND OF THE CONTROLLED??"
I realize you may think you are doing a good thing, but think this through. So many bills are passed that sound like they will acheive a desired goal, but totally miss the mark. Please talk to more of the honest people this will affect.
The law on the books is strong enough, BUT the law has to be enforced! Why more law when, for one reason or another, the other, equally efficient law, is NOT be enforced.
dominant gene cat breeders can NOT work with this number and maintain their programs, 50% of our kittens dont even display the gene we need for showing, and out of the 50% that do (2 out of 4 kittens) we MIGHT get one nice breeder the other being a pet and the chances of a great show kitten,, it just wont happen often enough to give us a chance against the other breeds.
If you, Sen. Santorum, are serious about improving the quality of life for dogs and the puppies they produce, start by cleaning up the horrendous puppy mills in your own state, PA. When your own house is clean, then consider broadening the scope.
In the meantime, I find it offensive that you have aligned yourself with HSUS and their ilk. Do a little research and learn how little that organization does to benefit the unfortunate dogs and cats that end up in shelters. Dig a little deeper and explore the hidden agendas of these Animal Rights groups and you will discover they want to eliminate all dog "ownership". That includes the ownership and use of bomb/drug detection dogs, Search and Rescue dogs who were invaluable in Oklahoma City and New York, and the dogs seeking contraband fruits and vegetables hidden in tourists' luggage.
I'd venture to guess there are service dogs on duty in many of the buildings in Washington, DC. How secure will you feel sitting in your office late at night without the comfort of knowing these dogs are no longer helping to keep your workplace safe. Do you want to become a fellow-traveler to groups considered by the FBI to be domestic terrorists? HSUS is known to support/condone ALF, ELF and others.
Furthermore, I am gravely disappointed with the AKC for supporting this bill. It seems to me that they have forgotten the last part of their mission statement: "Take whatever actions necessary to protect and assure the continuation of the sport of purebred dogs". Passage of this bill would destroy the integrity of the sport by forcing the serious home/hobby breeders (who are the backbone of the sport) to abandon their dreams and efforts to preserve and protect their breeds.
I respectfully request that you pull this bill, turn your attention to the puppy mills in your own back yard, and serve this country and your constituants on a federal level with more pressing matters dealing with homeland
Enough with the restrictions already! It's time pet owners were treated like citizens and not like criminals, and it's high time people stopped believing in puppy mills. That's just an animal rights myth, one of their big buzzwards. The more restrictions, the more the animal rights and animal welfare extremists get to go around calling everybody a mill and taking away animals from pet owners. Restrictions do nothing but treat you like a criminal for owning a pet and legalizing the robbery and abuse of pet owning citizens by animal welfare thugs.
what happened to people's rights? some where we seemed of lost ours and the people trying to pass this bill have total control over us and our lives. the bill is wrong and should be stopped. the only thing it will accomplish is put alot of good breeders out of business and somehow the bad ones will slip through the cracks of the bill. that is the way these things always happen.
I am from PA and I honestly believe the local SPCA and Animal Friends here in Pittburgh pushe Sen. Santorum to write this. Local human officers in Allegheny county are looking for ways to make money and this would give them a way, they would be able to come into "PRIVATE" homes and confiscate animals just like what was shown on 20/20 the other nite.
It should be any one selling over 50 pups a year not 7 litters a Chihuahua will have 25 and a big doge 125 so not a fair deal. This bill will hurt hobby and show breeders not puppy mills.
This bill is a giant step in the wrong direction. More enforcement of AWA is what is needed, not more laws that only infringe on the rights of legitimate breeders but ignores the wholesale puppy mills who are the source of most of the excess animals that are wandering loose without homes.
Good breeders who breed in th eir homes and raise the puppies in their homes and check out the perspective buyers are the most important resource the pure breed dogs have. The puppy mills that breed the ***** every time and have no breeding program to improve the breed are the problem. Put more teeth in the USDA and their inspections of the people who turn out puppies for profit in the cages stacked on top of each other.
we have to have State & county liscense and inspection. The money from sales helps buy my medication. My husband is 68 and we could not make it on social security. Please do not put more of a burden on us.
I agree with my wife, the Federal Government has no place in animal legislation. Go investigate the puppy millers if you insist on dabbling in hobby breeder business.
As a breeder, exhibitor and judge, we do NOT need the Federal Government to get involved with this. Let them worry about the crucial events happening in our world.
I do not believe that the passage of the PAWS 2005 proposed bill SB1139/HB2669, will result in the effective enforcement of the AWA. I believe it will be used to prosecute and harass small hobby breeder who already care for their animals and are attempting to preserve pure bloodlines. I do not see this piece of legislation as having any positive virtues.
I personally think that the government has enough problems without getting into the dog breeders noses. The present laws are not upheld so why have more just to say the government is running yet another something else that will not fly. Do not pass this bill. Caring people and breeders who are doing the right things will only suffer. Much less the animals. Keep the government out of it!!!! Laws that are in place should be enforced first and if this were done the puppy mills would not exhist. Please think about the animals and the suffering they go through.
Please don't support this bill. The USDA needs to focus more on regulating the puppy mills with the current set of laws. The only people hurt by this bill will be small hobby breeders, those of us who are responsible, socialize our puppies, and stand behind what we breed.
This law protects nothing and noone. I think there are far more serious issues that you should be looking at! I have contacted my Governor, my Atty. General, my Sec. of State and my Congressman..urging them to PLEASE help us! This law does not protect people like me~it protects no animal, and it protects no person. I refuse to be treated like, or put in the category of a puppymill that pimps puppies for profit!
This is not a pro-animal bill; this is an anti-honest, hobby, breeder bill. This bill serves only the puppy mill breeders interested only in the quantity of dogs sold through pet stores, auctions, and flea markets and the greed for the almighty dollar.
This bill is detrimental to hobby and show breeders, and, if passed, will wipe out most rescue groups. The large majority of these groups do not have a commercial kennel, but rely on volunteers and foster homes to rehab these dogs and "sell" them to new owners. Under PAWS, to avoid licensing, we would be able to pull 25 dogs a year. That is not even a drop in the bucket for some purebred rescue groups. Instaed of reducing euthanaisa rates, PAWS will serve to increase numbers..or maybe it will force groups to creatively count their rescues! PAWS will force us to become criminals in the name of helping the animals....Kill the Bill!!!
As I understand it, USDA does not allow litters to be born in the house, nor puppies raised in the house. I don't understand this policy and I would seriously object to be required to change my way of raising puppies.
Responsible breeders/exhibitors do not need more federal laws to govern the breeding of quality purebred animals. The AKC has set very high standards. Any additional federal law should be aimed directly at the deplorable conditions that exist in puppy mills.
Good God here we are again...more laws to support and encourage puppy mills and giant commercial kennels, while penalizing responsible, serious, ethical hobby breeders. Let's see this for what it is: support of moneyed special interests at the expense of the little guy. It HAS to stop!
PLEASE DO NOT PASS THIS BILL. As a responsible breeder of an occasional litter in the efforts to improve my breed, this is not the way to go about it. Puppy Mills will always find a way around it. Rescue efforts will be hampered if not down right impossible.
Once again, PLEASE DO NOT PASS THIS PARTICULAR BILL.
I am totally against any Legislation that limits my rights as an American. What comes next limitation on a Rancher on how many cows he can have.These are animals too. I don't defend poor treatment of animals but i do defend the right to decide how many animals a person might raise in a given year and I don't think this number should be governed by any agency.
PLEASE DO NOT PASS THIS BILL. As a responsible breeder of an occasional litter in the efforts to improve my breed, this is not the way to go about it. Puppy Mills will always find a way around it. Rescue efforts will be hampered if not down right impossible.
Once again, PLEASE DO NOT PASS THIS PARTICULAR BILL.
This is an ill written and poorly thought out Bill. It will only impact the USDA, increase fiscal budgets, and harm the hobby/show breeders. It will not accomplish elimination of the large scale commercial breeders.
Once again, someone who doesn't know the subject is being lead by someone with a hidden agenda; probably animal rights activists trying to expand the AWA to where they originally wanted.
This will only hurt the smaller hobby breeder, the ones who really care for the welfare of the animals they breed. Concentration must be on the "puppy mills" who are only in it for the all mighty dollar, and could care less about the quality of life for the animals they have in their "factory". Please stop this bill.
Hobby breeders of dogs, raise them in their homes to insure socialization. Most Hobby breeders would be hurt by stringent laws restricting litters, stud services, and puppy sales.We beleive the PAWS 2005 proposed ledgislationSB1139/HB2669 will infringe on our rights as private citizen to own or sell dogs, hindering responsible hobby breeders and show dogs owners to continue Please stop this bill.
