Rendell is urged to fix puppy mills

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

By Amy Worden
Philadelphia Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG - Asserting that the state Department of Agriculture has failed to stop the spread of large-scale dog breeding operations in Pennsylvania, an animal-welfare group yesterday urged Gov. Rendell to create an independent commission to crack down on inhumane conditions that exist in so-called "puppy mills."

United Against Puppy Mills, based in Lancaster County, which has the highest concentration of commercial breeders, presented Rendell a petition containing more than 33,500 signatures of Pennsylvania residents and asked him to remove the Bureau of Dog Law from the Department of Agriculture.

Tom Gemmill, a Lancaster veterinarian who has conducted investigations at puppy mills and witnessed the inhumane conditions, said the bureau charged with protecting companion animals does not belong in the agency that promotes agricultural products.

"Companion animals are not food for people," Gemmill said. "We've gone from a time when dogs were tied up in the backyard to them living in the bedroom. These are our friends."

Last spring, Rendell, an avowed dog lover, pledged to seek solutions to the issue. In April, he fired the 14-member dog-law advisory board, saying its members were ineffective, but he has yet to appoint a new board.

Rendell also said he would assemble an animal welfare "SWAT" team to investigate the most abusive kennels.

"The governor is close to finalizing plans that he hopes will improve the system that is in place," his spokeswoman Kate Philips said yesterday.

She said she doubted one single change would solve a problem that has developed over 25 years.

"There is no silver bullet to fixing dog law in Pennsylvania and to focus just on this is to lose sight of all the problems circling around the industry," said Philips.

But animal-welfare experts disagree, saying the Department of Agriculture is not equipped to enforce state regulations governing kennels.

"That would be the ultimate solution," said Bob Baker, a consultant with the ASPCA that made the same recommendation to Rendell earlier this year.

Baker said the mission of the agriculture agency runs counter to efforts to improve conditions for companion animals. "Their interest is in protecting small farms and this creates a conflict of interest."

Pennsylvania is the largest commercial producer of puppies in the East, most of them shipped to pet stores in the Northeast. With 216 licensed kennels containing more than 250 breeding dogs, United Against Puppy Mills estimates as many as 1 million puppies are born in Pennsylvania each year. Many of the dogs used in breeding suffer under horrendous conditions, say animal welfare investigators, spending their lives isolated in cramped, wire cages stacked on top of one another. They are often bred until they are infertile and then destroyed.

Philips has defended the bureau saying its officers have to work "within the confines of the regulations."