Quote: randy allen

Yeah,
I'll hound those two as long as I can keep track of them.

Keleah,
If you can stand it, go out and inspect the kennel yourself. See what the layout is, etc. Then you'll have a better handle on what to start talking to the authorities about. Or whipping up an uproar within the dog community if the need is there.

Randy,
I have thought about doing this. They don't know my name and I could always give a different one, since my name is so unique that even Otto's breeder remembered me when I wrote her about Otto having hypothyroidism. I'd like to bring with me a camera or my little Flip video camera and get it documented. But the only thing is they require appointments to visit the kennel (unless they are given a surprise inspection).

Keleah,

It took a major puppy mill bust for that piece of legislation to pass. The mill that they busted was pretty horrifying with between 3 locations over 1000 dogs seized. Dirty unethical campaigns went for weeks and made the national news without the details being verified. I groomed a good number of these dogs as they came in as at the time I was volunteering for a local shelter. I no longer groom for them because of this campaign of misinformation they did to get this law passed. It felt wrong, after watching them adopt out these dogs it felt worse, and after speaking with another groomer who worked on the 500+ dog side of this bust I made the choice to cut myself away from this shelter. It was great experience for grooming but the entire thing was a giant mess with ignorance being mixed with the best of intentions.

I agree with the spirit of this bill but the devil is in the details. Anyone who owns 10 or more dogs is held by this bill. Parts of this bill makes it illegal for breeders to dock their own tails, parts make it illegal to crate dogs, and then there is the piece about never being able to own more than 25 intact dogs or 50 dogs altogether. Then when you get to the exceptions for this bill all one would need do is get a business license which calls your kennel a boarding facility and you are immune from this. The sad part of this is that the puppy mill which was the inspiration for the bill would have been immune through this clause because they owned a petstore.

I understand your dedication... just make sure you don't throw the good out with the bad.

MT

I understand where you're coming from-and I don't want to throw out the good with the bad. From the very few breeder websites that I have found for ND, only a couple seem to be in the P-Mill category-not to say there aren't more, just from those who have websites up. I know there are more people that have a maybe 5 dogs and breed once in a while as a hobby, not for a living. You wouldn't believe the number of hunting dog pups that are advertised in the local papers, and the dogs that are in the shelters are hunting breeds and crosses. How many of them are coming from a mill situation? I don't know. But on the website for the humane society in Bis, has a couple of small mixed breeds that the origin (most of them are surrenders, or strays) says from a ND breeding facility, which really makes me wonder, ya know?

I think when I type up my letter to the state vet and others, that I will put in some of the parts from the bill you posted. It's a good jumping off point, especially since ND doesn't even have any laws that pinpoint pm's. There are the animals rights laws, of course, but nothing for one specific thing, like pm's.