| Animal rights groups find fault with standards for licensed breeders Animal-rights groups are saying that standards of care for dogs and cats by licensed breeders, which Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation commissioners approved this week, do not go far enough. ". The commissioners' vote Tuesday came 10 months after the Legislature's passage of the so-called puppy mill bill , which required licensing department commissioners to set standards for licensed breeders — anyone breeding 20 or more dogs or cats, or 11 unspayed female dogs or cats. Asked about the criticism from animal-rights groups, Susan Stanford, the licensing department's public information officer, said only that there were no previous regulations in place. Animal rights groups had also pushed for a prohibition on cages being stacked, arguing it is unsanitary for the animals in cages below, but this was neither proposed by the advisory committee nor adopted by the commission. Paul O'Neill, a member of the advisory committee and an animal control officer in Midland, said the committee had made compromises in putting together its recommendations, with some members wanting to go even further than what the commissioners ultimately rejected. "We're really disappointed in the outcome," said Nicole Paquette, the Texas state director of the Humane Society of the United States. "I'm certainly glad that the push by some to go beyond the bill was stopped and [commissioners] kept with the language of the bill, which I think limited the standards based on the USDA standards," he said. The American Kennel Club, in a statement on its website , commended "the many concerned still liable dog owners and breeders who participated in the rulemaking process and helped ensure that the initial rules did not become unnecessarily onerous. The commission did not adopt requirements — advocated by animal rights groups and recommended by the advisory committee — to double cage sizes and offer at least 50 percent solid flooring in primary enclosures. Department of Agriculture under the Animal Welfare Act, rather than the more stringent requirements proposed by an advisory committee whose creation was required by the state's new "puppy mill" law. The law required the establishment of a nine-member advisory committee to make recommendations to licensing department commissioners. Any dog or cat breeder, as defined by the law, will be required to have a license by Sept. Animal rights groups find fault with standards for licensed breeders |
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Animal rights groups find fault with standards for licensed breeders
