Some animal rights advocates working to strengthen new puppy mill bill

By Kelli Cheatham (kcheatham@wsbt.com)

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A Kosciusko County couple is worried about the effect Indiana House Bill 1468 will have on their dog breeding business

A Kosciusko County couple is worried about the effect Indiana House Bill 1468 will have on their dog breeding business. (WSBT photo)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: May 20, 2009 at 2:07 PM EST

Story Updated: May 27, 2009 at 10:46 AM EST

It's been a long, heated controversy in Indiana. In July, new legislation will regulate large-scale dog breeding operations across the state. Gov. Daniels recently signed the so-called "Puppy Mill Bill" into law. We’ve been following the debate more than six months.

You’ve seen the images and heard the arguments — many people who run large scale dog breeding operations say they don’t think they’re doing anything wrong.

“If you want to know what a puppy mill is, look it up on the Internet and you'll see places that are in poor repair, trashy, fecal material all over the place, dirty dogs,” one Nappanee breeder’s attorney told WSBT in March. “It would be a disgrace to call [my client’s] place a puppy mill.”

Indiana Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals President Eric Durcinka said his view of a puppy mill is anything that’s designed to mass produce puppies.

A couple that breeds dogs in Kosciusko County told WSBT they don’t feel like they’re doing anything wrong.

Wrong or not, large scale breeders will soon have to make big changes.

“I’m really excited,” said State Representative Jackie Walorski. “This is a monumental piece of legislation.”

Walorski, a Republican from Elkhart County, said HB 1468, or the “Puppy Mill Bill,” caused a lot of controversy among lawmakers and advocates on both sides of the issue.

“This bill generated more interest than any bill this session, including the budget. Lawmakers were just, they'd see me coming and they'd run because they'd had it up to here with people calling either pro or con,” she said.

The bill goes into effect July 1. Anyone with more than 20 un-spayed female dogs is considered a commercial dog breeder. They must register with the state and pay a yearly fee. The law says commercial breeders must also comply with USDA regulations.

Plus, dogs cannot be in a cage with a wire floor unless there is a way for them to get off the wire, cages must be large enough for "reasonable movement" and breeders must give dogs "reasonable opportunity" for exercise every day.

“We really liked the original draft the best,” said Kosciusko County Animal Welfare League Executive Director Trish Brown. “But it's legislation, and you usually know that you're going to get something different in the end.”

Brown said she’s fought for tougher laws and tried to educate the public too.

An anonymous Kosciusko County donor paid the Animal Welfare League to sponsor four anti-puppy mill billboards. One of them sits just off US 6, very close to a breeding operation with hundreds of dogs.

“They advertise that they are just breeders,” Brown said. “They advertise in some of the high end magazines and we wanted people to question what they were doing when they were going there.”

WSBT interviewed the couple that owns the large facility a few months ago. They declined a second interview — saying they didn't see how it would benefit them, since the bill has already been signed into law.

“We definitely have some work to do,” said Brown.

She intends to follow up on another part of the puppy mill bill. Local cities, townships and counties have until the end of this year to adopt their own, more stringent animal ordinances.

“I think it opens the door for somebody to come in and fine tune it,” she said.

Aside from breeding ordinances, the legislation also addresses animal abuse and neglect. For example, killing a domestic animal like a cat or dog is currently not punishable by state law. But once this goes into effect, it will be a Class D felony.

Read HB 14-68 here.

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