Pennsylvania Legislation's Fine Print
Pennsylvania Legislation's Fine Print
Targets Everyone Who Owns A Dog
Committee Hearing Scheduled For Thursday, June 12
by JOHN YATES
American Sporting Dog Alliance
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org
HARRISBURG, PA - Legislation targeting kennels and more than a million
individual dog owners in Pennsylvania faces a public hearing this coming
Thursday before the state House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. The
June 12 hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Room 140 at the Main Capitol
Building.
Today's report will focus on how the legislation affects all dog owners in
Pennsylvania, even people who own only one dog. The legislation also paves the
way for defacto spay and neuter mandates and tethering bans without legislative
oversight and accountability, and casts a wide ranging electronic net over every
dog owner to enforce proposed and current laws about tail docking, ear cropping,
rabies vaccinations and other issues.
A follow-up report will discuss the legislation's impact on the state's 2,700
licensed kennels.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance urges all Pennsylvania dog owners to contact
members of the committee to ask for changes in this broad-reaching legislation.
If several significant changes are not made, the legislation should be rejected
in its entirety.
Rep. James Casorio (D- Westmoreland County) is the prime sponsor of the
legislation (H.B. 2525) , which actually comes from Gov. Ed Rendell as the
centerpiece of his vowed crackdown on alleged "puppy mills" in Pennsylvania. But
the legislation is a classic shell game: With public attention focused on
kennels, people have failed to notice the legislation's impact on individual dog
owners. An analysis of the legislation by The American Sporting Dog Alliance
reveals a profound impact on all dog owners.
Regulations for commercial kennels ("puppy mills") actually are only a small
part of the legislation. The rest of the legislation will affect individual dog
owners and private kennel owners with much more stringent and invasive
provisions, and grant the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement virtually unlimited
power to write new regulations with little or no public oversight.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance strongly supports the parts of the
legislation dealing with improving standards for commercial kennels. If
anything, we would suggest even more stringent standards than are called for in
the legislation.
However, much of the legislation goes far beyond its promise to improve life for
dogs in "puppy mills," and has the strong potential to expose every dog owner in
the state to unfair and devastating rules designed and implemented unilaterally
by the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement.
We cannot allow ourselves to forget that several recent draft versions of
proposed regulations were a nightmare for dog owners that would have forced many
people to give up their pets and driven most of the state's kennels out of
business. While these proposed regulations have been scrapped for the political
expediency of passing this legislation with minimal controversy in an election
year, we frankly do not trust the Bureau with a blank check to write regulations
at a future date without public and legislative oversight. The Casorio bill
gives this power to the Bureau.
Here is what this power means to dog owners.
The relationship between legislation and regulations is confusing to many
people. Legislation becomes the law, and the law authorizes the state
bureaucracy to develop regulations (which are rules) to actually implement the
law. Dog regulations now are subject to publication in The Pennsylvania
Bulletin, a formal period to seek public comments, approval by the Legislature's
Independent Regulatory Review Committee, and review by the House and Senate
Agriculture committees.
The Casorio legislation would scrap those protections by removing requirements
for public notice and a hearing that are contained in the current law. We cannot
accept this kind of blank check for the Bureau to do whatever it wishes in the
future.
From the point of view of anyone who owns even one dog, there are several other
major problems with the Casorio/Rendell legislation, including:
a.. The homes, property and businesses of everyone who owns even one dog are
defined as an "establishment," as are every person in the household. The
legislation gives state dog wardens unlimited power to enter any dog owner's
property and home to search, examine any dog for any reason, and examine
personal or business records without a search warrant. Thus provision violates
the privacy of more than one million Pennsylvania dog owners, as well as trashes
constitutional protections.
a.. While counties will continue to issue individual dog licenses, the
legislation requires them to send an electronic database to the Bureau listing
everyone who buys a dog license, as well as complete information about the
licensed dog. The Bureau also would be notified if anyone bounces a check for a
dog license. This provision invades the privacy of everyone who owns a dog and
subjects dog owners to targeted enforcement and home searches. Pending
legislation would target people who own dogs that have docked tails or cropped
ears, and this database would allow the Bureau to locate and file animal cruelty
charges (a serious crime) for anyone who is unable to provide proof that the
work was done by a veterinarian. Few owners of dogs are able to provide written
proof, even though a veterinarian probably docked their dog's tail or cropped
its ears.
a.. The legislation also gives the Bureau the authority to impose a defacto
spay and neuter mandate. Current law sets license fees for intact dogs at $5,
with lesser fees permissible for dogs that are spayed or neutered. The Casorio
legislation removes the $5 fee and gives the Bureau a blank check to set
whatever new fees it chooses by regulation, with no public or legislative
oversight. In many states, license fees for dogs that are not spayed or neutered
at set at $200 to $300 per year per dog. This is seen as a way to use annual
license fees as a weapon to force dog owners to sterilize their pets, and the
Casorio bill paves the way for this to happen here by Bureau edict, with no
legislative accountability or oversight. The Casorio legislation requires
counties to turn over spay and neuter information to the Bureau, along with
verification of veterinary proof. We strongly oppose giving this kind of power
to the Bureau.
a.. The current fine for failing to license a dog is $25. The legislation
would increase this to a fine ranging from $50 to $300. These fines also would
be imposed for people who fail to report a change of address, or who put down
incorrect information on a dog license application.
a.. Dog "day care" providers are defined as boarding kennels, which is not a
bad thing at face value. However, the legislation counts every day that a dog is
in day care as a separate dog. If a dog is in day care for five days, it becomes
five different dogs on paper. If one dog is in day care when its owner is at
work, it suddenly becomes 260 different dogs over the course of a year! This
means that anyone who provides day care or dog sitting services will have to pay
very high license fees, as if they own a very large kennel. A teen-ager who gets
paid $5 a day to watch a dog when its owner is at work, suddenly could face a
$1,000 kennel license fee! A small commercial business that provides day care to
10 dogs a day, would be licensed as a 3,000-dog kennel when the year's total of
"paper" dogs are tallied! Dog sitting and day care are rapidly growing home
businesses in modern America that greatly enhance the welfare of companion
animals. People who do this valuable work would be driven out of business, and
dog owners who need these services would be harmed.
a.. The unlimited power to create regulations without oversight also will
affect individual dog owners' decisions about how to care for their animals. The
Bureau would be granted the power to create regulations that specify how anyone
who owns a dog must house or care for it. For example, the Bureau would have the
power to ban tethering of dogs with no action required by the Legislature. This
both denies dog owners their basic rights as citizens, and also allows elected
officials to escape accountability to the voters.
a.. The legislation also imposes unnecessary restrictions on rescue groups
that rely on foster care provided by private individuals who care for a dog
until a new owner can be found. The American Sporting Dog Alliance believes that
animal shelters and rescue shelters should be regulated intensely as commercial
kennels, because of the large numbers of dogs involved and because the high
turnover of dogs from unknown sources increases the risk of disease and other
problems. However, we do not believe that people who provide foster care to
small numbers of rescued dogs should be subjected to this kind of intensive
regulation. The law should not discourage these dedicated and caring people who
do much good work to save the lives of many dogs. We propose a lesser standard
of licensure for these small rescue and fostering homes, such as a token license
fee and inspections only if a complaint has been filed. Care standards in foster
homes should be simply defined as the normal standard of care for household
pets. In plain English, these good people deserve to be given a break, as do the
dogs they help.
a.. In all cases, the legislation says that the burden of proof rests with the
owner of the dog. This is a perversion of the American system of justice, which
holds that the burden of proof rests with the state. What the wording of the
legislation means is that any dog owner is automatically guilty of a violation
if he or she is unable to prove his or her innocence.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance urges every Pennsylvania dog owner to
immediately contact every member of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Committee, well before Thursday's hearing. Please refer to House Bill 2525, and
tell the legislators why you are opposed to this bill.
Here is contact information for every member of the committee
:
Phone
FAX Email
Rep. Arthur D. Hershey
717-783-6435
717-705-1868
ahershey@pahousegop.com
Rep. Michele Brooks
717-783-5008
717-705-1948
mbrooks@pahousegop.com
Rep. Timothy Joseph Solobay
717-787-1188
717-705-1887
tsolobay@pahouse.net
Rep. Peter J. Daley II
717-783-9333
717-783-7558
dzeiders@pahouse.net
Rep. Tim Mahoney
717-775-2174
717-780-4786
tmahoney@pahouse.net
Rep. Bob Bastian
717-783-8756
717-783-3899
bbastian@pahousegop.com
Rep. Thomas F. Yewcic
717-783-0248
717-787-4922
tyewcic@pahouse.net
Rep. Gary Haluska
717-787-3532
717-783-7548
ghaluska@pahouse.net
Chairman Michael K. Hanna
717-772-2283
717-787-4137
mhanna@pahouse.net
Rep. H. Scott Conklin
717-787-9473
717-780-4764
sconklin@pahouse.net
Rep. Mike Fleck
717-787-3335
717-260-6504
mfleck@pahousegop.com
Rep. Mark K. Keller
717-783-1593
717-705-7012
mkeller@pahousegop.com
Rep. Robert W. Kauffman
717-705-2004
717-705-1951
rkauffma@pahousegop.com
Rep. Dan Moul
717-783-5217
None Given
dmoul@pahousegop.com
Rep. P. Michael Sturla
(717) 787-3555
(717) 705-1923
rep.mikesturla@pahouse.net
Rep. David S. Hickernell
717-783-2076
717-705-1946
dhickern@pahousegop.com
Rep. Gordon R. Denlinger
717-787-3531
717-705-1951
gdenling@pahousegop.com
Rep. David R. Millard
717-783-1102
717-772-0094
dmillard@pahousegop.com
Rep. Tina Pickett
717-783-8238
717-705-1949
tpickett@pahousegop.com
Rep. Karen Boback
717-787-1117
717-705-1889
kboback@pahouse.net
Rep. Mike Carroll
717-787-3589
717-780-4763
mcarroll@pahouse.net
Rep. Jim Cox
717-772-2435
717-260-6516
jcox@pahousegop.com
Rep. David R. Kessler
717-787-2769
717-780-4768
dkessler@pahouse.net
Rep. Richard T. Grucela
717-705-1878
717-783-3180
rgrucela@pahouse.net
Rep. Babette Josephs
717-787-8529
717-787-5066
RepJosephs@pahouse.net
Rep. Harold James
717-787-9477
717-787-7517
hjames@pahouse.net
Rep. Frank Louis Oliver Sr.
717-787-3480
717-783-0684
foliver@pahouse.net
Rep. Rosita C. Youngblood
717-787-7727
717-772-1313
ryoungbl@pahouse.net
Rep. John Myers
717-787-3181
717-772-4038
jmyers@pahouse.net
Rep. Mark B. Cohen
717-787-4117
717-787-6650
mcohen@pahouse.net
The American Sporting Dog Alliance represents owners, hobby breeders and
professionals who work with breeds of dogs that are used for hunting. We are a
grassroots movement working to protect the rights of dog owners, and to assure
that the traditional relationships between dogs and humans maintains its
rightful place in American society and life. Please visit us on the web at
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance also needs your help so that we can continue
to work to protect the rights of dog owners. Your membership, participation and
support are truly essential to the success of our mission. We are funded solely
by the donations of our members, and maintain strict independence.