The reason we're in this legislative mess today, with new regulations popping up all over the country, has as much to do with the actions of agribusiness and its influence on the USDA as it does with the animal rights community. If the USDA had reasonable standards of animal welfare and actually enforced those standards, then commercial kennels wouldn't be hellholes to be hidden inside windowless buildings or at the back of rural properties.

The USDA has failed so miserably in the animal welfare component of its mission due to the successful lobbying by agribusiness to water down animal welfare regulations and ensure real enforcement doesn't occur. It is no surprise that states are now stepping in to do the job that the USDA has failed to perform.

Yes, the animal rights extremists have their own agenda, but they wouldn't be getting nearly as much mainstream support if puppy mills were paragons of humane treatment that happily opened their doors to public scrutiny.

We hobby breeders are paying the price of the greed of the big agricultural conglomerates and their ability to manipulate the system so that they can maximize profit at the expense of animal welfare.

So keep in mind who got us into this mess in the first place before you expend all your energy vilifying anmial welfare advocates.

I smell an AR TROLL!!! First of all I have no problems with Animal Welfare activists as they are there to help animals in the shelters for which they work in. Secondly, I HAVE A BIG problem with Animal Rights folks! Animal Rights have one agenda and that is to take away OUR rights to OWN animals! They use extremists tactics to achieve their goal, including going to dogshows (of which hobby breeders attend) and turn dogs loose from their crates to run off and get killed by cars. They do not care about animals, only in serving their selfish agenda. They HATE ANY breeder, not just puppymills. In their mind WE are all puppymills.

It is illegal in this country to keep animals in inhumane conditions. Plain and simple. Does the USDA have enough manpower to inspect EVERY kennel-NO, is passing more laws trying to further define cruelty or severly restricting breeding the answer-NO. There is no easy answer in how to stop breeding where animal cruelty exists (and numbers alone do not constitute a cruel situation), but one thing we all agree on is that we disagree to varying degrees on what a puppymill is, what a volume breeder is, what a hobby breeder is, etc. One thing that AR folks are trying to do is stop ALL breeding. It doesn't matter who you are, if you breed, you will be stopped. We as a small group of breeders dedicated to breeding quality purebred dogs will go down in defeat if we try to alienate ourselves as the "premeire" group of breeders. We are too small to stand up alone and say don't affect us, we're good. IT DOESN'T matter to the AR folks. We can't divide ourselves we have to stand united with all breeders or we will lose.

And btw, puppymill is an AR term and I BLAME them for all the legislation mess being introduced right now. They are not trying to clean up the mess of the USDA, they are trying to put through their agenda by making it impossible to breed dogs by mandatory spay and neuter putting them one step closer to their goal of the extinction of the domestic dog.

I don't think it was an AR troll. Just a different view point with some food for thought. JMHO. There is room for differing opinions on this site without throwing out AR accusations.

When I start seeing PETA or HSUS donating some of their enormous resources to animal shelters or veterinary research to improve the health of the animals in this country, or perservation of land for endangered species, as opposed to politicians' election and re-election campaigns to promote their no pet ownership/anti-breeder agenda, THEN I will consider that PETA or HSUS have other concerns more then the agenda we all know about.

The OP was an AR Troll in my opinion as well. I do agree however, they probably have a different opinion than most others on this board would have concerning breeding and pet ownership. I even respect their right to their opinion. It is only when they try a sneaky, under the radar approach to promoting it, that I object to what they say. on this Forum or anywhere else. I think we all have a duty to call them out on it, when they attempt to pull this stuff.

Just trying to point out that the legislation issue is much more complex than just AR activists, and we won't successfully protect our rights unless we acknowledge that.

Not sure how a post on the forum is sneaky....???

A post is sneaky when by way of misdirection, it suggests it isn't the AR activists which are causing legislative problems for breeders and pet owners by pouring thousands and thousands of dollars into its legislative agenda against them, it attempts to suggest it is the nonenforcement of laws by certain Federal agencies which is causing the problem. See the attempted misdirection from the actual cause of a problem to a red herring? That is how a Forum post can be "sneaky". Glad to be able to answer your question.

Sorry - disagreeing with someone's opinion does not equal sneaky. The unfortunate aspect of your response is that if we miss the big picture and fail to address all the underlying causes of the state legislative actions, we are doomed to failure. We really should be fighting this at the federal level. I repeat - if the USDA was doing its job, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place.

Missing the big picture in this case is trying to have people ignore the thousands & thousands of dollars that animal rights groups, PETA & HSUS for example, are pouring into legislative campaigns all over the country at the state, county and locals levels to promote an anti-pet owner, anti-breeder legislative agenda. To blame the the USDA, is not missing the point; it is in fact staying on point. That point being that the USDA is not doing anything that is causing all the pet owners' and breeders' legislative woes, but rather the AR groups. These groups have to be opposed at the LOCAL, COUNTY and STATE levels.

Keeping in mind that animal cruelty laws are usually state based, can you actually supply some kind of specific example (not some baseless blanket statement), where you can show the FACTS relating to SPECIFIC LEGISLATION or REGULATIONS, that clearly demonstrate the USDA is attempting to eliminate pet ownership or dog breeding?

Just as an aside, I know that PETA & some of the other AR Groups have clashed with the USDA, because they thought the USDA did not have restrictive enough regulations. Gee, wouldn't it be great for the AR groups if they could trick dog owners and breeders into fighting their battles with the USDA for them? But I am sure that thought has never occurred to you has it? Sorry, nice try, but you are a troll IMHO.