In the last 10 years or so we have seen a dramatic increase in anti-dog, anti-breeding and animal rights inspired legislation. It has been proven that the long term goals of the animal rights movement are the gradual elimination of all dog breeding and eventually the keeping of any animals as pets. They are slowly doing this by influencing public opinion and assisting uninformed legislators in the creation of these laws.
With this in mind the LRC is getting involved.
I have been asked by the LRC to act as their legislative liaison. I am already the legislative liaison for my 2 local clubs. Doing this on a national scale is much different than on a local one. We need to be aware of little things in our home towns as well as statewide and federal laws. We have roughly about 40 regional Labrador specialty clubs across the country. What I need to know is how many clubs already have a Legislative liaison? If they do not have one yet, it is vitally important that they do appoint one. If we can get a group of legislative liaisons together then we can perhaps, create a network that will allow information to be distributed on a timely basis. When working with legislative bodies time is often of the essence. Depending on your location, one person can represent a club easily without much extra work. In areas like California and New Mexico where they are facing mandatory spay/neuter laws, it may help to have a few people. Regardless of how you enjoy your dogs, I think we can all agree that the future of the sport of purebred dogs is in danger. We must work together on this. If you have an interest in combating the encroaching legislation that we are and will be facing. Please join me as we try to turn the tide as well as prevent any new laws from happening. Contact me for more information. To find out more about the AKC Legislative Liaison program go to:

http://www.akc.org/canine_legislation/gplg1397.cfm

Count me in. Let me know what I can do.

Would love to help also!!

Just a note........wouldn't it be great if this post had over 1500 hits on it?

Gina, If I can be of any assistance in the North Texas area, please let me know.

Diane

I've often wondered what these so called brilliant Animal Rights Activist think they are doing be eliminating pets from being bred. If all dog owners, including breeders are forced to have to spay and neuter all our purebred dogs and all the mixed breed pets, then in 15 years, dogs and cats won't exist be virtue of all being spayed and neutered.

What a crock that these ridiculous laws are getting passed in the first place. They are nothing but a pack of hitlers hiding in sheep clothing.

IF they care about Animals so much then they should concentrate on putting a stop to Puppy Millers and work on putting very strict regulations on the commercial run style breeding facilities and the out and out puppy millers who keep wired crates piled clear up to the ceiling, with urine and feces dripping all over the poor animals.

Pick on the breeders who refuse to take their puppies and adult dogs back when the owners decided they don't want them anymore, Pick on the Pet Stores who sell the brokererd out puppies, Pick on the back yard breeders who don't do their clearances or could care less about the health of their breeding program.

So what is going to happen to the breeders who really do care about their breeding program and are responsible in every aspect of their hobby ? They will be forced to have to pay $500 or more per unaltered dog every year. They will be forced to have to pay thousands of $$$ a year to be a licenced hobby kennel.

While some of us have been busy raising our children and enjoying our doggy hobby, "Big Brother or Peta" have been very busy taking the rug out from underneath us. How does one become more aware of what these animal activist are doing in our own region before it is too late on some of the laws they are trying to get passed ??

"If all dog owners, including breeders are forced to have to spay and neuter all our purebred dogs and all the mixed breed pets, then in 15 years, dogs and cats won't exist be virtue of all being spayed and neutered."

That is PETA & HSUS's goal. Absolutely no "exploitation" of any animal, including using the cat to make sure the couch stays soft.

Gina, I'll help you in Pittsburgh and WV.

My puppy just had the final vaccinations including Rabies. I was handed a dog licence application along with the Rabies certificate. I am wondering if I should mail this in now? I want to do the right thing, (ie licencing my dogs), but I also do not want to raise any red flags regarding the fact that my puppy is "unaltered". I live in California.
What should I do? Wait, and maybe have to pay the penalty later?

The problem is that to AR people ALL breeders are bad. Dividing the dog show/fancy people from the commercial breeders is their goal and it is working!

We say "stop the puppy mills, do something about them!" The laws they pass will affect everyone. You can't legislate the difference. There are already laws for commercial breeding entities with USDA licenses; Title 9 of the US Code of Federal Regulations covers this. Laws don't always get enforced. We have to *get over ourselves* about one breeder being better than another if we expect to fight this war and win. I'm not asking for you to like puppy mills, just understand by pushing for their demise you also assist in your own.

What county/city are you in? Several have already instituted mandatory spay neuter (MSN) This is what they tried to do in VA and a lot of people said they wouldn't give rabies shots any more because of this. That is a health hazard but people have a right ot be concerned about their privacy.

You could A. not do the license - but if the vet is required to report all vaccines - you are in the database already. B. Get the license and hope that since you are in compliance (and you don't have MSN or breeder bans in your area) you will be ok. You have to find out what the law is in your town.

I am not in Los Angeles, and I do not believe that there are MSN in my area yet. I am concerned for the future though. If the MSN comes to my county, I don't want to be the first door they knock on to alter my show dog.

I think I will send it in, at least my conscience will be clear. I bet that I am in the database already. Thank you for your reply Gina.

This was emailed to me:

Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 5:52 PM
Subject: [MidwestBelgians] Report On Louisville Meeeting


People who are going to show in Louisville, read the last paragraph to see the attitude of the people behind the Louisville ordinance.

donna_herzig@ yahoo.com writes:

I spoke with Roz Brennan last night, an Afghan person who also is a licensed vet tech and has a pet sitting business. She went to LMAS last Thursday for Meloches' dinner with the Gestapho evening. She said that about 20-25 attended including vet techs.

Meloche and Jackie Guelbe hosted the event. Kim Allen was not present. Dr. Fuchs
Sr. was there as was Rusty Gailor. Roz said that notwithstanding her not attending any previous discussions, it too! k her about 10 minutes to figure out that this was about nothing more than gestapho control.

One woman vet started off by saying that she had a question which she had called about three times and got three different answers.Meloche's comment to this question and almost all of the other questions was "perhaps it is in the law but you can come see me and maybe I will give you dispensation" maybe I will give you dispensation" when asked about the multiple vaccination provision.

He stated that this was an ordinance to get rid of "backyard breeders" -so much for public safety, and that he did not understand why since he euthanizes 20.000 dogs and cats a year (he only takes in 11,000) the Louisville Kennel Club and others do not want to go along with his law. In fact, on numerous occassions he stated that LKC has lots of money and power and is working to nix his ordinan! ce and brought nothing to the table (So much for the 7 notebooks full of information, drafts, suggestions, articles,witness testimony etc. that we
submitted and which fell on deaf ears during the task force and committee process.) He also showed them 21/2 inches of amendments that the wanted to make.

The vets said that they were not turning over records and that the KVMA supported their position. Meloche's response was " I used to be one of you but now I am on the other side" Roz was appauled at the consistant theme of the "we-they mentality".

Meloche further went on to say that he did not understand why people with performance animals that were required to keep them "in tact" would not alter them when they were done with their titles. That did it for Roz. She said her blood was boiling and she said "Excuse me Dr. Meloche, but that is like winning the Kentucky Derby and gelding the colt the next day." The vets just rolled their eyes and Meloche still did not get it.

Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse. Roz said that at the end of the three hour meeting-people had had enough and were leaving, Meloche made his final comment. He said that he hoped that show dogs would get loose at the dog show so that he could capture them and be a hero. Hurry up INS, the Department of Agriculture, and the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners- I don't think that my blood pressure can stand much more!!!
Donna Herzig

Debi repost that in a separate thread because people won't see it there. It makes me feel quite sick.

OK!

I couldn't have said it better myself!!! No matter how much we hate to, we have to forget our differences and work together with the "large commercial breeder", if we want to stop these laws. If we cry for them to have stiffer regulations, than we will have to live by them as well. We are seeing that happen right now in PA. They are trying to impose stiffer regs to stop the puppy mills, but it will run the small breeders out of business as well. The best way to stop the puppy mill problem and not hurt ourselves in the process is to teach people to buy from responsible breeders and know how to find one. We need to steer away from preaching more regs for puppy mills or the AR crowd will run us all out of business.

And back to the point, I will help out in any way that I can, Gina. I am the legislative liasion for my all breed club and I would be happy to help out with this wherever I can.

NJ bills: besides the Breeder regulation bill, There is also an anti-cruelty bill that is a little extreme in it's scope.

Gina
I have to plead ignorance about much of this but I am puzzled by something. At the same time there appears to be pending legislation to eliminate breeding and as you say, eventually even the keeping of pets, the medical community has publicly stated that pets are a definite plus for keeping people physically and emotionally healthy, especially older people who are otherwise alone, and more and more hotels, motels, apartment complexes, town house communities, nursing homes, and the like are becoming "pet friendly".
How do you reconcile these apparently divergent processes?
Julie

Hi Diane,

I am in West Texas and would be willing to help as much as possible on your north Texas front and expand it to West Texas

Julie, The medical community is not related in any way to the animal rights movement. Not everyone can agree about using animals in medical experiments I know, but the Animal rights agenda would rather scores of people die from diseases that benefit from medicines that were tested on animals. peta and HSUS' ultimate goal is the total elimination of all human / animal contact. They are misleading many animal lovers into believing that they are helping animals and are mis-guiding legislators in writing laws that sound good but will gradually erode our rights to enjoy breeding and exhibiting pure-bred dogs. They don't give a rats bottom to how pets make people feel better. They feel that keeping pets is exploitation of the animal. They hate people too for that matter.

Gina
Might there be some way the medical community can petition the animal "rights" organizations and have some effect?
It might be difficult for them to make their case if recognized medical groups publicly came out in favor of pets.

I am not sure that would work since the animal rights people still think medical research on animals is the biggest sin of all.

The most extreme animal rights organizations ALF, ELF, and other groups loosely linked with peta etc. have bombed medical research facilities, publish "hit lists" and pay the legal fees for the lawyers who defend these people. There is NEVER any rationalizing with them. Read more here: http://www.peta.org/campaigns/ar-petaonpets.asp

Gina, Why don't the AKC/commentators take the opportunity to speak on this subject when big shows like Westminster and Eukaneuba are televised?!!!

It's funny you mention that because there was a huge backlash after Westminster's many heart-tugging Pedigree commercials for the American Humane Association drive to adopt shelter dogs. It was like an advertisement saying shame on You, Viewer for buying a purebred dog! Buy our food so you can atone for your sins and save the really good dogs! They made a half a million dollars in those 2 nights!

It would be bad press and negative to point out these thing because the average person thinks that peta and HSUS etc love dogs and want to help them!

The collective pure-bred dog fancy has it's head in the sand and it's A$$ in the sights of the AR movement.

The AKC knows that the High Volume Commercial breeder will be all thats left thats why they are gearing up for accepting those registrations. See the below thread on the San Bernadino CA MSN ordinance. I crossposted some thought provoking info there. They estimate maybe 10 years before there are no dogs left at all in California. (except maybe the mexican ones they smuggle across the border.)

What can breeders and responsible dog lovers do? This anti-breeding and MSN movement is very serious!

Gina,

I live in W. Maine and would be happy to help in anyway possible.

Bev

If you belong to an AKC regional LRC, all-breed club or Retriever club, you can become the legislative liaison if that club does not have one. (See the first post in this thread.) The AKC has a very nice info packet for new LLs and it is useful for those who are new to this.

Then read all the info on www.pet-law.com to learn more. You can join your state's legislation email list if they have one. I have created a Yahoo group for Lab Legislative liaisons to get info and then report it back to their clubs. If you live in an area that does not have an LRC - you can still join because I would like to have coverage for all 50 states eventually. I need to invite you so people must contact me and explain where they live and why they want to join. I don't want any trolls. Most states with email lists have people monitoring their state legislatures. Keep an eye on your local municipalities by watching the news and reading the papers. Most importantly get to know your local legislators. Send them a nice letter that says you voted for them (if you did) and you are concerned about anti-dog breeding, MSN, BSL, pet limits and any other animal rights flavored legislation that is packaged to look like it is helping animals while it is really chipping away at the civil rights of dog owners and breeders. Tell them that you will not stand for it and you will be contacting them when bills are introduced to explain why it is bad. Decorum and friendly personalization are important. Y (Don't say I am a breeder with 20 dogs - say I am an avid purebred dog enthusiast and I raise and show Labrador retrievers. - NEVER give numbers!) You want to come across as a real person who is a law-abiding
taxpayer constituent! I urge everyone to get involved even if it is just at this level. And PLEASE vote!

Another good idea is to publish educational material on your web site so that people will realize what PETA and the HSUS really stand for. These are not animal welfare groups, they are animal rights groups. Please read the following and then post a link to it on your own web site:

http://www.centennialsharpeiclub.org/Editorial-_Do_You_Know_the_Real_PETA_and_HSUS.pdf

Gail

Good idea Gail! I would also put something similar in your puppy packets. Spreading the word to the average pet person is important! If they care enough to come to you for a well breed Labrador puppy they must care about purebred dogs in general.

The legislature is targeting puppy mills. So be careful in what you lobby for. The ASPCA has a lobby website.

No. Most of these laws are blanket legislation. Which is much easier to write and enforce because you cannot legislate ethics, responsibility and common sense. Everyone's situation is different. It's easy to say only good breeders show their dogs. Or only good breeders get all their clearances. Should we pass a law that says you will be arrested for breeding that nice bitch that didn't pass an elbow? How many times have people discussed that dilemma on these forums? Or what about the really nice puppy that hates to show, in California the pending MSN law says that all dogs must be shown or compete regularly to qualify for an intact permit. So you will have to drag that poor dog to shows etc. just to keep it intact? How many great producers out there were valued for their ability to produce but just weren't happy about showing?

In PA they are targeting all breeders that hold a Kennel license. You need a kennel license in PA if you have 26 or more dogs on your property in a year. So you could have 5 adult dogs and have 3 litters in that year and those puppies all count towards that number - you must have a kennel license. What if you rescue or board? And if the proposed regulations pass here you will need to build a kennel even though you dogs are all home raised. Don't even get me started about HB 445 which defines primary enclosures and temporary homes.

These laws are being crafted to eventually put all breeders out of business. Like I have said before people have to get over it and realize that to the AR agenda all breeders are the enemy. To them you are no better than a puppy mill.

Yes, and in PA, we now have proposed changes to the Dog Law Rules and Regs, PA HB 445 as Gina mentioned, and in addition, we now have PA HB 365 to deal with.

This bill REQUIRES that the Dept of Agriculture revoke kennel licenses for a violation of any regulation, except where the Secretary provides a written statement that the violation was minor and inadvertent. In such minor and inadvertent cases, the license MUST be suspended for 30 days. Violations which will cause a kennel license to be revoked include:

 A misstatement or misrepresentation on a kennel license application
 A misstatement or misrepresentation made to an employee of the Department regarding a kennel license
 Being convicted of any violation of this act or any rules or regulations set by the department governing the humane handling, transportation, veterinary care, housing, BREEDING, SOCIALIZATION, feeding, watering or other humane treatment of animals
 Failure to comply with any regulation promulgated under this act
 Being convicted of any law related to cruelty to animals

PA’s current regulations do not contain a section which governs the humane treatment of dogs regarding breeding or socialization practices. HB365 opens the door for the PA Dept of Agriculture to establish state rules on how often dogs may be bred, at what ages, and which health checks must be done before breeding. This bill also opens the door for the state to attempt to regulate socialization standards as the failed federal Puppy Protection Act did a few years ago.

These types of laws are being introduced all over the country and they affect ALL breeders, not just puppy mills. You have to be proactive if you don't want to lose your rights to keep, show, and breed your dogs. The AR movement is counting on the fact that all animal lovers will think just as you do, that these law are meant to only target puppy mills. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Gail

Gina-

I tried emailing you, but I couldn't get my email through your spam filter. Can you please add my email address to your list of addresses that you are accepting email from? I had something I wanted to ask you about.

Thanks,
Gail