From: Brennan Browne <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: [AR-News] (US/tx) Big Brother Finally Get Something Right. Strict
Regulation of Puppy Mills and Backyard Breeders Passes Texas House
Date: Friday, April 29, 2011, 10:17 AM
Texas House moves to strip rights of sporting dog owners
Surely Davy Crockett, Sam Houston and Jim Bowie are rolling over in their
graves.
It is hard to believe that these patriots in the fight for a free and
independent Texas would ever have foreseen that a legislature full of
supposed conservatives would vote to permit warrantless searches of the
homes of those folks who might sell a few puppies at the end of their
driveway. That, however, is exactly what took place yesterday as Texas’
House of Representatives voted 98-43 in favor of a bill alleged to be
targeting so called puppy mills. Click here to see who voted to take
your rights away and to see those that stood up to protect them.
Puppy mill is a media term coined by animal rights groups to bring
attention to substandard conditions in some large scale, commercial dog
breeding facilities. The dog owners that I know, along with hunters,
all believe that these places should be operated humanely. But as is
often the case with legislation drafted by the animal rights lobby, the
net has been cast much wider than large-scale commercial facilities.
That’s why the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, the American Kennel Club,
the Texas Wildlife Association, and many other national and local
sportsmen’s and dog groups are opposing the bill.
House Bill 1451 classifies you as a commercial breeder if you
maintain eleven female dogs that have not been spayed, and you sell
dogs. Now, to a lot of urban folks having eleven dogs may seem like a
lot. But to a sporting dog kennel owner who uses the animals to chase
foxes or flush quail, it is not a lot. And if one of these owners sells
even just two puppies, then that person opens his house to being
searched by the government without cause. Without even so much as a
warrant.
No warrant. I guess you can now add the founding fathers to the list of those
rolling in their graves.
But that is indeed the case with this bill. The fellow who puts by
his driveway to sell a litter of puppies is considered a commercial
breeder. The woman who takes out an ad in her local newspaper to sell a
few extra Labrador retrievers is to be treated as if she were operating
a puppy producing factory. No one has ever made a case that hobby
breeders and sporting dog kennels are operating inhumane facilities.
This bill is like treating a mom and pop ice cream stand the same as a
factory. License fees will be higher. Record keeping requirements
must be maintained and must be available to the government at any time.
Kennel construction and maintenance will be tightly regulated by the
government. The bill sets up a new unelected board that is allowed to
add any requirements, fees and restrictions that it deems necessary.
All of these things will run the cost of maintaining a hobby kennel
through the roof, and ultimately out of business.
Currently many sporting dog kennels and hobby breeders maintain the
records for their dogs on their home computer. Because, as I keep
driving home the point, they are not a large commercial industry. This
bill gives inspectors authority to search the premises where records are
kept without probable cause or a warrant. A suspected drug dealer does
not have to worry about the government storming his house without
cause, but a dog breeder does? That is simply amazing.
And what is even more amazing? Is that this is taking place in
Texas. Not California. Not New York. But in the Republic of Texas.
The future home of one of the most restrictive dog kennel requirements
in the United States.
House Bill 1451 is now in the Texas Senate. Here’s hoping that the
elected officials here will remember their predecessors and make sure
that this bill is written fairly, and properly targets the commercial
operators it claims to be pursuing. Failing that, this bill should be
defeated.
To find your state senator’s contact information [And THANK THEM for supporting
HB 1451], visit the USSA Legislative Action Center at www.ussportsmen.org/LAC.
Rob Sexton
http://www.ennisdailynews.com/?p=10496
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