Comments on: Say NO To Puppy Mills: Oklahoma Commercial Pet Breeder's Act (SB 1712)

By: Nancy Houser

Nancy Houser — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:05:02 +0000

I read the other day, “Adopt one, until there are none.” I wish the puppy mills and mistreatment of their dogs could be stopped as easily as that reads. If the puppy mills would be done, so would the massive onslaught of abused dogs who are coming out of them … and hundreds of their puppies that end up in shelters because of the lack of socialization and inbreeding that goes on. How can you not care for any of them and the life they are forced to live .. knowing how many will end?

By: Diana

Diana — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:33:32 +0000

And yes, BS has got to be a breeder. Using words like “stock” to describe dogs is miller-speak. Have been to a “stock” auction with a rescue group and it’s sad, heart breaking and disgusting on so many levels…

By: Diana

Diana — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:30:55 +0000

Wake Up, AMEN to what you said in response to BS. You are dead on. It is about time that this state stepped up and followed the rest of the nation in responding to, regulating and stamping out puppy millers. The sad, pathetic lives of the breeding dogs, the “auctions”, the unhealthy, short lived puppies are all hallmarks of this inhumane and cruel “hobby”.

How many terribly sick puppies has my vet had to euthanize after unsuspecting, well meaning people have purchased them from millers? Let me assure you, BS, there have been many.

And bottom line. If you make money, hobbiest or not, you need to be taxed. Maybe that will knock some of the people selling puppies along 71st street in Tulsa and the people selling their puppies in the parking lot of Walmart out of the “business”.

By: stacey

stacey — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:01:50 +0000

I agree with sandy….stop the breeding! it’s a very sad thing that people think they need to have a certain kind of dog or cat, when they think they breed for the love of the animal…sorry dont”t believe you. this whole puppy mill thing, well them people should be put into cages and treated just like those poor dogs, and if they survive it then the animal lovers out their shouls be picked to torture these freaks! very very sad situation for those dogs.

By: sandy

sandy — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:34:32 +0000

To the person who repled wake-up! you couldn’t be more right. NO ONE needs to breed, give up on wanting the perfect breed or pure bred! Take in an unwanted pet that’s at your local shelter, and give it a loving and nurturing home. If you were any kind of a loving human being, you would not breed, and realize there are way to many dogs and cats that are great pets and are in need of someone who cares. So as far as im concerned breeding shouldn’t be allowed period! therefore this over poplulation of animals would be under control!! And wouldn’t have to spend millions to euthanize these wonderful animals. Just my opinion, but when is it gonna stop, never if there are still breeders!!

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:39:17 +0000

I am a small hobby breeder my dogs are inside and outside pets but my females have there babies in my home and never go outside til they are 5wks its potty training, but live in our house til its time to go to their new homes. As a breeder and animal owner/lover its very important to produce quality puppies. We need to STOP puppy millers and commercial breeders. I only have 5 Great danes 3 femals and 2 males and I tell ya its alot of work. I belive we need to have a breeders cert/license, yearly inspections and not allowed to have no more than 20 breeding dogs including males!

On another note: It will cost less in the long run that the state pays people to go to house to house and count how many dogs, cats etc (non-breeders) Give them 30 days to spay/neuter their pets. We have so many unwanted mutts and pure breds running around. People need to be RESPONSIABLE!!! People want to put blame on breeders but most of the unwanted pets are those are from pet owners being ignorant!

By: Norm

Norm — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:42:47 +0000

ELEVEN intact females? It should be two or more. Breeders should be required to pay hefty licensing fees so as to keep this useless and easily abused activity at a minimal level.

By: Wake Up

Wake Up — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:32:40 +0000

BS Alert, I’m going to need to call a BS Alert on you. You clearly must live in Perfectville where everything is perfect all the time, and all people are wonderful, fantastic, caring, compassionate individuals. Give me a break.
I’m not going to get into the horrendous… actually downright nightmarish lives that dogs are forced to lead by the clearly sub-human people that operate puppy mills. The things they showed on Oprah were NOTHING in comparison to what I’ve seen in other footage.
But let’s not get into that. Your tirade was about breeders who have smaller operations. Are there excellent breeders out there? Of course there are. Any breeder who isn’t doing anything wrong shouldn’t care if they are regulated and taxed. If a person is creating something and selling it for profit, then they should expect to regulated and taxed just like any other business proprietor. So quit crying and trying to protect the “good ones” – the “good ones” don’t need any protection.
You must be blind to the great numbers of irresponsible and inhumane “small-time” breeders out who really don’t give a *bleep* about animals or their welfare. They see a puppy and see $$$ – that’s it. They don’t raise the puppies with tender, loving care – nurturing them as if they were going to keep them – they let “Momma” (the mother bitch) worry about what nurturing the puppies do or do not get. The puppies are lucky to be de-wormed and vaccinated – two things any halfway responsible breeder automatically does with every puppy. These unscrupulous folks will also sell their puppies to anyone who will buy them – they do not care if the puppies go to a good home, if they will be taken care of, if they’re going to be tied up in a backyard and forgotten about, if they are going off to be bred themselves, if they are going to be used for dogfighting, etc…. hell, they couldn’t care less if someone was going to take a puppy home and have it for dinner, so long as it’s paid for. Maybe in your world these types of breeders don’t exist, but rest very assured, they do.
You say that some of the “hobby breeders you are dead set to eviscerate are the very ones who are running your local rescues, who are fostering needy animals and rehoming them, and who are educating the public about spaying and neutering their pets…” (quoted). Are there a few breeders out there who also rescue/rehome animals? Sure, some breeders do that. But let’s not misrepresent things. Most people/organizations who do rescue DO NOT breed animals, because they understand how ironic it would be to rescue stray/unwanted animals and yet at the same time contribute to the pet overpopulation by breeding more. Not sure about this? Go ahead, contact every rescue your can possibly find and see how many of them are also breeders. Most rescues would ask you, “Now how would that make any sense?”
Quite frankly, no one NEEDS to be breeding animals… whether large puppy mill type operations or small hobbyist type set-ups. Millions of dogs (waiting in shelters) have to be euthanized every year… millions. If millions of dogs are having to be euthanized, gee… what could that possibly mean? Oh, right… that there are already more than enough dogs out there for everyone to have a pet who wants one. But wait, some folks want “perfect” dogs. They want pure-bred dogs from a (supposed) great breeding line with papers that say so. Why? Do these papered dogs deserve love and a good home while other “imperfect” dogs do not? Sounds ridiculous, but clearly some people must think this way. I say “no thanks” to these people – I don’t want to know them, or why they believe that the life of one dog is worth more than the life of another. No thanks to people who feel it necessary to purchase a dog for hundreds, even thousands of dollars, when there are SO MANY fantastic dogs waiting to be adopted… so many fantastic dogs who will be led into a room to be put to death… for no reason other than that he/she was one of the ‘too many’.
If you led the life of an average puppy mill bitch for one day, you’d be crying out for someone to please come help you. They live it for years. If you were led into a room, with someone talking to you and telling you it’s okay, all the while getting ready to kill you, then maybe, just maybe, you’d understand the problem of overpopulation. You don’t understand either problem… the horrors of irresponsible, inhumane breeding or the sad irony that people bring millions more dogs into the world each day when millions are already having to be put down.
Unfortunately, this bill won’t solve either of those problems… but anything that can help, even a little, is something.
Given how strongly you seem to feel against this bill and your general positive portrayal of breeders, I can only guess that you yourself breed. Are you really THAT concerned about being regulated and taxed? Get over it and join the rest of us in the real world.

By: BS Alert

BS Alert — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:27:19 +0000

I wish that the level of rhetoric applied to the so-called ‘puppy mill crisis’ in OK could approach rationality, but I don’t hold out any hope for that in the foreseeable future. Because the truth of the matter is, as most of the people making this duplicitous bid for power know, the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of truly ‘commercial breeders,’ i.e. people who make a meaningful amount of revenue from the sales of puppies, have far more than 11 bitches. That number was adopted to reach as many hobby breeders as possible while still piously claiming to be ‘about the animals’ and trying to stop those nasty commercial people. And yet, these self-same hobby breeders you are dead set to eviscerate are the very ones who are running your local rescues, who are fostering needy animals and rehoming them, and who are educating the public about spaying and neutering their pets… your ALLIES in the fight against cruelty and neglect. Their thanks for this is to have you systematically attempting to proscribe their rights and restrict the freedoms that all Americans are entitled to. You have already made a tremendous start to it; the art and practice of dog breeding, once a respectable and honorable labor of love, has now been vilified, and the practice of raising puppies has gone from being admirable to being lumped in with criminals and ‘puppy mills’ no matter how carefully the babies are nurtured. Year after year, the noose tightens, and the number of animals one is allowed to own before being besmirched with the ‘commercial’ label continues to dwindle, and no end to it in sight. Your claim that “11 bitches can produce more than 110 puppies a year” is hyperbole intended to horrify, when you are well aware that this number is ridiculous. It fails to take into account that this is a worst case scenario if ALL those bitches were LARGE breeds, and ALL were bred in the same year, and ALL of them took, and ALL of them delivered the maximum number of puppies, and they ALL survived to weaning. Not a very realistic number, but it sure does fire up the troops, doesn’t it? However, many show and hobby breeders, esp those in the toy breeds, have 11 or more bitches, and yet are lucky to have 5-6 puppies a year… hardly a “commercial” establishment, but fully under the thumb of this regulation. For one thing, not ALL bitches, or even MOST bitches, in MOST people’s kennels are bred every year. Most stand fallow year after year, indeed many are never bred at all. Nor do they all take even if bred, and your assumption of 10 pups per bitch might be less fanciful if all the dogs were Labs or Goldens, but hardly rational as applied to Dachshunds or Pomeranians… You claim that we need this legislation… why? the EXISTING legislation is already sufficient to bust the people who are abusing and neglecting their dogs and cats. The problem is not one of insufficient law, it is one of insufficient enforcement. In one of the worst fiscal years for this state on record, a year when we are laying off policemen by the dozens because we cannot afford to pay their salaries, you have the gall to insist that we must tie up more resources on an issue that has been policing itself for decades. The number of ‘puppy mills’ in this state is NOT rising; the only thing that IS rising is the amount of attention applied to it, (which is good, in its own way) and the level of hysteria in the conversation about it (which is NOT good, because hysterical rhetoric does NOT make good law.) Those in favor of these restrictions do not WANT rational discourse because they need the troops knee jerk reacting from emotion, not carefully considering the real consequences of this action. And those would be, to make it even harder for good people who produce nice puppies out of carefully selected, health tested stock, to continue to offer these puppies for people to love. To make it harder for those who are already running themselves to the ragged edge of finances making certain that their charges are provided with the very best vetting, and adopting expensive health tests to rule out heritable issues in their progeny. These people will be damned as ‘uncaring’ if they are unable to afford the ludicrous and prohibitive fees built into this bill. They will be sneered at for failing to find it ‘reasonable’ that they should be forced to open their homes to random inspection by authorities who, let’s face it, will be *looking* for things to complain of and write tickets for in order to finance their activities. Add insult to injury, let’s force honest people to more oversight than is routinely applied to drug dealers, and ask them to PAY for the privilege of losing their Constitutional rights against unreasonable governmental intrusion into their home. No, the objective here is clear: breeders are evil and deserve any amount of scrutiny no matter how unreasonable, all pets must come from shelters, and the unstated agenda here, the 1000 lb gorilla in the room that NOBODY wants to acknowledge is this: once you have managed to restrict hobby breeders entirely out of existence, where CAN people go to get a healthy, thoughtfully produced puppy? CHA- CHING. And thus is PeTA’s odious objective, the removal of pets from the arms of their would-be loving owners, achieved at last. So yes, this bill will HURT animals; it will further erode the dwindling number of hobbyists trying to provide people with an alternative to pet shops and *real* commercial establishments. If no one is allowed to breed, or the restrictions on the practice are odious enough to force those few intrepid souls who ARE doing it right to give it up, then there will be no more puppies, and hence no more animal cruelty. What an ingenious, elegant solution to the problem. Perhaps we should apply the same level of ‘reasoning’ to human ills; isn’t it easy? No more people, no more cancer, no more theft, rape, child abuse, murder… Yes, I can clearly see the wisdom of this course. Carry on.

By: Need Fast Action: Call Your Senator NOW on SB 1712! Central Oklahoma Humane Society Central Oklahoma Humane Society

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:44:36 +0000

[...] Learn more about SB 1712 and read its full text here. [...]