Stopping Pa.'s Puppy Mills in Their Tracks

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Pennsylvania was known as the puppy mill capital of the East—if not the entire United States. There were over 350 licensed large-scale breeding kennels, often housing hundreds of dogs each, as well as countless unlicensed kennels. Prioritizing profits over the dogs’ wellbeing, many of these large commercial kennels provided obscenely unsanitary and inhumane housing, little or no veterinary care for the dogs and kept the breeding dogs in cages or kennels for their entire lives. The dogs often got no exercise, had no protection from extremes of heat and cold and suffered from splayed paws as a result of having to stand on wire mesh rather than a solid floor. At some kennels, cages were stacked on top of one another, causing dogs on the lower levels to be covered in waste from those above. Although the kennels were largely hidden from public scrutiny, photos would sometimes surface showing sad dogs with matted fur and untreated medical conditions living in cramped cages. For those who cared about animal welfare in the state, it was a painful embarrassment.

When Gov. Ed Rendell, a dog lover and proud rescue dog parent, took office in 2003, he was determined to improve conditions for breeding dogs in the state. He added six new positions to the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement (BDLE) within the Department of Agriculture and reconstituted the Dog Law Advisory Board with the goal of passing stricter kennel regulations. After much debate and input from all constituencies, on Oct. 9, 2008, Gov. Rendell signed House Bill 2525 (now Act 119) which ­dramatically increased the standard of care for dogs living in kennels in Pennsylvania. Act 119 was designed to force large-scale commercial dog breeders to choose between upgrading their facilities and the care they provide or to risk having their license revoked. Under the law, a commercial kennel is one that sells or transfers at least 60 dogs a year. The new law required, among other things, ­unfettered access to and from an exercise area, better ventilation, solid (rather than wire) flooring and roughly doubled the required size of kennels. Kennels were also required to keep records demonstrating that their animals were seen by a veterinarian at least every six months.