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LA County: Help Regulate Unethical Breeders!

February 28, 2009, 8:14PM MT

By Jennifer S Hayes

Show Your Support for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s motion on March 3

Show Your Support for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s motion on March 3

By Best Friends Staff

Los Angeles County is on its way to be to becoming the “puppy mill capital of the west.” And unless Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich gets his way—it just might.

Motion to Regulate Irresponsible Breeders

In the last few years there has been an increase in the number of ‘puppy mills’ operating within the Los Angeles County, currently totaling around 10. Antonovich is introducing a motion containing more comprehensive laws designed to prevent irresponsible dog breeding.

Antonovich’s motion calls for “the Board of Supervisors to direct the Chief Executive Office to work with the Department of Animal Care and Control, the Department of Public Works, the Department of Regional Planning, and the Department of Public Health, in consultation with County Counsel and the District Attorney, to review the existing County regulations governing the location, size and operation of dog kennels and dog breeding facilities and make recommendations, including proposed ordinance amendments, for improving the quality of care for the animals and for ensuring responsible and safe dog breeding.”

And if LA County does not do something about the current laws, it risks becoming the West Coast equivalent of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, the site of the national Puppy Mill Awareness Day.

Taxpayer Foot the Bill for “The Puppy in the Window”

The dogs who live in puppy mills serve only to produce puppies, which are generally sold through local pet stores and the internet. Each facility may contain hundreds of dogs at any time; generally living in unsanitary conditions and lacking socialization, adequate veterinary care, food and water.

In May 2008, Last Chance for Animals investigators uncovered the World Kennel in Palmdale puppy mill operation. The county told the kennel to downsize their breeding operations by hundreds of dogs, which flooded a local shelter with more homeless dogs to manage—and pay for.

And the county has had to seize hundreds of dogs and puppies from local operations in the past six months due to poor conditions, at a significant expense to County shelters and rescue organizations. Taxpayers may not realize the high cost they are paying for that “puppy in a window”—whether they buy the dog themselves or not.

Planning For a Better Future

“We applaud Supervisor Antonovich’s actions,” noted Nikki Sharp, campaigns manager for Best Friends Animal Society. “If his motion is embraced, it will create an opportunity to make sweeping changes for dogs in puppy mills and create a model for other communities to follow.”

Best Friends’ A Puppy-Store-Free LA campaign, a community-minded program intended to roll out nationally to end the sale of puppies through pet stores, is a member of the Puppy Mill Task Force initiated by Supervisor Antonovich in 2008. The task force is made up of volunteers, county staff and representatives from animal welfare organizations and rescue groups.

Says Sharp “We look forward to working collaboratively over the next few months with Supervisor Antonovich and our colleagues in the task force to once and for all end this tragic factory farming of dogs.”

Your Support Needed
Please help support Antonivch’s motion to change local ordinances that will eliminate puppy mills in LA County. Please attend a meeting on Tuesday, March 3 to show your support!

? Meeting Time and Location
Date: Tuesday, March 3
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Location: The Hall of Administration
500 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(map to location)

The motion on puppy mills is item #5 on the agenda. If you would like to speak at the meeting, fill out a speaker’s card for agenda item #5. They are located on the right hand side toward the front of the auditorium.

? If you cannot attend the meeting, please send your comments to:

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich
1113 W. Avenue M-4
Suite A
Palmdale, CA 93551
Phone: 661-726-3600

Email Norm Hickling, Antelope Valley Field Deputy, at NHickling@lacbos.org

And email Los Angeles newspapers saying you support Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s motion to end puppy mills in LA County:
• letters@latimes.com
• dnforum@dailynews.com
• letters@avpress.com

? Donate to the Puppy-Store-Free LA Campaign:
• Make a gift to help put cruelty out of business

For More Information:
• Read the press release about Antonovich’s plan to regulate irresponsible dog breeders in LA County.
• Puppy-Store-Free LA

Posted by Jennifer Hayes, Best Friends staff
Photo credit: taken by Clay Myers, Best Friends photographer

Comments

Posted March 01, 2009, 9:25AM by Kelly4cats

Why in God's name are we allowing anyone to breed dogs when millions are dying in shelters every year? Why can't one thing make sense in this country? Think how quickly dogs would be adopted from overcrowded shelters and rescue groups if there were no puppy mills.

Posted March 02, 2009, 6:16PM by ruthy92

Remember that the AKC makes most income from registering puppy mill puppies

http://www.bogartsdaddy.com/Bouvier/Bouv_Pages/article-inquire-puppymills-AKC.htm

Without the puppy mill registration money, no things like fancy dog shows for the AKC show dog breeders

So the AKC, its breeders, breed clubs, and its lobbying groups (run by AKC breeders like PetPac http://www.petpac.org/ (information about what Petpac really represents, AKC and breed clubs send this PetPac money to lobby against regulations)

will be telling any fib they can and threatening legisltors to oppose breeding regulations

These unregulated breeders are also cheating on their taxes big time, one of the reasons they don't want to be licensed. Right now, they can hide the business, hide the income, cheat on the taxes.

Posted March 03, 2009, 5:9PM by watsonsmom1

According to the LA Times the LA Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the motion to come up with a way to crack down on puppy mills and irresponsible breeding; they have 45 days to draft new laws regarding this. IMHO Michael Antonovich is to be praised! This is the result of a puppy mill task force he put together!