Targeting puppy mills in Pennsylvania

An interesting piece by Amy Worden in the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell is talking about fighting puppy mills. Rendell's state has a large number of high-volume puppy breeders, particularly in Amish country, and is known as "the puppy-mill capital of the East." (For info on one group pushing for reform, check out Lancaster County-based United Against Puppy Mills, which will celebrate its first anniversary this week.) The article highlights several of the reasons that the state's current legal and administrative scheme is not effective in combating puppy mills. One problem is bureaucracy; the enforcement of laws regarding dogs is split up between commercial regulators, humane societies, and the Attorney General's consumer fraud unit. Another problem is limitations on the power of investigators. One proposal for reform is to allow regulators to make spot checks on kennels who have been denied licenses, to ensure that they are not operating. Finally, HC&B salutes Gov. Rendell for framing the problem as a moral one.