Put a Collar on Unregulated Breeders
The stories we hear about puppy
mills are all too familiar. Animals are crowded into filthy
cages without basic veterinary care and with no meaningful human
contact. Female dogs are forced to produce litter after litter until
they are no longer "productive." The end result of this cruelty is
another cruelty: Scores of sick or poorly socialized puppies are
sold to unsuspecting consumers over the Internet or through
newspaper ads.
A
loophole in current law exempts these commercial animal breeders
from the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by classifying them as
"pet stores," because they sell directly to the public. It's
time to close this loophole and extend the regulation of
large, commercial pet breeding operations to cover facilities that
sell directly to consumers. This is no small concern. A recent
survey of pet owners indicates that 406,000 American households
purchased a dog over the Internet; thousands upon thousands more
were likely purchased via newspaper ads, though the number is
impossible to determine due to the multitude of dog registries.
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Looking to protect these animals and
unsuspecting pet owners, Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and
Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Jim Gerlach (R-PA) and
Sam Farr (D-CA) have introduced the Pet Animal Welfare
Statute of 2005 (PAWS) to require that |
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any
commercial breeder who sells seven or more litters of dogs or cats
directly to the public in a year be licensed by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and provide the minimum standards of care required by
the AWA.
While the HSUS believes the best place to
find an animal companion is your local animal shelter, PAWS is a
crucial first step to establish a safety net for the thousands of
animals bred yearly for the pet trade and for consumers who are
duped into spending a lot of money for a puppy who may have been
raised in inhumane conditions and be vulnerable to health problems
and defects from over-breeding.
Please ask your U.S. Senators and
Representative to
sign on to PAWS.
Turn Up the Heat on Red Lobster
Red Lobster buys millions of
dollars worth of Canadian seafood each year. Please join us and
other U.S. and Canadian activists Saturday, June 25, for a Day
of Action to send the nation’s largest seafood chain a message:
Join our boycott of Canadian seafood until our neighbors up
north end their bloody seal hunt.
More... |
Where the Buffalo Should Roam
Since 2000, state and federal
agencies have senselessly slaughtered more than 830 buffalo from
Yellowstone National Park.
Urge Congress to act now to stop the killing and
protect one of America's truly unique buffalo herds. |
Killing as Conservation?
A Texas canned hunt operation
wants a federal permit to allow hunters to kill some of its
captive-bred red lechwes, a species listed as threatened under
the Endangered Species Act, all in the name of "conservation."
Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that killing
is not conservation. |
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Recent Victories
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The U.S. House passed two important amendments to
ban horse slaughter.
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A Pennsylvania bill to ban Internet hunting
decisively passed a House committee. |
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