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Date Posted: 09:53:31 10/05/05 Wed
Author: Mary
Subject: PAWS made easy

Subject: PAWS Made Easy

Easy Paws
by Walt Hutchens

A lot of confusing stuff has been written about PAWS. This
is an easy-to-read explanation.

'PAWS' is the Pet Animal Welfare Statute of 2005, a bill
in the U.S.Senate (S. 1139) and House of Representatives
(H.R. 2669). The bill is sponsored by Senator Rick
Santorum (R-PA) who previously sponsored the two ‘Puppy
Protection Acts.' PAWS is being backed by HSUS (the Humane
Society of the U.S.) and DDAL (the Doris Day Animal
League), who also backed the two PPA's. Surprisingly it is
also strongly backed by the American Kennel Club. More
recently PETA has announced that it supports PAWS.

Under the current federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) anyone
who has over three breeding female dogs and sells any dogs
at wholesale, is considered a dealer and must get a
license from the USDA. Breeders who sell only retail (that
is, direct to the pet home) are not dealers and are not
required to be licensed. This 'retail exemption' is why
hobby breeders are not covered now.

If PAWS passes, you will be a dealer unless you sell 25 or
fewer dogsand cats together or you sell six or fewer
litters of dogs and cats bred or raised on your own
premises and no dogs or cats not so bred/raised. If you
sell a 'puppy back' (stud fee puppy, etc) or you take in
and sell a rescue cat or dog, you must stay under the 25
total dogs/cats limit or get a license.

Selling over $500 worth of several other kinds of pets --
rats, mice, rabbits, birds (many birds sell for over
$500/each) also makes you a dealer and subject to
licensing.

To get a license you must pass an inspection. There are 90
pages of regulations. These regulations are written for
farm-type raising of dogs. All surfaces touched by animals
must be waterproof, you must sterilize surfaces every two
weeks (one allowed way is by spraying with water at 180
degrees temp.); you must have a food preparation space
separate from your (human) kitchen; animal pens or cages
must be considerably larger than the standard sizes of
crates used for dogs; puppies, as well as bitches that
will whelp within two weeks, must be kept separate from
other dogs; and much more.

It is generally impractical to comply with the regulations
in your home. You might be able to do it with a walk-in
basement set-up, but most will have to build a kennel.
Expect costs in the $100,000 ballpark. You may need a
zoning variance (you may not be able to get one) and in
some areas, being a USDA licensed dealer will
automatically make you a business required to collect
sales tax and obey other laws for businesses.

Being USDA licensed is harder than 'you get it right and
then keep it that way.' The regulations change and each
inspector has his own ideas about what's important and
what compliance means. You WILL have violations,
regardless of how hard you try.

The AKC tells us that the USDA will have to write new
regulations allowing in-home breeding. It won't happen
because the large wholesale breeders who are already
licensed don't want any new competition getting a low-cost
set of rules. Those big dealers have a lot more clout than
we do. The AKC seems to be supporting PAWS for two
reasons: First, they believe that by making many small
breeders subject to licensing, they'll get more who can
meet AKC requirements for registering their dogs, so
they'll get more registrations. Second, PAWS would double
or triple the number of dealers to be inspected and
there's no chance that the USDA will get a big budget
increase. The AKC hopes it will be allowed to do
inspections for them. Of course it would charge a fee for
doing so. However if the AKC is allowed to do inspections,
very likely HSUS would be too.

The numbers allowed without licensing -- 25 animals or six
litters sold(whichever is more) are much more restrictive
for cats because of their different reproductive patterns.
Some experts believe that PAWS will end the breeding of
purebred cats by fanciers; the same probably will happen
to hobby breeding of birds and some other small pets.

Many dog and cat rescue groups take in and adopt out
hundreds of animals per year. These animals are kept in
ordinary (foster) homes during rehabilitation. In law,
'adopting' for any compensation is selling. PAWS will
force rescuers to choose between building a shelter and
limiting themselves to selling a total of 25 per year.

Nonprofit status does not matter and there is no way to
write an exception for rescue. What will actually happen
is that incorporated rescues will dissolve, leaving the
various foster homes and rescuers to do the best they can
on their own. Unfortunately many shelters will allow only
incorporated groups to take animals. PAWS would do great
damage to dog and cat rescue.

Most home dog breeders will not be affected at first.
However, PAWS will make many breeders afraid to fight new
bad laws. More of the state and local breeder licensing
laws that are proposed now will pass. Many of these have
one or two litter and 6 to 12 animal limits without
licensing; some require everyone selling a dog or cat to
be licensed.

HSUS has said that they consider PAWS a first step.
They've also said that they believe all breeding of pets
should be federally licensed. If PAWS passes, steps two,
three, (and so on) will be even worse. The AKC's lobbyist
admits that the numbers 25 and 6 probably would be lowered
in the future.

PAWS is said to be needed because of large and growing
importing of dogs and cats; this seems to be a complete
untruth. It is also claimed that growing use of the
Internet allows direct retail selling without people being
able to see how pets are bred and raised. This is true but
nobody is required to buy this way and the net allows
asking many questions and comparing sellers' answers. The
AKC allows puppy advertising on its web site; if they
think it's bad, why are they doing it? There is almost no
commercial selling of purebred cats. The real purpose of
the bill is to make it harder to breed cats, dogs, and
other pets at home.

WE MUST BEAT PAWS. The bill is currently waiting for
hearings in the agriculture committees of Congress. Sen.
Santorum plans to hold a Senate agriculture subcommittee
hearing after the August recess. PAWS could pass in
September or October.

The most important thing to do to beat PAWS is to call,
write, or visit your Senators and your Representative.
Tell them you OPPOSE S. 1139 (the Senate bill) or H.R.
2269 (the identical House bill). Ask friends, family, and
animal businesses to do the same thing. PAWS will be bad
for dogs, bad for cats, bad for pet rescuers, bad for pet
owners (who will have fewer choices), and bad for our
country.

An easy way to write your Congressmen is to go to:

http://www.congress.org

Click 'ignore this ad' near the center of the screen and
type in your zipcode where they ask for it. They'll show
you your three congressmen; click 'e-mail', 'compose your
own letter' and follow the directions to enter your
message.

Please help!

"Easy Paws" written by Walt Hutchens, Timbreblue Whippets

Get Easy Paws in PDF format for printing and distributing.

http://www.pet-law.com/paws/easypaws.pdf

Source: http://www.pet-law.com/paws/easypaws.html

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