Governor Rendell’s Revised Dog Law Approach

December 2007

This summary document describes generally the changes now contemplated in the Dog Law and its regulations by the Governor. These changes were formulated using input and comments of the Dog Law Advisory Board, various interest groups, legislators and the public, including the 16,000 regulatory comments addressed to the Department of Agriculture. This is a preliminary document.

What follows is a breakdown of our proposals for:

1. Dogs housed in commercial breeding kennel settings that are over 12 weeks of age ;

2. Dogs housed in commercial breeding kennel settings that are 12 weeks of age or younger;

3. Dogs in all kennels;

4. New enforcement tools for the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement (BDLE);

5. Miscellaneous other changes; and

Finally, a comparison summary of the changes from our first draft plan that was introduced about one year ago.

The main concept of this new approach would allow us to implement a new, comprehensive proposal aimed at bettering the lives of dogs housed in commercial breeding facilities, with a specific focus on substantially improving the lives of the breeding dogs at these facilities, as many could spend much of their entire lives at these facilities housed in extremely small cages under existing law. We propose to accomplish this by defining commercial breeding kennel and classifying those kennels separately from other, different types of kennels as outlined below:

• We define “commercial breeding kennel” as a breeding kennel that maintains dogs for breeding and sells directly to a broker/dealer kennel or pet store; or has five or more litters a year; or keeps or transfers 60 dogs or more in a year;

• We create a Class B kennel license group to be designated for commercial breeding kennels.

I. Dogs housed in commercial breeding kennel settings that are dogs over 12 weeks of age :

• All primary enclosures housing such dogs must:

- Have solid flooring;

- Have double the current floor space requirements for dogs. In instances where multiple dogs (up to 12 maximum) are housed in the same primary enclosure, the amount of floor space would be based on a doubling of the current floor space requirement for the first 2 dogs housed in the enclosure, plus 150% of the current floor space requirement for additional dogs. Example: 2’ long dog now gets 6.25 sq. ft. of space, under this proposal would get 12.5 sq. ft. of space, second 2’ dog would get 12.5 sq. ft. of space, rest of dogs would get 50% space increase of 9.38 sq. ft. per 2’ long dog.

- Provide the dog(s) with unfettered clearance out of the enclosure into an attached, ground-based exercise run. This assures that breeding dogs will have access to an exercise area, the size of which would be double the floor space size of the respective primary enclosure;

• Temperature requirements of 50 – 85 degrees for housing facilities, which are based in large part on federal law;

• Lighting, ventilation, and shelter requirements for housing facilities, revised from our original proposed regulations to ensure that these necessities are provided to dogs but our new proposal would be more broad to accommodate how facilities can accomplish this;

• Daily cleaning of the primary enclosure is required, and all dogs are required to be removed from the primary enclosure during cleaning;

• Require attending veterinarian for and veterinary care of dogs. Specifically, all dogs would be required to have a veterinarian exam, either annually or for each pregnancy, and only veterinarians would be allowed to complete rabies shots, and euthanasia procedures;

• Require proof of birth date, rabies vaccination and vet check to be displayed on the front of the primary enclosure.

II. Dogs housed in commercial breeding kennel settings that are dogs 12 weeks of age or younger:

Housing requirements for dogs 12 weeks of age or younger:

• Limit the stacking of wire cages to two rows of cages and 4.5 ft high so that wardens can inspect. Wire flooring is allowed but must be kept in good repair;

• No exercise requirement;

• Space requirement unchanged.

III. Dogs in all kennels:

All types of kennels would, for the most part, follow existing law and regulation. However, we are seeking to implement minimal additional requirements for all types of kennels, as follows:

• An exercise plan (via legislation);

• require smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and possibly sprinkler systems (there is no current requirement related to fire safety) (via legislation and regulation);

• eliminate tethering as a type of primary enclosure in kennels (via regulation);

• increased availability of water (via regulation);

• limit steepness of slope for outdoor enclosures (via regulation);

• bedding requirement for temperatures below 50 degrees (via regulation).

IV. New enforcement tools for the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement (BDLE):

• Allow the state’s dog wardens to enforce cruelty to dogs (new);

• Mandate that, upon initial conviction, dog owners pay the costs of care for their dogs during any appeals process, or forfeit ownership of the dogs (HB 499 – needs to be amended to incorporate upon initial conviction language);

• Allow the BDLE to issue civil penalties for violations of the Dog Law subject to administrative hearing for both licensed and unlicensed kennels (HB 445);

• Implement and strengthen criminal penalties in both the Dog Law and Cruelty statutes (as outlined in HBs 445 and 499 – fraudulent bills of sale, fraudulent health certificates, knowingly doing business with unlicensed out-of-state dealers, operating unlicensed kennels, violations of the dog law, increasing cruelty fines);

• Make it clear that unlicensed kennels are in fact kennels and can be cited for violations of the dog law just like any licensed kennel. Provide wardens with the ability to inspect unlicensed kennels (HB 445);

• Mandate that the Secretary shall revoke a kennel license from any kennel owner who is or has been convicted of cruelty within the last 10 years. This will be a change from the current “may” to “shall” (HB 445);

• Add additional grounds for the Secretary to be able to revoke a license to include animal cruelty convictions in other states, violations of the puppy lemon law, failure to comply with requirements of their local municipality for kennels, acts in concert with former licensees, or felony convictions (revised from HB 445);

• Allow the BDLE’s Special Prosecutor to represent dog wardens in court with the approval of the local district attorney (HB 445, now being done via agreement with current Attorney General);

• Require that kennel owners who seek to be re-licensed due to license revocation or who were previously operating an unlicensed kennel post a surety bond prior to receiving a license (revised from HB 445);

• Raise minimum age of sale or transfer of puppies from 7 to 8 weeks, consistent with USDA to reduce the risk of diseased puppies being sold to consumer (new);

• Dangerous dog provisions (HB 445).

V. Miscellaneous other changes:

• Remove dog and kennel license fees from statute so they can be changed via regulation;

• Caesarian birth, debarking and tail docking procedures must be done by a veterinarian or it is a violation of the Cruelty Statute;

• Authorize county treasurers to sell vanity and collector tags, with proceeds to be split between BDLE and the treasurer;

• Define “rescue network kennel” and “rescue network kennel home” to cover dog rescue groups without physical facilities so that they can be regulated;

• Permit rescue network kennels to transfer dogs in public places;

• Define dog day cares as a type of boarding kennel;

• Exempt research kennels that are inspected by USDA from PA statute and regulations except registration requirement;

• Require county treasurers to submit electronic data file of dog license holders to the BDLE;

• 48-hour period for humane societies to keep stray dog will exclude weekends and days when holding kennel not open to public;

• Coyote damage claim responsibility will be transferred to the Game Commission;

• Eight additional seats will be added to the Dog Law Advisory Board.

In conclusion, the following is a comparison of the changes that were made to original dog law regulations and legislation as a result of the feedback we received from the Dog Law Advisory Board, stakeholder groups, legislators and the public.

• Surety bond not required for all kennel owners – just ones who have had a license revoked or have operated without a license (revised from original HB 445);

• Took advice of IRRC and regulated community regarding problems with one size fits all approach (reflected in new draft legislation and regulations);

• Record keeping requirements from regulatory first draft eliminated (reflected in new draft regulations);

• No doubling of cage size for puppies, cage size doubled only for breeding kennels (reflected in new draft legislation and regulations);

• No requirement of solid sides between cages or runs (reflected in new draft regulations);

• No requirement to segregate dogs during exercise (reflected in new draft legislation);

• No slab temperature requirement (reflected in new draft regulations),

• No minimum temperature requirement except for commercial breeding kennels (reflected in new draft regulations and legislation);

• No proposed drainage, gutter, construction, and ventilation requirements except for commercial breeding kennels (reflected in new draft legislation and regulations);

• No daily sanitization requirement (reflected in new draft legislation and regulations);

• 14 day quarantine requirement eliminated (reflected in new draft regulations);

• Grass exercise areas now permitted (reflected in new draft legislation);

• Definitions define “rescue network kennel,” eliminate “temporary home” definition, and define “establishment” to expressly exclude premises where dogs remain in the care of their owners, and various dog events (reflected in new draft legislation).