Over the last few weeks, a lot has been happening in state legislatures regarding breeding facilities, animal abuse, and chaining dogs. We wanted to update you about a few of them so together we can celebrate this huge step forward in protecting animal rights.

Regulating “Puppy Mills”

This week in Iowa, the state legislature passed a bill that would require more regulation of dog breeding facilities, often called puppy mills.  The bill, awaiting the governor’s signature as I write this, would give greater state oversight of the facilities to ensure the animals are well treated.  Some legislators, however, expressed concern that this type of bill would lead to regulating livestock raised for food production (animal agriculture is exempt from the regulation).  As one Republican state senator said, “They’re going to be back next year…they’re going to ask to restrict layer cages. They’re going to ask to eliminate gestation crates for sows. They’re going to make sure that our livestock has access to open air at all times [or] something like that, it’s coming.”  Bring it on, we say!

Regulating Dogs on Chains

Many states already have regulation regarding tethering or chaining dogs.  According to the Animal Law Coalition, thirteen states have already passed laws requiring shelter or minimum tether lengths, and similar bills are being considered in seven other states.  One bill in Illinois would be the strictest yet– requiring that tethered dogs must be visible to the owners.  This reflects laws passed in counties already like Ashville, NC and Miami/Dade County, FL.  Abolishing the practice altogether would be difficult, however, when it comes to enforcing such a law.

Animal Abuse Registry

This might be the most progressive animal rights bill yet, and it comes from the sunny state of California.  A bill proposed in the state legislature would create an online registry for animal abusers; similar to a sex offenders registry, it would include the abusers’ home addresses and places of employment.  Any person convicted of a felon involving animal cruelty would be registered.  The bill stems from evidence that animal abuse is often a warning sign of future, more heinous crimes.   Similar bills have been introduced in other states, but none have been passed.  What do you think about having a state registry of animal abusers?  Let us know!

These are just a few examples of the coming surge of animal rights bills in legislatures across the United States.  And most of our readers believe that it is up to the government to protect animal rights– check out the results from our last poll.

Come back next week as we wrap up our focus on protecting animal rights with a profile of one of our nonprofit partners, PetFinder.com Foundation.

Fight the Good Fight,

Johanna Hudgens

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Related articles to check out:

• Farmers fight back against animal rights groups (sfgate.com)
• Registering animal abusers like sex offenders (timesunion.com)
• Iowa lawmakers consider dog breeder measure (seattletimes.nwsource.com)