Byko: Politician's pet project: protecting puppies

A CITY COUNCIL committee slammed shut a door that had been closed five years earlier.

At first glance, a bill to ban the sale of dogs raised in puppy mills seems to duplicate a law enacted in 2011, but bill sponsor Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, a self-described "animal lover," said it was designed to "close a loophole."

Vincent Medley, executive director of the Animal Care and Control Team, the city's animal shelter, told Council's Committee on Licenses and Inspections that as far as he knew, no Philadelphia pet stores were selling puppy-mill dogs.

Even though the door is closed, support for nailing it shut came from Alan Braslow, who works with the Camden County Animal Response Team and other animal protection groups.

All pet stores selling dogs from puppy mills had closed in Cherry Hill, he said - and then one opened. "We didn't think we'd ever see that again," he said, but there was no law to prevent it.

Johnson's bill would affect no legitimate and humane pet shop, as they can adopt the model of acquiring dogs to sell from shelters or from rescue groups. It bans selling dogs at parks or roadsides - anywhere in public - to constrain the so-called "backyard breeder," many of whom are notorious for inbreeding; bad breeding; filthy conditions; and birthing animals that have genetic, medical, and socialization problems.

In his introduction, Johnson mentioned his 4-year-old, 80-pound Cane Corso, Sasha Blu, "that I consider a family member."

Committee chairwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez seconded that emotion, saying she walks her new puppy Norman through her district, at the suggestion of Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. who does that with Captain Jack Jones, his American Staffordshire Terrier.

Councilman Allan Domb also lives with a dog, Zoe, a Jack Russell. Councilman William K. Greenlee told me his longtime pet dog had recently died.

So the panel was stacked with animal lovers, dog lovers specifically. Almost a dozen individuals representing various animal protection groups testified.

No one spoke in favor of puppy mills.

No one could.

It is sad, sick, and tragic that Pennsylvania is a leading puppy-mill production state, and that an awful lot of the horrors occur in nearby Lancaster County.

Questioned by Councilman Al Taubenberger, who resolutely identified himself as an animal lover, Amy Jesse reported there are 800 state licensed and 100 federally licensed so-called kennels - really puppy mills - in Pennsylvania, which "has a real puppy mill problem." Jesse is the Puppy Mills Campaign public policy coordinator for the Humane Society of the United States. (Disclaimer: I am a member of HSUS.)

Jesse described government regulations as a joke - permitting a dog to be entombed for life in a cage the size of a washing machine - and said there were "many, many unlicensed" so-called kennels.

This is kind of a dog week. In addition to the Philadelphia City Council hearing, Monday also was Humane Lobbying Day in Harrisburg. Friday is National Dog Fighting Awareness Day.

The simple fact is that puppy mills - officially known as large-scale commercial breeding operations - are prisons and torture chambers both for mother dogs and their offspring.

Ironically, the government had a paw, or hand in it.

To relieve poverty in rural areas, Jesse said, the Department of Agriculture recommended breeding puppies, something cheap with low overhead.

Living animals, with the ability to feel pain and emotion, became crops, like alfalfa and wheat.

In recent decades, the reality of the cruelty has been exposed many times, yet the practice endures.

The most effective way to stop the cruelty is to break the supply line from puppy mill to retail outlets. Pet shops can switch to using animals from shelters and from rescue. Most in Philly have.

Eventually, let's hope, the farmers go back to alfalfa and wheat.

Johnson's bill was passed unanimously and sent to Council.

stubyko@phillynews.com

215-854-5977 @StuBykofsky

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