When it comes to animal welfare laws, Maine is doing it right.
The state has ranked in the top 5 in the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s animal protection law rankings since the rankings began. Maine’s laws have only gotten tighter in the last few years, including in 2010, when animal cruelty involving 25 or more animals was made a felony. A year earlier, in the wake of a high-profile puppy-mill case in Buxton, licensing requirements for dog breeders were made more stringent.
So it is disappointing to see the Legislature consider LD 1239, an Act to Clarify, Streamline and Promote Fair Animal Welfare Laws, which targets the recently created licensing requirements. The bill, which did not find much support at a public hearing last month, will return to the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on Thursday for a work session.
At the public hearing, the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Paul Davis, R-Piscataquis, said there may be some room for compromise between the bill’s supporters and its detractors, among them the state Animal Welfare Program. If progress is made, the law could be amended before being sent to the full Legislature.
As written, LD 1239 would create three new kennel license designations. One of the designations would be a “personal kennel,” an establishment where five or more dogs are kept for “breeding, hunting, show, training, field trials, sledding, competition or exhibition purposes.” These are small-scale, home-based breeders that proponents of the bill argue do not require the same oversight as larger facilities. Under the new bill, personal breeders would not need a state license and would not be open to annual state inspections, as they are now, and a personal kennel could only be inspected with a search warrant. Personal kennels would also not be required to keep sales records.
So the bill creates a type of kennel in which people can sell as many puppies as they like to other breeders or in private sales. That kennel does not need a state license and is not subject to regular inspections. In the event of a complaint, the state’s overburdened Animal Welfare Program has to argue to a judge in Maine’s overtaxed court system in order to have a look. If a dog with a contagious medical problem is tracked to that facility, authorities have no way of knowing if it came into contact with other dogs, or where those dogs may have been sold.
It in effect would be an unregulated business two or three steps removed from any oversight, and it is foolish to think that loophole would not be exploited. Most of Maine’s 118 or so breeding kennels are above board, but it is easy to see more shady operators popping up if the laws are loosened. Worse, without the ability to inspect, there would be no way to tell when a kennel was skirting the rules.
Lawmakers would be better off scrapping the bill and starting over, turning its attention instead to laws that would make it easier – not harder – for animal welfare officials to discover and investigate cruelty crimes.
Ben Bragdon is the managing editor of Current Publishing. He can be reached at bbragdon@keepmecurrent.com or followed on Twitter.
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