Governor Acts To Prevent Inhumane Treatment Of Dogs

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Governor Rendell has pink-slipped members of Pennsylvania Dog Law Advisory Board for not acting to prevent puppy mills and better protect pets.

Members of the Pennsylvania Dog Law Advisory Board have received pink slips from Gov. Rendell, in what he called the first step toward addressing inhumane conditions at the growing number of commercial dog breeding operations.

The action comes as animal-welfare advocates increase pressure on officials to end crowded and unsanitary conditions in so-called puppy mills and as the Department of Agriculture makes its first attempt in a decade to toughen the state’s 24-year-old dog law.

The 14 members of the board, which advises the secretary of agriculture on dog issues, were notified in letters last week, but they can request reappointment if they believe the dismissals were undeserved, Rendell’s spokeswoman Kate Philips said yesterday.

“He did not think the board was effective as a whole and that it was not serving the purpose that it should,” said Philips. So Rendell decided to “start from scratch”.

It was the first of a number of measures Rendell told The Inquirer in March that he was considering to tackle a quarter-century-old problem, which has led to Pennsylvania’s reputation as the “puppy-mill capital of the East.”