Looks like Pennsylvania will join Virginia, Louisiana and Arizona in cracking down on puppy mills.
A recently enacted law ups the standards on commercial kennels, including twice-yearly veterinary exams (at minimum), larger cages and exercise requirements.
Virginia and Louisiana limit the number of dogs that can be housed in kennels, and Arizona law enforcement officials can now fine against anyone caught selling animals along public roads or in public parks in urban counties.
From the article, which you can read in its entirety here:
The new law in Pennsylvania targets about 650 large-scale commercial breeders, or roughly one-quarter of the state's 2,600 licensed kennels, that sell any dogs to dealers and pet shops or traffic in at least 60 dogs per year. Violators would be subject to both criminal and civil penalties.
The law also gives dog wardens the authority to act on alleged violations, a power previously given only to police and humane officers. Also, only veterinarians will be allowed to euthanize dogs in commercial breeding kennels.
The law took on new urgency in August, when 80 dogs in two eastern Pennsylvania kennels were shot 80 dogs by their owners after being ordered to let veterinarians examine some of them.
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