Second in a two-part series offering opposing views on laws governing pet adoptions. The first part, opposing a proposed California law, was printed Wednesday.
Alone in a tiny, rusty, wire-floored cage, a pregnant dog slumps listlessly. Her dirty fur is painfully matted, her overgrown toenails dig into her footpads and her teeth are so infected and rotten that even eating brings her misery. She lost all hope years ago. All she can do is wait to give birth, only to have her beloved puppies torn from her yet again.
In a shelter, an elderly cat huddles against the cold steel of his cage in a room full of unfamiliar smells and crying cats. He’s lost the only home he has known and he has little hope of finding a new one — adopters constantly pass by him in favor of fluffy, playful kittens. He only wants a quiet, safe place to curl up and someone to love him but his time is running out.
But there is hope for both of these animals. A bill sitting on California governor Jerry Brown’s desk right now could save them — and thousands of others in similar situations. He should sign it now.
Assembly Bill 485, the Pet Rescue and Adoption Act — which would require that dogs, cats and rabbits sold in pet stores be obtained from animal shelters or rescue groups — has passed the state Assembly and Senate with overwhelming support. If it becomes law, it would help prevent countless animals from being abused, exploited or abandoned and facing premature deaths.
Conditions pitiful
Pet stores are notorious for obtaining the animals they sell from cruel mass-breeding mills that keep animals in deplorable conditions and deprive them of proper nutrition, socialization, exercise and veterinary care. Mother dogs and their puppies are typically locked in tiny, wire-floored cages that are crusted with their own waste and are never allowed to run, explore, sniff or do anything that’s meaningful to them. After years of being bred repeatedly and intensively confined, some mother dogs spin endlessly, a sign of severe psychological distress. When their worn-out bodies can no longer produce puppies, they are often killed.
Most, if not all, commercial breeding operations licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are mass-breeding mills, which the Office of Inspector General called “problematic” in a 2010 report. The report also found that the limited oversight of these facilities was inadequate.
Not only do pet stores keep these cruel operations in business but they also encourage people to buy animals on impulse by selling living beings to anyone who can pay. When unprepared people buy animals on a whim — especially animals who may be unsocialized and difficult to train due to being raised in a mass-breeding mill — it’s a recipe for neglect and abandonment. When these animals are abandoned, where do they go? To shelters, if they’re lucky, which are already bursting at the seams with cats, dogs and rabbits in need of homes.
In California, taxpayers spend a quarter of a billion dollars annually to house homeless and unwanted animals at public shelters. Every time someone buys a dog, cat or rabbit from a pet store, an animal at a local shelter loses a chance to find a home. Many animals who never make it into shelters suffer and die on the streets after being hit by cars, being attacked by other animals, succumbing to diseases or the elements, or enduring other awful fates.
Offering animals from shelters for adoption at pet stores instead of selling purposely bred animals for commercial gain would help address several problems at once. It would reduce the incentive for mass-breeding mills to continue exploiting animals, and it would help more animals find loving homes — shelters are overflowing with friendly animals of every size, shape, age and personality, including many purebreds.
Profits remain
Pet stores can remain highly profitable by selling companion animal supplies and accessories. Live animal sales account for only a small fraction of pet stores’ profits: Last year, Americans spent nearly $43 billion on companion animal food and supplies and that number is expected to be even higher this year.
For the sake of every dog, cat and rabbit languishing in a breeding mill cage or waiting in a shelter, let’s hope Assembly Bill 485 becomes law immediately.
Daphna Nachminovitch is the senior vice president of the Cruelty Investigations Department for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; www.PETA.org. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
