U.S. Court Judge Rules In USDA/DDAL Case

[Nancy Estes]

I don't have any contact information on this but I'd guess the AKC would be a good one. (Peggy Mickelson is an AKC judge.)
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From: Peggy Mickelson
Subject: some of us are still breeding dogs, so....

This is a WAKE UP CALL for all dog breeders in the US...while you were enjoying the good life, winning those ribbons, watching those puppies grow, spending ALL that money you made on your last litter the Animal Right's
faction is making good headway in the US...read it and don't say "...it can't happen to me.."!

This is from the AKC
U.S. Court Judge Rules In USDA/DDAL Case
August 3, 2001

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on July 30, 2001 handed down a decision invalidating the U.S. Department of
Agriculture'longstanding regulation exempting retail sellers of dogs from federal regulation. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by the Doris Day Animal League (DDAL) and several other plaintiffs against the Department challenging the Department's interpretation of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The judge also refused to consider amicus curiae briefs in support of the Department of Agriculture's position filed by the American Kennel Club (AKC) and others.

The judge's ruling, if not overturned, will require a huge expansion in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's licensing and inspection activities, and deal a devastating blow to non-commercial hobby and show dog breeders.

The ruling could potentially require every person who sells a dog or cat for any reason to obtain a federal license and submit to federal regulations.

The AKC pointed out in its brief that this could expand federal licensing under the Animal Welfare Act from the current level of about 10,000 entities to several hundred thousands entities. The AKC estimated that
based on AKC registration data alone, nearly 300,000 persons could be required to be licensed. More importantly, the AKC argued, it was clearly not the intent of Congress in enacting the Animal Welfare Act to regulate
non-commercial hobby and show breeders, and that to make the sport of purebred dogs into a federally regulated activity would undermine the very nature of the sport.

Government attorneys are studying the poinion, and will decide over the next few weeks whether to appeal it. The AKC will strongly urge an appeal. One factor that is likely to weigh strongly in a decision to
appeal is that the wording of the opinion is so sweeping that, if left standing, it could significantly limit the government's latitude for exercising discretion in all federal regulatory matters. The AKC is also evaluating other avenues for mitigating the adverse impact of the ruling on hobby and
show breeders and is discussing the impact of the ruling with members of Congress.

Permission (and I urge you ) to crosspost........
Peggy
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Nancy

[winniecnm]

This is one of those things that feels like a terrible nightmarish dream. If people don't start waking up and taking action....well we all know now how far idiocy can go.

We can't rely on other people having common sense and speaking up in our defense in this world. Unfortunatly too many people are too comfortable in their illusion that this is a free country to speak up anymore or these decisions would not even be heard of!

Is there anyone we can contact about this or any way to express our opinions on this decision??

[alexav]

They can't even "inspect" and condemn the puppy mills that are legaly licensed NOW! AKC doesn't inspect, ASPCA can only get involved if thier is reason, and most of the USDA "inspectors" are crooked anyway. They get cash if they give a good report and don't count the number of dead dogs laying around. I have seen undercover videos of some of these "Inspected, Federally approved" torture farms! It is just SICK!

I'm sure the DDAL was trying to do something positive for animals but I sincerely doubt it would accomplish anything good. Just as with anything else, the rulebenders and greedy sacks of crap will thrive and the good, responsible, decent folks will lose again!

[Judi W]

There are many areas where we would like things to be different at AKC, but in its defense, every month in the Gazette, there are pages of suspensions and fines resulting from inspections, a great many of which are obviously puppy mills. They nail a lot on record keeping and identification, failure to allow inspection, animal cruelty, and failure to maintain dogs and records in an acceptable manner. Suspensions are usually from 5 to 10 years, effectively putting these people out of the AKC registered dog business. Their inspections also result in the cancellation of registrations because of inpure breeding and failure to comply with DNA testing.

[German Vanegas]

If such ruling prevails, the Government eventually will eliminate most dog breeders in the States, reducing them to a very low number. Basically, only those that wants to comply and meet the criteria will be allowed to breed dogs. This way prices will "skyrocketed" and only the elite will be able to have dogs, since dogs will not be affordable for most people. That is &@#*%! up decision. And we think we are "free" and we "can have the dog we want"... Wake up people! The Government not only wants to tell us what dogs we may own, but worse: who can have dogs... Wake up people! Your dog is on then line!

[Cosmo]

This topic is also in the Breeding forum so I am closing it here.

Cosmo