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Sunday, April 26, 2009

Ind. Law - More on: "Farm interests oppose Indiana's puppy mill bill"

Updating this ILB entry from April 25th, Indianapolis Star columnist Matt Tully writes today:

Does everything at the Indiana Statehouse have to be difficult?

That's the thought I had last week as a simple issue -- the effort to stop the torture and abuse of puppies by cracking down on inhumane puppy mills -- ran into yet another wall of boneheaded Statehouse opposition. Because of that overheated resistance, the bill is now nowhere near as strong as it once was.
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That's our legislature.

It's a body that found time earlier this year to name an official state pie but has had difficulty on agreeing that mistreating puppies is a bad thing.

Yes, we're in month four of the Great Puppy Mill Debate. * * *

The issue has made many foes look bad. The Daniels administration, for instance, took a PR hit when my colleague Bill Ruthhart uncovered a Department of Agriculture memo that suggested backers of the puppy mill were insidiously focused on the "abolition of animal agriculture" in Indiana. That tied for the Most Ridiculous Statement of the Week. * * *

The debate stems from the work of Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, who thinks Indiana should no longer sit by as abusive dog breeders flourish.

Shocking, isn't it?

Apparently so, based on the opposition Lawson has faced. Initially, she said, hobby breeders complained. Then the big dogs -- puppy mill operators -- objected.

"It's a booming industry," she said, explaining the operators' influence at the Statehouse.

Other pressure has come from farm interests, critics of animal-welfare groups and lawmakers such as Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, who has the ridiculous fear that the law could be expanded to include livestock.

The Daniels administration tried to clean up damage left by its memo, insisting it supports a crackdown on puppy mills. Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, who oversees the Agriculture Department, said Gov. Mitch Daniels was not pleased to be surprised by a story about the memo.

"There was never an intent to kill the bill," she said, adding that the department simply wanted to ensure it applied only to puppy mills. Most objections, she said, came from Senate Republicans.

Ultimately, lawmakers likely will pass a bill stripped of many good ideas, such as caps on how many dogs an operation can breed and how often they can breed them. But at least it would force mills to register and toughen the definition of animal cruelty, giving prosecutors the ability to go after operators.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 26, 2009 09:08 AM
Posted to Indiana Law