Substandard Kennels

Introduction

Working with dogs is a cherished part of the hunting tradition. Sportsmen and women have a strong attachment to, and affinity for, their four-legged hunting partners and recognize that maintaining good care and conditions in hunting kennels is key to the well-being of their dogs and the success of their sport. Unfortunately, the relatively few breeders and kennel owners who maintain substandard kennel conditions create a blight that hurts the responsible kennel operators. Animal rights groups have used these neglectful, and often illegal, operations as a reason to push for overbearing “puppy mill” legislation that impacts all breeders, not just the illicit kennels.

Points of Interest

• Animal rights groups often support over-reaching proposals that systematically attempt to whittle away hunters’ and breeders’ rights with subtle attacks on specific hunting interests, including hunting with dogs.
• Over the past decade, several states have proposed regulations that would make it nearly impossible for sportsmen to breed and raise packs of hounds and hunting dogs. Many other state legislatures have addressed or passed similar legislation that requires excessive kennel oversight, arbitrary limits on dog ownership and breeding, extensive daily record keeping, onerous kennel engineering requirements, and daily exercise requirements that do not include hunting or field trialing.
• Sportsmen’s rights and traditions are not being adequately considered in the formulation of legislation around the country that is attempting to reign in abusive commercial breeders.
• Where substandard kennels do exist, they can almost always be addressed through the enforcement of existing animal negligence and cruelty laws. This makes kennel oversight and similar laws unnecessary.
• Eroding understanding and respect for sportsmen’s traditions of working with dogs has increasingly resulted in proposals that deem ownership of even a small number of dogs to be a commercial operation, subject to commercial kennel licensing and regulations that can be harmful to sporting dogs and the interests of sportsmen.
• Responsible sportsmen fully support an end to any kind of negligent or abusive practices by any dog owners. In opposing unnecessary and overbearing kennel regulations, sportsmen are reaffirming their dedication to their dogs and preserving their right to responsibly breed dogs for sport – a freedom that animal rights activists seek to abolish through draconian legislation, emotional media campaigns, and biased information.
• Legislation introduced in the 2020s in U.S. Congress, including the Puppy Protection Act (HR 1624) and Goldies Act (HR 1788) designed for high volume breeding kennels would modify the federal animal welfare act with one-size-fits-all requirements harmful to small sporting or hobby kennels. Overly burdensome requirements including arbitrary mandates for temperatures without consideration for acclimatization needs, feeding, and breeding. They also allow inspectors to immediately seize or euthanize animals they believe are suffering physical or psychological harm.

Moving Forward

Although legislative attempts at regulating substandard kennels may be well-intended, they have the potential to negatively impact law-abiding dog breeders and sportsmen. To ensure this proud part of our sporting heritage is not unfairly compromised, legislators should keep a watchful eye on future “puppy mill” legislation.