Brooks Law Digest: Puppy Mills

Kentucky Senate Bill 179 proposes to prohibit pet stores from selling dogs, cats, or rabbits for profit. A violation of this prohibition would result in a $500 civil fine per animal. The ban would not apply to the display of animals up for adoption from animal shelters.

H.R. 5715, or the Petfax Act of 2020, would require any commercial entity selling cats or dogs to provide the purchaser of the animal with a report detailing the animal’s background. The report would be required to disclose the name of the dealer who raised the animal, the number of other animals that dealer had raised in the last prior years, a listing of any Animal Welfare Act violations that dealer had committed in the prior two years, the animal’s date of birth, and the date of their most recent examination by a licensed veterinarian. The legislation would exclude not-for-profit animal shelters from these requirements.

The House Amendment to the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, signed into law on December 20, requires that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture both restore all previously deleted records to its website and to make publicly available for the next three years unredacted versions of all Animal Welfare Act inspection reports, Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act enforcement records, all reports and documentation of non-compliances observed by Department officials, and final Animal Welfare Act research facility annual reports.

This report, like prior investigations, found many sick dogs that were not treated by a veterinarian, disregard for the health and safety of animals in Petland’s care, and attempts to hide the illnesses from customers.