It’s about time!!! - JS

By ERIC OLSON, Associated Press Writer

OMAHA, Neb. - Bob Baker has seen the worst of the worst in his 27 years as an animal cruelty investigator.

There was the Missouri breeder who would skimp on food by skinning dead dogs and feeding them to other dogs in his kennel. There was the South Dakota breeder who used a handsaw to amputate the leg of a pregnant Rottweiler, injured in an attack by another dog, in hopes that the Rottweiler would survive long enough to give birth to another litter.

Baker says such cases are the exception, but adds that mistreatment of dogs in large’scale breeding operations remains common and troubling.

“Most breeders learn how to keep their standards just above violating cruelty statutes, but the conditions are still unacceptable,” said Baker, a St. Louis-based national investigator for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “It’s difficult dealing with these people. We file charges on the most egregious ones.”

State legislators across the nation are attempting to crack down on rogue breeding operations and pet sellers.

The week after the May 16 rescue of 173 dogs from the property of a Dawson County man, the Nebraska Legislature passed a law that increased the number of state kennel inspectors from one to four and requires new operations to be inspected before opening.

Puppy lemon laws, which let buyers get their money back if health or genetic defects are discovered within a set time, are on the books in 16 states and were introduced in four others this year.

California lawmakers are studying a bill that would require cats and dogs over 4 months old to be spayed or neutered, unless the person caring for them obtains a breeding license.

Laws that would tighten the regulation of retail pet shops are pending in Oregon, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and bills establishing standards for breeding operations were introduced in Minnesota and Ohio.

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