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HSUS & FEDERAL “PUPS” LEGISLATION

HSUS lied to Congress about PUPS legislation which would have affected hobby breeders and today co-sponsor Senator Richard Durbin is back in the news.

May 2017 update

Oct. 2008 John Yates, American Sporting Dog Alliance

In 2008 the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was pushing new federal legislation that the radical ii Animal Rights group claimed was aimed at stopping dog breeding kennels that skirt the law.

Background: According to HSUS, the legislation only would affect kennels that sell more than 50 puppies a year. Note the bill's sponsors, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA), repeated those claims.

Dog Legislation groups across the country mobilized.  The bill failed in large part because voters understood it was just a first step in regulating hobby breeders, the plan being to reduce the qualifying numbers.  Voters were right.  Durbin and Farr laid low, then lobbied for PUPS in 2010^{1} proving they were lying through their teeth!

Analysis of the legislation reveals Durbin and Farr would've targeted almost every boarding, day care, training and handling kennel in America. The bill Durban and Farr sponsored also impacted hunting and sporting hobbyists even though they only raise a couple of litters of puppies a year.  In 2014 Senator Durban was still working through government agencies like IRS (Lois Lerner) ^{2} and USDA/APHIS and SARAH CONANT^{3} to regulate even small, private hobby breeders.

Speaking of Lois Lerner, Director of the IRS's Exempt Organizations Division - in early 2017 she finally admitted under oath that the IRS had been giving additional scrutiny to applications for tax-exempt status from groups with the "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their title. With a new Congress, we may see her Lois Lerner testifying again this year. Back to the lying guys.

Rep. Farr was a prime sponsor of H.R. 6949, and Sen. Durbin sponsored its companion bill in the Senate, S. 3519. The formal name of this legislation was the "Puppy Uniform Protection Statute," or "PUPS." See below.  It was nicknamed "Baby's Bill," after a rescued dog from a commercial kennel that was touring the country with Chicagoan Jana Kohl. Kohl was on an HSUS-sponsored campaign against "puppy mills." Her book praised presidential candidate Barrack Obama for his reported commitment to clamp down on "puppy mills."

ASDA and TheDogPlace.org were at the forefront of dog groups that defeated the PUPS legislation.  We escaped as people who sell dogs and puppies directly to the consumer, not through pet shops.  HSUS called that a "loophole" and had been pushing for many years to include kennels that sell directly to the buyer. Previous attempts, such as the Pet Animal Welfare Act and Sen. Durbin's attempted amendment to the 2008 Farm Bill, had failed.

Although restrictive hobby dog breeder legislation quieted down in 2016, we feel this background information should remain as an example of the insidious ways some members of Congress have attempted to chip away at our Constitutionally guaranteed freedom.  Most dog breeders have taken a deep breath, waiting to see if President Trump is going to handle the nation's security and immigration problems instead of being led into "animal rights" legislation.

With ISIS and Immigration, the rights of dog owners and breeders are low on the priorities list but we must be alert.  In the 2017 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Judge Neil Gorsuch, Durbin questioned judge Gorsuch's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case and other cases in which the judge upheld the U.S. Constitution. He was not in favor of President Trump's choice.

John Yates warned Dog fanciers in 2008 that a favorite tactic of HSUS is to deliberately use ambiguity in model legislation in order to entrap as many kennels and dogs in the law as possible, going far beyond the stated purpose.  It has been almost a decade since dog breeders were legislatively targeted on a budding internet.  In 2017, most hobby and show breeders have nice websites, and we do run online advertisements to sell individual dogs and litters of puppies. As the American Sporting Dog Assoc. pointed out even in 2008, a good case could be made that it is almost impossible to buy a high quality puppy from a kennel that does not make use of the Internet.

That does not (so far) show cause to include hobby breeders in any legislative action to regulate commercial dog breeders under the PUPS legislation.

But we must also be informed about our political leaders and internet does that too.  Make no mistake, HSUS is not an animal welfare organization and it has nothing to do with local humane societies. Instead, it is a political action and lobbying arm of the radical animal rights movement that continually pushes for tighter restrictions on animal ownership, with each piece of legislation making a step toward its ultimate goal, which is the total elimination of animal ownership in America.

Note the co-sponsors of PUPS, the PUPPY UNIFORM PROTECTION & SAFETY ACT OF 2008 in the Senate were Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D-CA],  Sen. Claire McCaskill [D-MO], and Sen. Ron Wyden [D-OR]. House co-sponsors are Reps. Judy Biggert (IL), Lois Capps (CA), Terry Everett (AL, Barney Frank (MA), Elton Gallegly (CA), Jim Gerlach (PA), Patrick Kennedy (RI), Mark Steven Kirk (IL), Daniel Lipinski (IL), Betty McCollum (MN), Thaddeus McCotter (MI), James McGovern (MA), Dennis Moore (KS), James Moran (VA), Patrick J. Murphy (PA), Jerrold Nadler (NY) and Janice Schakowsky (IL). Feinstein and McCaskill are very active today.

The link-to provided for Feinstein, McCaskill, and Wyden will help you track other legislators listed.  The American Sporting Dog Alliance (closed with John's death, see below) provided the remaining contact links.

It is up to hobby breeders (all species) to monitor the HSUS and all politically-motivated "animal rights" groups because most of not all, are a threat to our democracy and the personal freedoms we value.

Here is a link for State Governors -  and to your U.S. Representatives

and for your background reference: Pet Animal Welfare Act 

We thank the American Sporting Dog Alliance for representing dog owners, dog fanciers and breeders. It was the ASDA's mission to "protect the rights of dog owners, and to assure that the traditional relationships between dogs and humans maintains its rightful place in American society and life..."

Editor's Note: John Yates died Sept. 2009.  He was my friend and newspaper colleague, a fighter who won many battles on behalf of all dog owners but lung cancer took him swiftly.  When I talked to John in the hospital, he was in good spirits and optimistic the "tests and x-rays" would be okay.  Photo and John Yates Obituary by his wife Donna Yates.  John was Founder and Executive Director American Sporting Dog Alliance (ASDA),

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Reference & Related Articles and Information, dig for gold below'

#1 PUPS Assault     #2 IRS & LOIS LERNER     #3 USDA/APHIS & SARAH CONANT

Federal PUPS Law    Grassroots Anti-PUPS Initiative    PUPS Attack Breeders?