Laws

Not only is Missouri home to the largest number of puppy mills in the country, but there's effort underway to open the nation's first horse slaughterhouse here.

The infamous Sue Wallis, who has been a leading advocate for bringing horse slaughter back to this country, first introduced the idea of converting a vacant warehouse into a horse slaughter plant near Mountain Grove.

At a public meeting on the proposed plan, the Community Preservation Project's MacPerson aggressively challenged the idea of bringing in a slaughter house. She provided a fact list about problems with the plant, and rallied strong support in opposition.

I have a draft of the ACFA rules after the modification by the "Missouri Solution". These are draft until vetted by the Secretary of State.

The Humane Society of the US, the ASPCA, and the Best Friends Society had mixed reviews of the new rules. On the plus side, a veterinarian annual exam must be physical, not visual. In addition, the new rules do at least address some of the original concerns, such as providing a definition of what a "severe" illness or injury is, and what is meant by "extreme" weather conditions.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture has finalized the rules based on the passage of SB 161.1. They managed to go through thousands of written comments and finalize the rules in a week's time. Must be a record.

The rules actually listed at the MDA are still the old rules. I have no idea when the Department is actually going to post the new ones. I would have expected a link with the news release.

In the meantime, as far as we know, shelters are still being charged the same fee as commercial breeders. This on top of the fact that the State is providing funding for the professional breeders to make whatever meager changes are necessary to meet the new rules.

Following is the letter I sent to Drs. Woods and Hickam.

Subject: Commentary on proposed commercial dog breeding regulations

Dear Doctor Woods and Hickam:

I appreciate this opportunity to provide commentary on the proposed new rules to be added to the Animal Care Facilities Act (related to Senate Bill 161.1). Following are my requested clarifications and modifications for these rules.

1. In the section defining "Necessary veterinary care", please provide further clarification that the once a year examination be a hands-on physical examination, and not a visual inspection. A visual inspection is not sufficient in order to determine the dog's health.

updated

This is an alert that was put out by the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation (MAAL) and the Humane Society of Missouri. We'll get into "I told you so"s at some later time. Right now, we all have to pull together to prevent this abominable action.

One of the regulations agreed to with the "Missouri Solution" was that each dog at a breeder must be physically examined annually by a veterinarian. The Proposition B rules that would have required that injuries and illnesses be treated by a veterinarian were removed, but at least this one minimal requirement was left.

The dog breeders agreed to this. Their representatives signed on to this.

updated

Several Tea Party pundits have jumped on the media bandwagon for Debe Bell and the Six Bells Rabbits.

"There was no warrant", they claim, based solely on what they were told by Bell (never bothering to fact check).

"The rabbits were in great shape!", they shouted, again based on what they were told by Bell (assuming that Bell was telling the truth, while a dozen or so veterinarians, animal care personnel, and sheriff's department personnel were all lying).

Well, nothing like a few facts to show how foolish these people are.

In the sidebar to the story is a link to both the warrant and a slideshow of the conditions on Bell's farm. You better have a strong stomach before clicking the link to the slideshow.

The sad thing is, many puppy (and bunny) mills in Missouri share similar conditions, but they're not being closed down.

update

Folks involved with the puppy mill effort in Missouri have long been familiar with Wendy Laymon, and her so-called "Rescue a French Bulldog".

Wendy Laymon has a shameful history of animal neglect as a commercial breeder, including being fined by the USDA and losing her USDA license. Chat in the community has it that she started up the Rescue a French Bulldog, not to save poor homeless french bull dogs but to muddy the water for genuine rescues—not to mention siphoning off donations from the less informed, as well as being a way to get rid of frenchies that haven't sold through her commercial breeding operation.