Minnesota Legislation

Minnesota Responsible Animal Owners Alliance / Minnesota Council of Dog Clubs

Minnesota Legislation

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The Minnesota Legislature has adjourned until Tuesday, January 6, 2009

HF 2469 / SF 2292 Dog and Cat Breeders Act providing standards of care for dog and cat breeders, authorizing rulemaking, and appropriating money.

HF 2469 was moved to the Agriculture and Veterans affairs Committee
stay tuned to the revisors page.You can get

on an e-mail list for both the house and the senate committees who have this bill by clicking on the following links :

HF 1152 / Animal shelters pet sales exempted from sales tax.

2007 (below)....

New puppy/kitten mill bills were introduced by Representative Frank Hornstein (author of the previous bill) in the Minnesota House of Representatives and Senator Don Betzold in the Minnesota Senate.
H.F. 2469 and S.F. 2292 are slightly different from the previous breeder bills introduced earlier this year. The definition of “breeder” makes it clearer that it covers those people who are in the business of breeding puppies/kittens for sale, if they have 5 or more intact females for the purpose of breeding those females to sell the litters. A notable change is that the details of the standards of care will be left to the rulemaking process through the Board of Animal Health.

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H.F. 2469 and S.F. 2292 give state and local officials the ability to: (1) license and inspect dog and cat breeders in Minnesota, (2) make sure those breeders meet specific standards of care, and (3) take appropriate enforcement action to protect vulnerable dogs and cats from unscrupulous or negligent breeders.

Please contact your state senator and representative to let them know you do not support this bill. The most effective way is to meet with them in person - make an appointment to visit them at the Capitol. If you can't do that, talk with them (or their legislative assistant) via phone. Tell them why you do not support the bill and also request that they oppose it . <http://geo.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/districts/start.html> to find out and get contact information.

The Minnesota Responsible Animal Owners Alliance
Opposes Senate File 121 and House File 1046, The Dog and Cat Breeders Bill as the proposals in this legislation seriously infringe on the rights of responsible dog and cat owners to engage in ordinary activities associated with the ownership of animals including decisions about the health care, humane treatment, proper housing, breeding management, nutrition .

The terms of this legislation unnecessarily duplicate the provisions of the federal Animal Welfare Act and the licensing provisions of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). Minnesota state laws addressing animal cruelty are sufficient to address any problems of neglect, torture, or abuse of animals in any commercial breeding facility.
Data to support the need for duplicate state licensing of high volume
breeders of dogs and cats has not been presented. Minnesota at present has 83 USDA licensed Class A Breeders and 43 licensed Class B Brokers. These licensees are already subject to inspection by the APHIS agents. In addition, the American Kennel Club conducts inspections of high volume breeders and works with local authorities when problem situations are observed.
The definitions of breeders and number limitations in this legislation would force the licensing and inspection of thousands of Minnesota sportsmen, dog trainers, hobby breeders, mushers, hunting dog kennels, and others who's involvement with these sport dogs can not in any way be defined as High volume' breeding kennels. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is not presently staffed adequately to handle such a massive licensing and inspection program.
The provision for the appointment of local animal control or humane agencies to provide enforcement would give powers to seize and destroy animals belonging to citizens without due process of law. Many local communities hire private contractors for animal control functions and there is no provision for training, licensing or supervision of private contractors.
In Summary: This is flawed legislation that would infringe on the rights of responsible dog and cat owners and burden our state Department of Agriculture with unnecessary and unenforceable regulations and restrictions when there are already adequate statutes to prevent cruelty to animals in any situation.

Be a responsible animal owner!