U.S. Lemon Law News

January 2007

Rendell names Main Line women to Dog Law Advisory Board

Ardmore Main Line Times — Ardmore, PA, USA
2007-01-04

One of the problems in enforcement involves a conflict of interest. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) is in charge of overseeing dog breeders and at the same time has a primary mission to promote farming. It so happens, however, that many "puppy millers" also are farmers.

"It doesn't appear at least that they have had a focus on protecting dogs," said Perelman, who was part of an ad hoc committee established by Rendell in January to study the issue. "The purpose of the department of agriculture is protecting the farmers."

Perelman is also chairman of the board for the Franklin Institute and an energy industry board member and an owner of three rescued dogs.

Perelman described appalling conditions in which dogs are cooped in tiny cages with wire floors that hurt their feet. In the winter, they can be left unsheltered from freezing winds or in unheated barns. And in the summer heat, they are left to bake. Dogs are not often exercised, if at all, and treated more like livestock than animals intended as companions for people. Cages and the animals are often filthy. Dogs deemed as problem barkers by some operators have been "de-barked" by having a steel rod forced down their throats.

The new DLAB meetings will be quarterly and open to the public. This month, more than 300 attended, including dog breeders who said more stringent regulations would be a hardship and were not necessary. Some kennel owners are from Amish and Mennonite communities and are said to have a different regard for what constitutes proper treatment.

Perelman flatly rejected allegations from some breeders that accounts of abuse are overstated by liberal animal lovers.

"One single fact that proves this is not the case," she said, "is there were 171 individual complaints to the Pennsylvania attorney general under the 'puppy lemon law,' against one single breeder. That fact itself proves there are breeders in this state without the interests of Pennsylvania consumers or Pennsylvania dogs in mind."

The kennel in question is Puppy Love in Peach Bottom, Pa. The facility operates under license as a regulated kennel. "How well are those regulations working and how well is the enforcement being carried out?" Perelman said, "It's got to be one or the other or both."

Obituary: Dorothy Keith, 71, dog-rights advocate

Philadelphia Inquirer — Philadelphia, PA, USA
2007-01-12

Dorothy "Dotsie" Palouze Keith, 71, of Furlong, a dog fancier and kennel owner who lobbied in Harrisburg for canine rights for more than 20 years, died Dec. 23 at Doylestown Hospital of complications from lung cancer.

Mrs. Keith was past vice president and legislative chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Federation of Dog Clubs. A longtime Republican committeewoman, she used her political connections to help enact and enforce laws to regulate unscrupulous dog breeders. In 1982, she lobbied to pass a bill sponsored by State Rep. Jim Greenwood that was the first major revision of the Pennsylvania Dog Law since the 1940s. The bill gave the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement power to shut down "puppy mills" in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, said her husband, Richard M. Keith, local justices often dismissed such cases.

In 1997, Mrs. Keith lobbied for a state "puppy lemon law," which allowed buyers to return a dog with a contagious disease for a full refund within 10 days or have the seller pay the dog's veterinarian bills. She then worked to inform consumers about the law and campaigned for its enforcement by authorities.

Her efforts were bitterly opposed by some breeders and pet-store owners, who published "Wanted" posters featuring a caricature of a screaming Mrs. Keith and accused her of trying to devastate the state's "finest dog breeders." Mrs. Keith kept the poster along with her file of hundreds of "puppy mill" horror stories that she received from heartbroken owners of dogs that were sick or crippled by indiscriminate breeding.

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