10-08-08 -- State House, Senate Approve Reformed Dog Law
By: Tim Darragh,
The Morning CallAfter nearly two years of contentious lobbying, discussion and debate, the state Legislature is sending a reformed dog law overhaul to Gov. Ed Rendell.
The state Senate and the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that gives most commercial kennel owners an additional three years to comply with an array of new regulations to make their kennels more humane.
Language added to the bill also gives the state agriculture secretary of the state Department of Agriculture the power to extend that waiver even longer.
But even with provisions that supporters said water down the legislation, it still was an advancement for animal welfare in Pennsylvania, they declared.
"This is the day that we eliminate" Pennsylvania's reputation "as the puppy mill capital of the East," said state Rep. James Casorio, D-Westmoreland, the prime sponsor. "The mistreatment of thousands and thousands and thousands of dogs kept in deplorable and inhumane will no longer stand."
The final House vote was 183-7. No area representative voted against the measure. Earlier Wednesday, the bill sailed through the Senate 49-1, with only Sen. John H. Eichelberger, R-Blair, voting no.
