If you live in Missouri, please consider performing another civic duty and speaking out against bills that allow puppy mills to keep data about animal welfare abuses from the public.
Missouri SB 928 and Missouri HB 1414 would exempt animal and environmental data from the state’s Sunshine Law, which means that the public would be left in the dark about animal welfare abuses, potential public health problems, and environmental concerns caused by factory farms and commercial breeding facilities. In essence, these bills would allow puppy mills to carry on their practices with little to no supervision.
Responsible breeding facilities have nothing to fear from a transparent system.
Contact your senator today and urge them to oppose SB 928.
Please feel free to read the summary or the full text of the bill to further familiarize yourself with the issue. This post discusses how dog breeding may be considered under regulations regarding 'livestock' in Missouri.
Please feel free to read the summary or the full text of the bill to further familiarize yourself with the issue. This post discusses how dog breeding may be considered under regulations regarding 'livestock' in Missouri.
One definition of “livestock” in Missouri’s agriculture code includes “domesticated animals,” Mo. Rev. Stat. § 267.565(13) (2013), and dogs would certainly fall under that category. Providing more support for the argument that the operation of a CDBF, or worse, a “puppy mill,” might be considered a “farming practice” is the fact that Missouri’s laws relating to kennel and dog breeding operations, Chapter 273, fall under Title XVII, which is Missouri’s agriculture code.
