AUGUSTA – A pair of controversial bills that would place additional requirements on dog breeders drew a large crowd Monday before the Legislature’s Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Dog breeders were united in their support for the bills’ intent – safe, ethical breeding standards – but united in their opposition of the details on how to get there.

LDs 2010 and 2171 were brought forth by the Animal Welfare Division of the Maine Department of Agriculture with the goal of eliminating or helping to curtail puppy mills.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Benjamin Pratt, D-Eddington, said Monday in a prepared statement the bill was intended as much to protect and ensure the safe breeding of dogs as to protect consumers. Dogs raised in puppy mills often require serious and expensive medical treatment and have shortened life spans, Pratt said.

The bills would create a voluntary certification program that consumers could identify with.

“This sort of program would help to support the vast majority of caring, ethical and honest breeders in our state and expose those few individuals who would bring a bad name to the industry,” Pratt said.

But Nola Soper of the Federation of Maine Dog Clubs, who has been raising dogs for 40 years, said the bills would do nothing to prevent puppy mills from operating. In essence, she said, the bills would penalize responsible breeders for the actions of puppy mill operators, while doing nothing to curtail such mills.

She said new fees and complicated regulations would drive all responsible breeders out of the business, “but you will still have puppy mills because customers will still line up for dogs.”

Soper said the state’s dog organizations wholeheartedly support Pratt and others in creating a task force that could develop an ethical and humane breeding standard and certification program.

“What we object to is legislation that is so detailed that it tells us what size water bowl to use,” Soper said.

Other issues dog breeders have with the proposals include a regulatory change to require puppies get a rabies vaccination at 3 months rather than 6 months of age.

Soper said that the numbers used to describe breeders – anyone having five or more dogs capable of breeding – won’t solve the major problem of “backyard breeders” operating in Maine.

“Most backyard breeders have only two to four breeding dogs, and they breed them to death,” she said. “They won’t even be impacted by these new regulations, and they are the real issue.

“That’s the problem,” she said. “Reputable breeders will get more regulations, more fees, and puppy mills will continue to behave the way they have always done.

“We all want safe and ethical breeding standards,” Soper said. “How we get there is the problem.”

Pratt said he believes the certification program would provide a boost to Maine breeders because consumers would be inclined to buy a pet from a certified breeder, as opposed to an animal from a disreputable or unknown, out-of-state breeder.

No date has been set for a work session on the bills.

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