Oprah’s Dog Law Lacks Bite?

PA State Senator John Eichelberger gives a scathing review of Pennsylvania’s 2008 “dog law”, which had the noble intention of shutting down “puppy mills,” but has resulted in forcing most kennels in the state (particularly smaller ones that cannot handle the new regulations) to shut down:

A year later I’m told that over 300 kennels have been closed with more to stop operation after their temporary permits expire. This leaves, I believe, less than 100 kennels in business. The law did what some of us feared it would, shut virtually everyone down. I haven’t seen any figures on this, but from what was said today, there has not been any reduction in dogs sold to Pennsylvanians. So, the dogs our citizens are purchasing are now, largely coming in from other states. Some of these other states were miles behind the standards our breeders had before the new law was enacted. If the intent of the people pushing this law was to stop selling dogs from kennels with poor standards of operation, they didn’t succeed.

Interestingly, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Department of Agriculture, while bragging about the new standards, hosted an emergency meeting to figure out how to handle the glut of stray dogs.

For those who recall, the 2008 dog law was probably the most debated piece of legislation of the entire 2008 session, and was pushed by the most powerful human being in the universe, Oprah Winfrey.

What is Senator Eichelberger saying? That we shouldn’t follow Oprah’s every bit of advice for what to read, watch and legislate? That’s crazy talk!