Illinois - A bill to protect individuals adopting or buying dogs and cats was passed today in Illinois. Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill which requires pet stores, animal shelters, and animal control facilities to disclose important information to adopters or purchasers of dogs and cats.
House Bill 5772 sets forth certain requirements concerning an acknowledgement of disclosures form which must be signed by the customer or adopter and the pet shop operator or authorized representative of the animal shelter or animal control facility.
The bill is designed to protect consumers or adopters from unknowingly buying or adopting cats and dogs from puppy mills, or from acquiring animals with health issues that may not otherwise be disclosed.
According to Pioneer Local, pet shops, animal shelters and animal control facilities will be required to disclose the following information prior to sale: retail price, including adoption fees or other charges; breed, age, date of birth, sex and color of the dog or cat; details of vaccinations and health history; name, address and identification number of the breeder; and any known diseases or other health conditions (applies to animal shelters and controls only).
The legislation, sponsored by Senator Jeff Schoenberg of Evanston, and Representative Susana Mendoza of Chicago, takes effect Jan. 1, 2011.
Ideally, HB 5772 will prevent puppy mill breeders from selling emotionally and/or physically ill puppies to unsuspecting consumers. Inbreeding and unsanitary conditions often plague puppies from puppy mill facilities and consumers are often unaware that they are supporting such an institution.
Additionally, by making dog breeders accountable for the health and quality of the puppies that they produce, one could hope that irresponsible breeders that focus solely on profits will be reduced, or even eliminated. With shelters across the nation over-flowing with homeless cats and dogs, there should never be a reason to purchase a companion animal.
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Comments
SOUNDS like a great step BUT how exactly are shelters and rescuers going to know all that information ( Breeder, health history and date of birth that is )? Does it not apply to them maybe? Sorry if I misread the article.
Anonymous, I was wondering the same thing. I adopted a dog 5 years ago that was found as a stray. There's no way of knowing his history. Still, I think this bill is a huge step in the right direction and will hopefully diminish the horrible backyard breeders and puppy mills.
I believe that IF there is known information w/regards to the breeder and/or health issues, it is to be disclosed. For shelters, most dogs and cats will not have information, but on the off chance that something is known, they are to share it. You might have a dog that came in with injuries and perhaps the shelter was able to treat those injuries and could house the dog for long enough that the injury would heal - in that instance, they would need to disclose that information.
it will never work because these pupy mills as you all call them will allow a friend to sell the dogs an not all of these people are bad the ones that are you could not hurt them unless you had millions to spend an we all no rescues are like street people, they pay for nothing an yet get every thing free good dog kennels like mine are strictly a hunting dog kennel, we feed an house an vet hunting dogs only if it does not hunt we have other legal options on what we do with them, they never end up in any dog control at all,we dog hunters would rather see our dogs killed in the woods then up in some rescues house because most rescues have no such thing as a kennel some time go to a good small breeding kennel an ask to see their kennels you all will be suprise that the smaller kennels you all consider puppie mill stheir kennels are spotless an you could eat off the floor we choose to buy every dog we own we dont want dogs from animal controls at all the pet dog owner is why so many dogs end up in the shelters an the only way our dogs would end up in a shelter is if a dog rescue stole them an took them their,we dont bother you but yet you rescues find it necessary to bother us we are strictly a hunting dog kennel, we can buy dogs all day long cheap so why breed them at all but if we choose to do this we will, but this law is a disclosure law an it will never work at all its like other states call a pet lemon law an those states cant make any one tell them the unkown at all theyve tried it an it dont work they just think it does , good kennels like mine never sell to pet dog owners at all an we have a100% buy back ppolicy an all ourr dogs are chipped if a rescue gets caught with oour dogs we prosecute for dog theft because our dogs unlike the ones you rescue are valuable to us we care an dont want our dogs killed withthe wrong kind of kindness at all hunting dogs belong in with hunters not in a pet dog home!
I agree with the above kennel hutning dogs are not pets at all so why do these rescues feel its necessary to steal our dogs ! an the abouve kennel is rite its a disclosure law it will never work because dog rescues wont like it if they get sued for selling a dog with a genetic defect so who does this law exactly protect i ask you , an why does rescues consider every one a puppy mill thats a slang word just because they choose to breed dogs for profit you all call them these names well i choose to call dog rescues thieves because they sit on the sides of the roads where we run hunting dogs an other hutning dog kennels have chased these people for stealing hunting dogs one such kennel in florida caught 2 people stealing hunting dogs an when they called for hunters to come the people where surrounded by dog trucks the out come the rescue people were introuble these rescues are the only ones complaining bbut yet they get every thing for free ,no one can tell any one about the genetics on any dog if they where not the originalo breeder to begin with an this disclosure law is a joke , it wont work unless you all can afford to be living indie a court room 24/7 an i think not lol
Anybody here volunteer at a shelter and have any idea how volunteers are going to be able to keep up with this paperwork? Why do they talk about problems at puppy mills, but then regulate animal shelters? We're all volunteer, barely able to keep our noses above water - this will bury us and MANY places like us that are barely able to keep up. We'll resuce less dogs with less help and more will die. The puppy mills and retailers will hire someone to manage this and pass the cost on to consumers. Volunteer organizations don't have that luxury. I hope some of you who think this is a great idea are planning to volunteer at your local shelter to help THEM comply. As far as health issues, we do disclose what we know, but when it costs you $300+ to prepare a dog for adoption, and you can only get $100 from the public for an adoption fee, how much more diagnostics do you think can be done, especially when you start considering genetic problems? Who's going to pay for this? If shelters try to pass the cost on to consumers, less animals are adopted, meaning more are put to death. Has anybody thought about these issues?
Penny, I keep trying to send you an email, but getting bounced from your address. Can you please email me?
Cindy at Reunion Rescue
and the Examiner Dallas Pit Bull gal
doggirl1@earthlink.net
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