Conference committee rejects commercial breeder bill

Weeks of drama over bills that would have placed additional regulations on commercial dog and cat breeders has apparently fizzled out.

A couple of weeks ago one version of the bill, HB 3180, was suddenly dropped from the Senate Criminal Justice committee's hearing schedule, with no explanation. The Senate committee never heard HB 3180, which had been revised to be more acceptable to hobby breeders and hunters.  In the meantime, Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) attached most of HB 3180's language to an unrelated bill, HB 2310.

It appeared that the Texas Veterinary Medical Association's opposition to HB 3180 finished it off, with supporters using HB 2310 as a safety net. HB 2310 would have applied to more hobby breeders and hunters than HB 3180, as HB 2310 defined kennels housing 11 intact female animals as commercial breeders, while the revised HB 3180 kicked in at 20 litters per year.

The House rejected the amendment, sending HB 2310 into a conference committee to resolve the differences.

The report the conference committee issued today removes the commercial breeder language from HB 2310 entirely.

With only a few hours left in this legislative session, the issue of regulating commercial breeders statewide may be dead, or more likely just sleeping, until 2011. Today, commercial breeders are governed by local ordinances and USDA regulations, as well as state and local animal cruelty laws.

At this writing, the House deadline for finalizing bills is midnight tonight, while the Senate has extended their deadline until midnight tomorrow night.