According to Mary Bender, former Director of Dog Law Enforcement at the PA Department of Agriculture, there are three ways for Pennsylvania's commercial dog breeders to legally destroy their unwanted dogs. The laws of the Commonwealth permit breeders to kill their dogs and puppies by lethal injection, poisonous gas, or by gunshot. All three methods are considered "humane" in our state. (Other methods such as drowning are illegal but nevertheless used as a way to destroy dogs deemed unsalable or unbreedable.)

However, under the federal USDA guidelines, unsold puppies, or breeding dogs who have outlived their usefulness, should never be killed by gunshot. It violates the Animal Welfare Act. And if a breeder is licensed by the USDA, then it would be unlawful for them to shoot their unwanted dogs.

Federal law can often dictate when the federal law is stricter than the state laws. Simply put, when it comes to shooting an innocent breeding dog that can no longer breed or a puppy that grows too old to sell, the Federal Animal Welfare Act is stronger than Pennsylvania's inadequate and inhumane laws regarding the destruction of dogs, and the federal laws must be obeyed.

Many of the K-5 breeding kennels (up to 1000 dogs in one building) in Pennsylvania are also licensed federally by the USDA. They must be federally licensed in order to sell dogs wholesale to pet stores. So any breeder, licensed to sell dogs wholesale by the USDA, who shoots any dog in their kennel, is essentially committing a serious offense and should be prosecuted.

The practice of shooting unsold puppies and breeding dogs in Pennsylvania must be stopped. Commercial breeders who are licensed by the USDA are committing a crime if they fatally shoot a dog in their kennels, and the USDA must step up and begin to enforce this section of the Animal Welfare Act.

What can you do? Contact your local representatives and urge them to make the shooting of innocent dogs in Pennsylvania a crime, regardless of whether or not the breeder is licensed by the state or holds a USDA license to sell dogs wholesale. Find your local representative: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/index.cfm and urge them to outlaw this heinous practice (a dog should only be humanely euthanized by a licensed vet, if necessary). Then call the USDA inspector in Lancaster County Robert Markman at 703-812-6611 and insist he prosecute commercial breeders who are licensed by the USDA and are illegally shooting their unwanted dogs. Remind him that it is his responsibility to enforce the federal laws. Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff dwolff@state.pa.us should also be contacted and pressured into adopting a more humane policy in regards to the treatment of Pennsylvania’s dogs.

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Not all farmers in Pennsylvania breed dogs. Not all dog breeders grow food. But there are enough farmers breeding dogs and unhealthily disposing of large quantities of dead dogs and fecal matter to cause concern.

Bob Markman is the inspector for the USDA Animal Care Eastern Region (Pennsylvania) and can be reached by calling 703-812-6611. Mr. Markman needs to investigate and examine the records of every USDA licensed dog breeder in Pennsylvania to determine if they are disposing of their unwanted dogs and puppies in a way that falls within the parameters of the Federal Animal Welfare Act.  If they are not, he needs to prosecute the violators and revoke or suspend their licenses.