Did any of you go to the open public hearing? I did. It was a packed room, of about 250+ hate group. They viciously attacked breeders for 4 1/2 hrs. Numerous individuals representing their shelter, rescue's, plus the state vet called breeders horrible names. Small breeders are the worst actors with horrible facilities, who keep their dogs in the basement in small cages full of filth & feeces. You could feel the hate oozing out of this group of breeder attackers. A tiny number of us were breeders. I listened to one multi-breed breeder who had caved into the hate group before her testimony. She had signed up to speak against the bill, but was now for it. Too bad I didn't talk before her, it might have given her some confidence. Rescue after rescue talked of horribly sick, terrible tempermented dogs they saved. Nothing in the bill will protect the consumer from being stuck with these sick, vicious animals that the rescue's will sell them. Not ONE rescue mentioned a nice dog, that had lost it's home through no fault of it's own, which they had taken in & found a new home for. Not ONE good dog in the whole group.
The state vet emphatically expressed her contempt for small dog breeders. She works for DATCP. Do you think she would hire inspectors who will be fair to a small breeder?
24 puppies sold, you are exempt. 25 sold, without a license & you can face up to $10,000 in fines & 9 months in jail. Inspectors can enter your property anytime during regular business hours. I know NO ONE who can support themselves on selling 25 to 50 puppies in a year. Who can quit their job to sit home & wait for a inspector who hates you?
Small breeders have disappeared in my immediate area over the last 25 years. They have gone the way of the family dairy farm. Small farms are gone, replaced by a few big operations. Small breeders have been replaced by rescue's selling sick, damaged, vicious animals. The foster homes in suburban areas will not be inspected if the head of their group is licensed. They can bring large, vicious dogs into their homes to rehabilitate. Nothing protects the neighbor hoods from these dogs, who can snap a lead at the jerk of their head. Unbelievable, the amount of awful dogs these rescuer's talked about at the open public hearing.
Whatever happened to buying a nice, socialized, happy, healthy puppy from a small breeder with a health guarentee?
Unfortunately many good dog organizations have caved into the pressure. The average, single breed, purebred dog breeder has less than 25 puppies/yr. Many decided to compromise with those who hate them. They did not go to the hearing.

It will really depend on how much the people of Wisconsin care to see to it that it gets enforced so that we don't ultimately turn into the degenerate sewer-state of the great-lakes.

point being , its hard to enforce. It is rampant, it takes more time and man power than what they have. But it will be a await and see it terms of how effective this is and how they run this. I hope in 30 years someone does not discover this 'law' buried some where and laugh. ' Look in 2009, they tried to regulate dog breeding, to make them get licensed.' It's got that feel to it.

curtaincall, you make the drunk driving analogy, so would you want to get rid of all laws against DUI?

I repeat my previous post....

truth1, it will be extremely hard to enforce. If they had made this law maybe 10 years ago, they could have maybe caught it before it got so out of control.

"how will they enforce it?"
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The same way they enforce anything..Sometimes its not easy, but you don't get rid of all laws because things may be difficult.

but how will they enforce it? That has never been explained, and is a key issue here. I don't think it goes far enough. The true puppy mills such as the one over by Fort, and in northern Wisconsin need to be shut down, I don't think this will do it. They don't have enough man power to enforce it as it stands.

This legislation is not supposed to stop dog breading. It is to regulate the treatment of the animals. Please stop complaining that this won’t stop dog breading, that is like me saying that this legislation won’t cook me a cheeseburger, no it won’t do something it was not designed to do!

It's won't stop dog breeding by any means. It won't stop BYB. It's like drinking and driving laws , it illegal to do, but its rampant. These BYB will just be licensed. It is very sad. So many dogs in kennels and humane societys around the state. I encourage everyone to adopt from a rescue, not just kittens and puppies but adopt a older animal. It just breaks my heart to see these older animals , spending their days in these places. Older dogs and cats have lots of love to give and they deserve better.

It will be interesting to see how this works. It won't put a end to dog breeding. If it would really work we should see a decline in the gazette and WSJ as there is ad, after ad, for puppies by breeders in both of these as well as many online places. The dept of ag, and consumer protection is so over whelmed now, I just don't see them having a profound effect. Look how long it took them to shut down thyme and sage, and that was after years of complaints and pictures of conditions. I hope they put as much effort into enforcing, as they did in getting this passed.

What other business is totally UNregulated???
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This stands out like a huge sore-thumb and it should infuriate any other business owner that these people get away with complete non-regulation, unlike themselves.

janesvillian/unidentified- Exactly right..Exactly.

Well, the test case of "no licensing" show that breeding flourishes where it isn't regulated. Of course no regulation is going to actually stop this from happening, but it does create a cause for action by state officials and a potential for enforcement and consequences where before there was none.
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eville, the DATCP is already a state agency with enforcement powers in numerous areas. They should have no problem applying this new regulation along with everything else they enforce in the same legal manner. If you constantly worry about all the ways someone could evade the law, you may as well chuck the entire legal code.

I don't see a down side to this proposal. If only one person a year was busted for violations and it made the paper, then it would help deter other people from mass breeding animals. There are far too many dogs and cats in shelters now.

carlito- You don't see loose/homeless dogs because they are killed at a rate of 15,000 a week.

Control the cats too. There are so many homeless cats running around and I personally do not see many at loose dogs!!!!! JMO

Has anyone noticed how Wisconsin is license-happy recently? Have any problem: the state will solve it? Problems with the rate of foreclosure, license real estate appraisers. Problems with nutritionists, license them? It's really just another way to get more money and to intervene in areas where the state should just stay out. Do I like these big-breeders? No. Do I think that this plan will make any difference. No. Most of these breeders could be prosecuted under existing animal abuse charges. This is just another way for the state to get bigger.

donkeykong, my questions would be.
1. Who is going to investigate complaints?
2. How do you prove someone is breeding more than the 3 litters a year?
3. How much authority or power is whom ever is investigating going to have?? etc .. search warrants?? Which you have to be able to show cause , not just hear say.

All this talk makes me think of that byb over by Fort Atkinson.

Our friend bought a cocker spaniel from her. She never let them see the parents, you never saw another dog except for one.

After talking with several people and reading about this lady on line, the complaints.

They learned that she is in deed a byb, but keeps them in crates in her barn and shed. That she sells sick puppies and charges a fortune for them.

She has ads quite often in local papers.
But when you first go to visit her you would never guess she is a byb.

But she is . So how do you go about catching her if you can never actually see anything.

I don't understand how they are going to enforce this and I don't think it will work. There are to many way breeders can get around this, they will just be more careful about how they run things.

It's just another TAX on the small business owner. Do you really think this will stop or regulate the "puppy-mills"? Most of those operations are out in the sticks, out of sight.

This is excellent, about time. But how will they enforce it? That is still a lot of puppies with out having to be licensed.