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Below is a copy of the UKC position paper on this bill. It's being fast-tracked and heavily supported by HSUS. Call your state Representative and Senator now to opopse it. Call your friends and ask them to oppose as well.

Position Paper
Indiana House Bill 1468

We oppose House Bill 1468. Eliminating substandard kennels is a worthy goal, but this bill will make all dog breeding complicated and expensive, without any reasonable expectation of achieving its goal.

Dog breeders are assets to your state and communities so there is every reason to support and encourage the responsible breeding of purebred dogs. Dog breeding and ownership brings millions of dollars to the state of Indiana through taxes paid on products for dogs. Thousands of Indiana businesses depend on dog ownership, including veterinary hospitals, boarding kennels, pet supply stores, and sporting good stores. Few states offer a wider variety of activities for dogs and their owners than Indiana. Every weekend, Indiana citizens and thousands of tourists enjoy coon hunting, hunting upland birds, terrier races, weight pulls, mushing, lure coursing, dock diving, obedience and agility trials, conformation dog shows and a myriad of other pleasant activities with their dogs. Participants in those activities spend money at Indiana hotels and restaurants. In addition, dog owners live richer, healthier lives than non-dog owners. For these reasons, a bill that restricts the production of dogs in your state is a bad idea, particularly since it will be expensive and difficult to enforce.

The anti-breeding language stuffed into HB 1468 does the following:

• Defines anyone who maintains dogs that produce 10 or more
litters in one year as a commercial dog breeder. This will particularly affect toy breeders, whose litters are normally quite small, and breeders of working dogs for military and police work.

• Classifies a person as a “pet dealer” if they engage in the sale
of dogs to the public for profit or sell more than 5 dogs in one year. This would include very hobby breeder in the state who had an average size litter.

• Makes it illegal to maintain at a single address more than 30
intact dogs over one year old. This implies that large breeders are inherently cruel or negligent. In fact, large commercial breeders who sell dogs to pet stores are regulated by the federal government and already forced to comply with nearly 100 pages of regulation.

• Mandates stringent and confusing engineering and exercise
requirements for commercial breeders. The variability of dogs and their needs makes it impossible to establish engineering standards that work for every breed of dog. This bill requires air conditioning for dogs, a requirement that is not even mandated for the children of Illinois residents.

• Requires that all puppies sold by a commercial breeder be
implanted with a microchip. There is still some controversy over the safety of microchips. Many breeders would prefer options if the state is going to require permanent identification of their dogs.

• Stipulates consumer warranty and reimbursement entitlements for
ill or diseased dogs purchased from a commercial breeder. Most states have perfectly adequate consumer protection laws that cover the sale of dogs. In addition, this law prevents buyers and sellers from making contractual agreements.

• Limits breeding to no more than one litter per year for female dogs at least 18 months of age. This is based on the myth promoted by animal rights organizations that breeding is somehow harmful to female dogs. In the wild, most canids breed every heat cycle, when possible. Modern theriogenology doctrine indicates that it is better to breed some dogs at the second heat cycle (somewhere around one year of age), breed more frequently, and stop breeding somewhere around age six. Of course, like all rules that we attempt to apply to dogs, it’s not true in every case.

One of the primary arguments in favor of the bills that restrict dog breeding is the myth of canine overpopulation. Some of the techniques for creating this myth include:
• Always combing the shelter numbers of dogs and cats.
• Exaggerating the numbers of animals taken in and euthanized by shelters, particularly in those states where shelters are not required by law to provide intake and disposition numbers to the state.
• Failing to consider or study the reasons for owner relinquishment.
• Blaming purebred dog breeders for producing more dogs than can be absorbed by their communities.

Dr. Gary Patronek, the acting director of the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, was first scientist to study population issues in dogs and cats. Here are some of the results of his research:

• There are virtually no significant populations of feral (unowned) dogs.
• 70-80% of all female dogs are spayed.
• Only 12% of female dogs will have a litter in their lifetime.
• 67% of all litters are planned.
• Number of puppies born each year is close to reaching equilibrium with the demand for pets.
• Some areas are already experiencing a shortage of puppies.
While we believe that steps should be taken to identify and eliminate substandard kennels, this bill seems to be nothing more than an attempt to micromanage the practice of breeding. The number limits and definitions are arbitrary and seem to have been crafted without any particular expertise in animal husbandry.

There are more effective solutions available to help eliminate substandard kennels, from stronger enforcement of existing cruelty and nuisance laws to educating consumers about how to seek out responsible and humane sources of healthy pets.

With the present state of our national and state economies, this bill is unnecessary. Indiana has dozens of dog organizations, and thousands of dedicated dog breeders and owners. They are ready to share their expertise and knowledge to help you craft a bill that will reasonably and effectively address your concerns about animal welfare.

Established in 1898 and headquartered in Kalamazoo, the United Kennel Club is the largest all-breed performance-dog registry in the world, registering dogs from all 50 states and 25 foreign countries. More than 60 percent of its 13,000 annually licensed events are tests of hunting ability, training and instinct. UKC prides itself on its family-oriented, friendly, educational events. The UKC has supported the "Total Dog" philosophy through its events and programs for over a century. In Michigan, where the dog is the most economically important domestic animal, UKC’s shows and performance events bring in millions of tourist dollars each year and promote responsible dog ownership.

Prepared by:
Cindy Cooke
Legislative Specialist
United Kennel Club
2097 S. 4th St.
Kalamazoo MI 49009
Phone: 269-375-0427
Fax: 269-375-0427
E-Mail: doglaw@charter.net
February 15, 2009

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