The below Senate Bill 839 is waiting to be approved by our Govenor. The information shows you what our County would be able to do to help protect illegal use of the Mills . This bill states it would also enable our County to enforce more stringent licensing requirements!
Interested parties ----Please contact our Governor asking him to pass the bill !
A very Special Thank You to Mr.Conway for voting for the bill!
Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns about legislation that was being considered by the Maryland General Assembly.
Senate Bill 839, entitled Counties - Kennel Licenses - Requirements for Breeders, passed the Senate and the House and has been sent to the Governor for his approval. The legislation requires a person to obtain a kennel license if the person owns or has custody of 15 or more unsprayed female dogs over six months old that are kept for the purpose of breeding the dogs and selling their offspring and the person sells dogs from six or more litters in a year.
For each kennel license issued in a county, the bill requires the county to collect and maintain a record of the name and address of the licensee, the number of dogs maintained, and the number of puppies sold in the preceding year. By January 15 of each year, counties must report the information collected for the preceding year to the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation. The bill also authorizes a county to establish additional kennel license fees to cover the cost of collecting and maintaining the information and submitting the reports. A county may establish more stringent kennel licensing requirements.
This is a link to the bill's history: http://mlis.state.md.us/2011rs/sb0839.htm Scroll down to Documents and you can access the bill, the fiscal note and vote tallies. I did vote for the bill when it reached me on the House floor.
Again, thanks for writing.
Norman H. Conway
-----Original Message-----
From: The Humane Society of the United States [mailto:humanesociety@hsus.org?] On Behalf Of Edna Walls
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 1:47 PM
To: Conway, Norman Delegate
Subject: Support SB 839/HB 940: Determine the scope of the puppy mill problem in MD
Mar 14, 2011
Delegate Norman Conway
Lowe House Office Building, Room 121
6 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD 21401-1912
Dear Delegate Conway,
As your constituent, I urge you to support S.B. 839/H.B. 940 to require
large-scale commercial dog breeding facilities to be licensed by the
counties -- and to require the counties to report that information
annually to the state. Most counties already license breeding kennels,
so this legislation should not be a significant burden for them.
While most states have statewide licensing and inspection systems in
place for commercial dog breeding facilities, Maryland does not; it is
impossible to know how big of a problem puppy mills are in the state.
This legislation, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Gladden and Del. Tom Hucker,
is a critical first step
Puppy mills are large-scale commercial dog breeding operations that
mass-produce puppies for sale in pet stores and over the Internet. A
recent house fire in Calvert County on a property that reportedly
housed more than 100 animals indicates that such facilities exist in
Maryland. Unfortunately, it's hard to know the scope of the situation
since there is no statewide tracking of this information. Maryland has
been very lax in protecting helpless animals & it is time this
changes!
The reporting requirement of this legislation is critical in
determining how much of a problem puppy mills are in Maryland. With
this information, we can begin to consider the best way to address the
situation.
Please vote YES on S.B. 839/H.B. 940 when it comes before you for your
consideration. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Edna Walls
410 S Kaywood Dr
Salisbury, MD 21804-8601
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