Talking Points (provided by HSUS NC):

-The opposition does NOT want to talk about the merits of the bill.  They want to misinform and distract.  When talking about the bill itself there is not much people can say against it.  The opposition says over and over again that hunters are not exempt but on line 24 and 25 it clearly states

“Nothing in this Article shall apply to those kennels or establishments operated for the purpose of boarding or training hunting, sporting, herding, show, or working dogs.”

-There is a current loophole in the law -  under current NC statute the only breeders that are regulated are those defined as ‘dealers’ and a dealer is a breeder who sales to pet stores, research facilities or other dealers.  So a breeder who sales to the general public via a website, on craigslist, in the local newspaper, at flea markets, etc. are not regulated and have zero oversight.  So what S 460 proposes is defining a commercial breeder, a breeder who is large scale (not your small hobby/show breeders).  Someone must have 15 adult breeding females and 30 puppies to be affected by this legislation.  When a breeder gets to this size, they are a business  and just like other NC businesses should have to apply for a permit and adhere to certain business standards.

The lobbyists working against this bill say that current cruelty statutes are sufficient.  This is not true as our state cruelty statute requires that malice and intent must be proven and you will be hard pressed to find a DA to take on a case with this high of a legal burden until after it is already too late.  As with the Wayne County case, after a 1 ½ year investigation and as bad as the conditions were, the authorities were still only able to go in civilly, not criminally.  After the fact, there have been 12 counts of animal cruelty (out of almost 300 dogs) filed but it is still unsure if anything will even come of this.

A good way to explain the need is that a few years ago, NC updated the criminal statutes to specifically address dog and cock fighting.  You would have thought at first glance that the cruelty statute would have addressed any scenario where dogs or chickens were being fought but it did not (just as it does not with puppy mills) and a section specifically addressing animal fighting was needed.  The same thing is true with puppy mills.  We just want to add in a specific section that clearly addresses the puppy mill problem.

-This legislation will ensure that commercial breeders will be paying their taxes and in this economic climate, our state needs all the revenue it can get.  The Department of Ag has estimated it will cost them $400,000 to $500,000 a year to enforce this law.  Not only is this an overestimate but the revenue that will be generated off of sales tax alone (based on conservative estimates of the number of commercial breeders in NC, the number of dogs they sale and the price at which they sale them), the state would make double this amount.  Many senators will talk about the  fiscal note to this bill and that they cannot support increased spending when we are in a budget crisis.  But here are very conservative estimates of the money that will be made with the commercial breeders paying sales tax:

Assumptions

average price of puppy  $400.00

average litter size     5

min. mill size    15 females

average # of litters/year     2

average # of puppies/year/mill      150

est. number of mills in NC    200

est. sales tax rate (senate prop)   6%

yield/year  $60,000

apply sales tax @ 6%    $3,600

multiply times est. # of mills      200

estimated revenues due to tax $720,000

-As it currently stands, the counties are paying the price of NOT having this legislation in place.  The fiscal note of the bill does not address the cost to the counties, and therefore the taxpayers, if the state does NOTHING.  Wayne County spent countless man hours and resources trying to react to the Thornton Kennel situation – with this bill they would be able to react quickly and efficiently - and the money it took to clean up this business was close to $100,000.   If the state is not proactive in addressing puppy mills, taxpayers will pay for it at a greater cost on the back end.

-This bill will be a proactive instead of reactive response to the puppy mill problem that is growing across NC.  Conditions should not have to get as bad as they were at Thornton Kennels in Wayne County before doing something about it.

-This bill will help protect consumers - right now there is nothing that says someone cannot sell a sick or diseased dog.

-Give our law enforcement the tools they need to do an efficient and effective job.

-Help the dogs languishing at these facilities by putting reasonable standards in place.  The plight of the dogs cannot be the only talking point but we also cannot forget the dogs in all of this.  Not every senator will care about the dogs but there are many who do and we need to remind them the conditions in which these dogs are living and suffering.