HARRISBURG (100.1 FM and AM 1020 KDKA) — Department of Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, along with Dr. Danielle Ward, veterinarian for the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement and Aurora Velazquez, executive director of the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Team (ACCT Philly), met Thursday to voice caution over an increased vulnerability to infectious diseases.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has put infectious diseases in the forefront of many people's minds, it goes beyond humans; it's also a factor for dogs, especially when they're all housed together in kennels.
Redding and company are wary of the hiked disease risk, but they come bearing potential solutions of nipping infectious spread in the bud, particularly for the dogs.
And that would come by way of specific legislative action.
To be more precise, it would make amendments to preexisting legislation.
Furthermore, changes to the dog law legislation would spotlight enhancements in adoption and kennel practices to ensure better safety, especially regarding the spread of intraspecies and interspecies disease.
Redding, Ward, and Velazquez pointed out that legislative failures up to this point, like lower licensing costs, vacancies in dog warden positions, and lackluster inspection wherewithal, have increased the risk of emerging infectious diseases.
"If we've learned nothing else during the pandemic, it is the perils of allowing infectious disease to spread unchecked," said Redding.
"Pennsylvania's nearly 3,000 licensed kennels require vigilant oversight to ensure that families don't bring home a devastating disease when they bring home a new puppy. PA laws set a high standard to provide that oversight, but laws are worthless without the funding and personnel to enforce them."
While it might seem like a nonissue, dog warden vacancies have played a significant role in the amount of disease propagated from kennels. Illnesses that are extremely damaging to dogs and humans, such as Brucella canis and parvovirus, can be better defended against when dog wardens are present and able to keep a watchful eye on the kennels. Also, state dog wardens can enter kennels without warrants, and because of this, many illegal and unethical kennels have been caught red-handed.
"Dog wardens are one of the first lines of defense in protecting Pennsylvania from infectious and contagious diseases of dogs," said Dr. Ward. "Many of the diseases we monitor kennels for are zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted from dogs to people. Sadly, for some of these diseases, there is no cure."
Thousands of stray animals are taken into kennels every year but often go unmonitored, which, as mentioned, can increase the likelihood of disease breakouts. And because of the less-than-ideal conditions — inadequate city funding, deteriorating conditions, overcrowding — have resulted in the deaths of numerous dogs.
"The Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement was an essential partner in ACCT Philly's
journey to correct significant housing and husbandry issues over several years," said Velazquez. "The bureau remains a strong partner in continuing to improve the quality of sheltering provided to Philadelphia's animals."
Redding et al. called for even tighter rules on kennels, and they will likely continue to push for an even stricter protocol for the safe and healthy management of kennels: "minimal dog license fee increase to keep the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement funded to continue their work to crack down on illegal kennels, register and track dangerous dogs, and ensure the health and well-being of dogs across the commonwealth, but the legislature has not heeded that warning."
While it might seem like a nonissue, dog warden vacancies have played a significant role in the amount of disease propagated from kennels.
Illnesses that are extremely damaging to dogs and humans, such as Brucella canis and parvovirus, can be better defended against when dog wardens are present and able to keep a watchful eye on the kennels.
Also, state dog wardens can enter kennels without warrants, and because of this, many illegal and unethical sites have been caught red-handed.
"Dog wardens are one of the first lines of defense in protecting Pennsylvania from infectious and contagious diseases of dogs," said Ward.
"Many of the diseases we monitor kennels for are zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted from dogs to people. Sadly, for some of these diseases, there is no cure."
Thousands of stray animals are taken into kennels every year but often go unmonitored, which as mentioned, can increase the likelihood of disease breakouts.
And the compounding of less-than-ideal conditions — inadequate city funding, deteriorating conditions, overcrowding — have resulted in the deaths of numerous dogs.
"The Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement was an essential partner in ACCT Philly's
journey to correct significant housing and husbandry issues over several years," said Velazquez.
"The bureau remains a strong partner in continuing to improve the quality of sheltering provided to Philadelphia's animals."
Redding et al. called for even tighter rules on kennels, and they will likely continue to push for an even stricter protocol for the safe and healthy management of kennels: "minimal dog license fee increase to keep the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement funded to continue their work to crack down on illegal kennels, register and track dangerous dogs, and ensure the health and well-being of dogs across the commonwealth, but the legislature has not heeded that warning."
Redding et al. called for even tighter rules on kennels, and they will likely continue to push for an even stricter protocol for the safe and healthy management of kennels: "minimal dog license fee increase to keep the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement funded to continue their work to crack down on illegal kennels, register and track dangerous dogs, and ensure the health and well-being of dogs across the commonwealth, but the legislature has not heeded that warning."
Pushing for tighter regulations is hardly uncharted territory for the Department of Agriculture, however.
Since updates to Pennsylvania dog law in 2008, which was already stringent to begin with, the commonwealth has boasted some of the more draconian regulatory practices for kennels.
The problem, at this point, is the funding to put further action into motion.
The Department has been chasing the idea of increasing the minimum dog licensing charge.
Having that increased fee would allow for extra cash flow that comes outside of taxpayer money.
Part of the monetary shortage has been driven by the allocation, or lack thereof, from Governor Wolf specifically for the kennel-related legislation.
And that's why increasing the prices of the licenses is a major tenet for updating the legislation.
But moving more to the point, State Senator Judy Schwank (D-Berks) and State Representative Eddie Day Pashinski (D-Luzerne) have proposed bills that would address some of the issues the state is seeing with the kennels.
Senate Bill 232 and House Bill 526 would effectively raise the costs for dog licensing fees.
This, in turn, would give the much-needed injection of funding that the state could use to improve the best practices of the dog kennels spanning Pennsylvania.
The incremental price raise would bounce up the license price from $6.50 to $10 annually.
The bills would also allow for the selling of puppies as young as eight weeks.
The line of demarcation is currently at 12 weeks.
Lowering the puppies' minimum adoption age would increase sales for straight-and-narrow practices and transplants from kennels to permanent homes and families.
Additionally, if the puppies are leaving earlier, then they are less vulnerable to the potential threat of a disease breakout, something that would be more straining on them compared to grown dogs.