IowaWatch (https://www.iowawatch.org/tag/animal-welfare-act/)
We love our pets, but plenty of people are concerned about why some who raise dogs for sale to us get to keep animals, after being cited repeatedly for harming the dogs’ health.
A renewed attempt will be made again this legislative session to strengthen Iowa’s ability to inspect and regulate large dog breeding facilities in the state, but with a scaled-down focus.
Federal inspectors say they have increased their dog breeding facility inspections after a critical 2010 review that said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was not doing enough. But the inspection service had only 120 inspectors to check some 10,000 licensed dog breeding facilities in the United States.
IowaWatch summer 2014 intern Jacob Luplow and executive director-editor Lyle Muller were the guests on the Tuesday, Oct. 21, “Your Town” show on KXIC radio, AM 800, in Iowa City. Host Jay Capron talked with Luplow, a student at Cornell College, about an IowaWatch story he did about troublesome dog breeders who repeatedly violate Animal Welfare Act regulations designed to protect animal health, but who get to keep animals while being cited for those repeat violations. He talked with Muller about other work being done at IowaWatch. You may listen to Capron’s conversation with IowaWatch by skipping to the 20-minute mark of this one-hour podcast.
Dog breeders in Iowa who repeatedly do not comply with the Animal Welfare Act are allowed to continue raising and breeding dogs – sometimes in horrible conditions – while federal inspectors give the cited breeders time to correct violations.