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Want to defeat an animal protection law? Tea Party might help

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that in some of Missouri’s puppy mills–the ‘Dirty Dozen– violations included ‘sick or dying puppies who had not been treated by a veterinarian; dogs found shivering in temperatures as low as 9 degrees; and dogs so emaciated that their bones were visible through their skin.’ – The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) / Photo: HSUS

By Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

If you’re trying to kill or modify a proposed animal welfare law—for example one that regulates high-volume commercial breeders or “puppy mills”—you might want to enlist the assistance of the Tea Party, according to the Missouri Farm Bureau (MFB).

“The Missouri Tea Party picked up that Prop B [the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act] was important,” said MFB’s director of marketing and commodities Kelly Smith, “and that they should be opposing it. They were a big help in doing that.”

Smith laid out a detailed strategy including other ways to fight animal welfare groups in his presentation “Protecting & Growing Agriculture Amidst the Activist Conflict – A Missouri Experience,” made to the Animal Agriculture Alliance “United We Eat” Summit in 2011. Continue reading →

Lobbyists to ‘pay the price’ for helping animal welfare groups in Missouri

Missouri demonstrators on the issue of Prop B, the “Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act,” passed by voters but then replaced by Gov. Jay Nixon with a less stringent law / Photo: Missouri Farm Bureau and TruffleMedia

By Katerina Lorenzatos Makris ~

In this year’s election season, lobbyist firms who helped in the push for a law to regulate dog breeding in Missouri—condemned by animal protection groups as the “puppy mill capital of America”—might get punished.

“Those guys will be paying the price for doing that,” said Kelly Smith of the Missouri Farm Bureau (MFB). “There are several of those guys [lobbyists] that run rural state rep and state senate campaigns that will not be doing that in the future.” Continue reading →

‘Mutts’ comic strip characters helped pass a law to regulate dog breeders

One of neglected dogs removed from a Missouri breeder by authorities and The Humane Society of the United States / Photo: HSUS video

By Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

Some of the most powerful opponents of commercial dog breeders—nemeses fierce enough to help pass a law that would have mandated welfare standards for dogs used in “puppy mills”—those enemies apparently were, well… imaginary, according to the Missouri Farm Bureau.

Creator Patrick McDonnell employed his imagination, in the form of characters Earl, Woofie and friends in his popular comic strip Mutts to speak up for Missouri’s Prop B, the “Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act.” Continue reading →

‘These guys are good—we don’t like them, but they are good at what they do’: farm bureau about Humane Society

Animal welfare groups say Missouri’s large-scale commercial breeders often severely neglect the tens of thousands of dogs used to create about a million puppies per year to be sold in pet stores / Photo: HSUS video (not necessarily in Missouri)

By Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

“The emotion of the puppy, man’s best friend. How do you not want to protect these little innocent puppies?” asked Missouri Farm Bureau’s Kelly Smith in a speech to commercial dog breeders and other farmed animal producers. “That was very hard. And that was something that the rest of animal agriculture had to learn and deal with. It was very, very hard to do.”

The protection to which Smith referred might have been provided by a Missouri law, Prop B, the “Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act,” proposed in 2010 by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal welfare groups, who said it would improve the lives of the tens of thousands of dogs—many severely neglected and ill—who are used to create about a million puppies annually in the state’s 1,000-plus commercial breeding establishments.

But the state’s dog breeders and farmers believed it was a law against which they needed to protect themselves, said Smith, the farm bureau’s marketing and commodities director. Continue reading →

Law would have required better care for dogs than for children, says farm bureau

Animal protection groups say large-scale commercial breeders neglect and abuse dogs / Photo: The Humane Society of the United States video (photo not necessarily from Missouri)

By Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

While in the past few years the Missouri Department of Agriculture has seized 5,500 dogs from neglectful commercial breeders, a representative of the state’s farm bureau said that not only is more regulation unnecessary, but that a 2010 law proposed to improve conditions for the animals would have set an anti-farming precedent and in some ways would have required that breeders take better care of dogs than of children. Continue reading →