How Much Is That Doggie In The Window, Part Duh

Poor Congresswoman Lois Capps. A recent Tribune story notes she supports a new proposed federal law called the PUPS Act, which stands for Puppy Uniform Protection Statute. The new law is an attempt to close a loophole that exempts puppy mills that sell directly to the public. Which means that sans new law, large scale puppy-mill breeders can continue to get a way with no oversight, sell their puppies online and otherwise continue their hideous and abusive practices – filthy kennels, sick dogs getting no care, in short, all the horrors that regularly get exposed every so often when some local TV station needs to amp up its ratings.

But I say, Poor Congresswoman Capps, because she doesn’t know the shit-storm she’s heading into. First the AKC is, even as we speak, revving up their “members,” and lobbying hard to stop any and all attempts to crack down on ANYTHING having to do with breeding and selling “purebred” dogs. Why, you might ask? Why wouldn’t AKC want to shut down hideous puppy mills? Ah, because those mills generate what the AKC referred to in a secret Board memo as “the basic cash cow” – that AKC “paper” that the buyers THINK mean something. That’s the engine that drives the puppy mill trade and that’s the paper that brings in the big bucks to AKC.

And never mind that one of AKC’s own top investigators went on ABC World News Tonight a few years ago to fess up that the AKC’s “registry” of purebred dog is 50% no good and that AKC knows it.

So Ms. Caps will have the AKC on her behind. And she’ll have the large scale breeders on her tail as well, some of whom serve on the AKC’s Board of Directors. (See the cozy connections?) Not to mention small scale breeders who can be counted on to defeat any and all sensible laws designed to protect dogs. They’re rabid about defeating such legislation. Why? Money. Pure and simple. That old “basic cash cow.”

So, this bill will go down in flames. The parties most interested in protecting their financial interests – at the cost of immense suffering by dogs and costly fraud on the people who buy these dogs – will declare that “there’s plenty of laws already on the books,” then concentrate on de-funding any and all enforcement mechanism so the laws remain in place, but they’re useless and toothless.

That’s how you do it. So the suffering will continue, the buyers will continue to be fleeced, and the money will continue to roll in.

But, Bless Ms. Capps for at least trying. I wish her luck, but I won’t hold my breath.