The federal Pet Safety and Protection Act would prohibit Class B Dealers and unlicensed individuals from selling dogs and cats to research laboratories.

Class B Dealers are people who collect dogs and cats to sell to the research industry. They sometimes obtain their animals through illegal or unethical means, such as by responding to “free to good home” ads in newspapers, falsifying records to keep the true origins of the animals unknown and stealing pets kept outside in yards. They also buy animals in bulk from “bunchers,” whose methods are even more questionable.

Eliminating Class B Dealers will also take away the profit motive of bunchers, providing a much-needed safety net to ensure beloved pets are not stolen or acquired under false pretenses and sold to facilities that test on animals.

What You Can Do
Visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center Online to email your U.S. senators and representative urging them to support and cosponsor the Pet Safety and Protection Act. You may use the same link to read about this legislation in greater depth. ASPCA: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Help Stop Use of Pets for Research

Rep. Michael F. Doyle (D-PA) has introduced the Pet Safety and Protection Act of 2009, H.R. 3907. A Senate version, S.B. 1834, was introduced by Sen. Daniel A. Akaka (D-HI). The Pet Safety Protection Act would amend the Animal Welfare Act, 7 U.S.C. §§2137, 2138 and ban the sale of "random source" dogs and cats by Class B dealers to research laboratories.

Class B dealers are basically those who buy, sell and transport animals. Some have been accused of taking pets which are stolen or obtained from "random sources", keeping them in horrific conditions and then selling them for medical research. For example, unscrupulous Class B dealers often answer ads in the newspaper that offer animals "free to a good home". They will steal pets off the streets. Laboratories will pay $250-$350 per animal.

The only places research facilities would be able to acquire animals would be from Class A dealers (breeders), other licensed research facilities, a person who has bred the animal or owned it for at least a year, or a registered publicly owned and operated shelter that obtained the animal from its legal owner .

The Act provides for a $1000 fine for each violation in addition to any other applicable penalty.

Animal Law Coalition opposes the use of any animals for research, and though this Act does not go far enough, it is at least a start to end that practice. Under this bill animal research labs and facilities would be barred from aiding in the widespread theft of pets or animals intended as pets such as those advertised in newspapers. These animals could no longer be used for research.

One of the most notorious Class B dealers was Chester C. "C.C." Baird. Baird was the largest USDA licensed Class "B" animal dealer. He was also the operator of what was the largest known pet theft ring. Baird kept hundreds of animals in deplorable conditions and reportedly sold them for research.

Thanks to an undercover investigation by Last Chance for Animals, Baird pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to launder money in an operation involving the sale of dogs and cats to research laboratories. (For his horrific crimes, though, Baird received only 3 years probation and 6 months home detention. His wife, Patsy, was sentenced to 2 years probation for misprision of felony mail fraud. Their fines together totaled $10,000.)

An HBO documentary which aired in February, 2006, Dealing Dogs, follows the case of Baird, a Church of Christ minister, who allegedly made millions as a licensed Class B dealer selling animals for research.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

The House version, H.R. 3907 already has 30 co-sponsors. Find your U.S. representative and ask him or her to co-sponsor the bill. If your representative is already a co-sponsor, thank him or her and ask your rep to encourage others to sign on!

H.R. 3907 has been assigned to the House Committee on Agriculture. Find committee members and urge them to support this important bill.

The Senate version, S.B. 1834, has been assigned to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Find members here and urge them to pass this bill. Find your U.S. senators here and call or write them and urge them to co-sponsor this bill and vote yes on S.B. 1834 to stop the theft of pets for sale to researchers.


================================================== ========

__________________

Puppy Mills breed misery, boycott pet stores that sell puppies. Adopt! Don't Shop