March 19, 2024

Dog breeding facilities need state oversight

Paula Arkema

Kellogg

I appreciate the recent letter to the editor written by Ali Iserman of Mount Pleasant. When something isn’t working, I believe we need to look at the facts and make changes to correct it. In the past several years, the number of violations in the almost 220 USDA licensed breeding dog facilities in Iowa continues to increase. In 2013, there were 38 percent of violations among these USDA licensed dog breeders with 19 percent of them being direct violations. Direct violations are those that affect the health/well-being of the animals and could do so in the future. In 2014, 47 percent of these USDA licensed dog breeders had violations with 18 percent being direct. In 2015 this number continued to increase with 53 percent of violations and 20 percent of them being direct violations. The highest percentage categories of these  violations included areas of vet care-50 percent, access-50 percent, housing-33 percent, cleaning/pest control-25 percent. (All data is from the USDA APHIS website).

It is clear the current level of oversight is not enough, it is not working and Iowans have the ability to change this. Recently Senate File 502 and House Study Bill 560 were introduced in legislation. One of the main components of this legislation is getting state oversight of these dog breeding facilities. Without state oversight, Iowa’s animal neglect and cruelty statute 717B is not being enforced in USDA licensed dog breeding facilities.

Please take a moment to go to iafriends.org and sign up to be a voice for the 15,000 adult dogs in these Iowa breeding facilities. Additionally please contact your local legislators today and ask them to support SF 502 and HSB 560.