I received the following information via email about the PVMA that wants to fight HB 2525 this week. I do not believe that all veterinarians support what this association wants. That is why it is imperative for you to call your veterinarian to help support HB 2525. Time is of the essence. PLEASE call your vet today. Call the PVMA Executive Director- name and number is at the end of the information- and let her know what you feel. Please spread this information with your friends, family, co-workers etc…..
I can’t stress the importance and urgency of these phone calls! From what I’m being told, a vote will be held this week. The dogs need our help so desperately so their lives can finally change.
Don’t forget to call your Senator today! Sign the petition www.savingpuppies.com and sign this petition which will do directly to your Senator. The PA Senate needs to know that we the people of PA want the situation with puppymills to change NOW!!! We are the voices for those who cannot speak and we must speak NOW for them!!
Please don’t hesitate, call today!
Thank you for all of your help.
Why does the leadership of the PVMA want dogs to live their lives in total darkness, standing on painful wire flooring?
If commercial breeders are permitted to exercise their dogs, often numbering in the hundreds, inside only, and are not required to provide these animals with access to an outdoor exercise runs, the majority of these dogs will spend the entirety of their lives in darkness. Many of these kennels are operated by the Amish who do not use or believe in electricity. The only hope that these animals have of receiving fresh air and sunlight is to require commercial breeders to provide them with access to outdoor runs. But that hope may be dashed by an unlikely group people, the leadership of the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association.
Amazingly, the leadership of the PVMA explains their position by claiming Chihuahuas will not be able to tolerate Pennsylvania’s winters. With indoor/outdoor runs, Chihuahuas can walk inside to escape the cold. And as far as the PVMA’s assertion that exercising dogs exclusively inside will spare them from our state’s temperature extremes, if anyone has ever been inside an Amish barn, the temperatures are far more extreme inside than out. Deprive a dog of sunlight and he/she can develop rickets, anemia, and other diseases caused by lack of Vitamin D. Deprive a dog of fresh air and access to outside exercise and skin wounds and ringworm (which is common in mill dogs) never heal. And dogs can, and do, go blind or develop respiratory problems if forced to live their lives solely inside under high concentrations of ammonia (urine from 500 other dogs).
House Bill 2525 would provide breeding dogs with solid flooring for the first time in their lives. Unbelievably, the PVMA is fighting hard to allow puppy mills to keep dogs on wire or “wire strand” flooring for the entirety of their lives, even though dogs’ feet can become splayed, or caught on the wire (which can lead to the amputation of limbs), and their bones and muscles often fail to develop properly. But above all this, it is extremely painful to stand on wire strand flooring 24/7, 365 days a year. Requiring commercial breeders to provide their dogs with solid flooring could just mean the end of those horrible, barbaric hutches. The breeders will find that the only sensible option would be to pour cement, build indoor/outdoor kennel runs, and put the dogs on the ground where they belong.
The leadership of the PVMA is lobbying against the wishes of their own members. Hundreds of veterinarians across Pennsylvania believe forcing dogs to stand on wire flooring for the entirety of their lives is wrong; not requiring commercial breeders to provide their dogs with access to outdoor exercise runs is wrong. It is in direct conflict with the oath they have taken to heal and help animals and many of these vets (many graduates of the University of Pennsylvania) have declared publicly that the PVMA does not speak for them. They were neither polled, nor were their opinions solicited. At a recent Dog Law Advisory Board meeting in Harrisburg, veterinarian members of the Board stated that the PVMA does not speak on their behalf and urged the Senate to prohibit wire or “wire strand” flooring and provide dogs in commercial breeding facilities with outdoor exercise.
Why is the leadership of the PVMA fighting legislation that would help millions of puppy mill dogs? Ask them, then ask your vet if they know what their leadership is doing and urge them to make a call to the PVMA and demand that their leadership stop aligning themselves with some of the worst puppy mill operators in the state. Remind them that while commercial breeders seldom use vets, rescue organizations and private citizens throughout the Commonwealth do, and we want these dogs off the wire and out in the sun.
Contact PVMA Executive Director Charlene Wandzilak at cwandzilak@pavma.org or call 717-507-2082. The PVMA can be reached by calling 717-533-7934. Their Treasurer/Secretary Ronald Kraft can be reached by calling 610-539-6820. Ask them to stop supporting the interests of Pennsylvania’s commercial breeding industry. As clients of their members, our hopes for these dogs should not be ignored.