Tennessee officials looking for puppy, kitten ‘mills’

Since inspections started in February, there have been 12 breeders inspected and licensed, said state agriculture spokesman Tom Womack.

He said “nobody has been fined or penalized.”

“We’re getting applications every week from across the state,” Womack said. “There are five pending right now.”

Agriculture officials spent more than a year developing rules for inspections and training the seven inspectors.

The Tennessee Dog and Cat Dealer Act that took effect in July 2002 requires breeders who buy or sell more than 25 animals a year or who sell animals to retailers for resale to be licensed.

Philip Adkins, who has raised Labrador retrievers for more than 17 years, said he was unaware of the law but does not believe it applies to him.

He now has 13 dogs and two of them are pregnant, he said.

“I usually get about two litters a year with six or seven pups per litter,” he said.

Most of Adkins’ pups are sold for about $700 each to individuals who want a good companion or to other reputable breeders, he said. Adkins said he would never sell to a “puppy mill.”

“Some people will sell an entire litter to some group, and that’s unethical,” Adkins said.

Lisa Weisberg, a senior vice president with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, defined a puppy mill as a “large, commercial, mass-production breeding facility.”

“Often (puppy mills) breed the females as often as they can until they are spent,” she said. “There is no careful monitoring for which dog is breeding with other dogs, which causes inbreeding and often deformity.”

Dr. Philip Gordon, an Agriculture Department veterinarian, said a violation of the state’s pet dealer act is a Class C misdemeanor and carries a $150 fine.

“That sounds small, but you can count each animal as a separate violation and each day they are not in compliance as a violation,” he said. “It can get quite large.”

Georgia agriculture officials said they have been enforcing such a law for about 15 years.

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Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com