By Nicole Rose Galvan
Please contact Governor Ducey and tell him to Veto SB1248:
Phoenix Office: (602) 542-4331
Tucson office/After 5pm Pacific Time: 520-628-6580
Email: [email protected]
Governor Doug Ducey,
You are going to make a decision soon that will determine whether or not Arizona pet stores can sell puppies from puppy mills. SB1248 reverses ordinances passed by Tempe and Phoenix that prohibit pet stores from obtaining puppies from large-scale commercial breeders.
I have worked very hard to stop this bill because I’ve adopted puppy mill survivors and I have to watch my dogs genuinely suffer every day. SB1248 relies on the USDA to regulate commercial breeders, using the standards set by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Let me explain the real-life effects of the low AWA standards:
According to these standards, it was not required for my dog, June, to get the expensive regular dental care that is crucial for her breed. Now, her lower jaw is rotted off and I have to feed her soft food by hand every day.
According to the AWA, it was appropriate for June to stand on wire caged flooring her entire life. Now, she has deformed legs and herniated discs in her spine from living on that caged-wire flooring for the first 7 years of her life.
According to the AWA, my dog Greedo’s breeders did not have to ever let him out of the small kennel that he spent his entire life. Now, he psychologically cannot go for a walk or be in open space.
Skin issues, mammary tumors, fear, anxiety, food intolerance – I can go on and on about what this industry has done to my dogs.
This is real.
This is what it means to be a breeding dog at a USDA-regulated commercial breeding facility.
In a recent interview, Frank Mineo, owner of Animal Kingdom and Puppies N’ Love, told reporters that their store upholds better standards than the USDA. He said, “”We don’t deal with breeders that keep their dogs inside a cage.” While just days ago, on his store’s own Facebook page, they attributed one of the puppies as having come from “loving, long-time breeder, Randall Miller.” Randall Miller happens to keep his breeding dogs in cages, just as we “animal rights activists” have been talking about this whole time.
Another breeder he admitted to government officials to be using was the star of an undercover investigation, in which the breeder admitted that he tries to breed his dogs every cycle, does not treat eye infections, and that the USDA inspectors fail to cite him for violations.
SB1248 is making sure that these types of commercial breeders stay in business and can keep selling to Arizona pet stores.
Arizona is better than that.
It’s time to veto SB1248.
Sincerely,
Nicole Galvan
Please contact Governor Ducey and tell him to Veto SB1248:
Phoenix Office: (602) 542-4331
Tucson office/After 5pm Pacific Time: 520-628-6580
Email: [email protected]