A dog-law dodge

One of the significant accomplishments of the recently ended Rendell administration was toughened state regulation of commercial dog kennels in Pennsylvania.

The state, and in particular Lancaster County, had become nationally notorious as the home of puppy mills — factory kennels in which dogs were bred under often inhumane conditions. It was a black eye that only now is fading.

The new state rules mandated, for the first time, cage sizes, exercise time and mandatory veterinary care for large breeding operations. Additional rules, covering temperature and ventilation in kennels, will become effective later this year.

Rather than meet the new regulations, many large kennel operators have closed shop or sharply reduced the number of dogs they breed annually. According to the state Department of Agriculture, the number of large commercial kennels in Pennsylvania has dropped from 303 before the law took effect to 87 today.

Good riddance, we say.

But then there's state Rep. Gordon Denlinger, a Republican who represents rural east and northeastern Lancaster County where kennels flourished in the past.

Denlinger appears worried that forcing these kennels out of business has cost the state "several million dollars in sales tax and ... many millions of dollars in taxable income," according to the resolution he sponsored.

Denlinger admits he has no data to support his "many millions of dollars" claim, but his proposed legislation directs the Joint State Government Commission, a state research organization, to study and review the economic impacts of the new dog law regulations.

Our guess is that few puppy mills, which often ignored zoning laws and other existing regulations, bothered with the niceties of collecting sales or payroll taxes — indeed, if they even had any employees.

We have to wonder if his legislation isn't a back door effort to get lawmakers to reconsider the dog law changes that were difficult to enact in the first place.

Denlinger denies this. He said the study might only be useful to develop tax credits to help kennel operators meet the new state standards.

But puppy mill operators should not be rewarded for past abuses. A state handout to help them get back into business isn't good for dogs or people.

Let this sleeping dog lie.