by Diane Richardson:
My name is Diane Richardson and I am a lifetime NH resident.
I was involved in dog rescue for 10+years, I have managed large boarding kennels, groomed dogs was a professional dog trainer for more than 15 years andowned/raisedd/ competed with purebred dogs for over 30 years. During this time I have also have provided extensive FREE public education services and assistance to dog owners. I am also experienced with the pet vendor and shelter licensing aspects, and I am currently an inspected chicken breeder so know the current inspection process
I am here to voice my opposition to SB161
Mandating pet vendor licensing for persons selling 20 or more companion animals will create a legal snarl for companion animal breeders who sell direct to the public. (And encourage people to do anything to skirt this law). I FULLY agree that large scale commercial breeders should be licensed and inspected as should breeders who sell to pet stores or people who buy from other breeders to resell or rescues that bring dogs/cats into NH to adopt (aka sell). However, the number 20 is insane for direct to public sales from home breeders. Let’s look at how you can get to twenty with just a few examples:
- Four clutches of finches/parakeets
- Two litters of large breed puppies
- Three litters kittens
None of these examples would be a pet vendor, they are simply small scale direct to the public home breeders. Additionally MOST preservation type hobby breeders of cats and dogs do NOT sell to the general public (i.e., man off the street), instead, they sell only to very carefully screened homes that have contacted them privately to apply.
I simply do not understand the current obsession to license small home breeders out of existence, when these people are not the problem.
Current commercial breeder rules are sufficient to catch large scale breeders like the Great Dane and German Shepherd breeder [like Christina Fay of Wolfeboro, NH convicted of animal abuse -Skip] if enforcement funding is provided to enforce all of our current good animal laws, and the 2009 breeder health certificate law is re-instated to enable potential commercial breeders to be identified. (see attached)
Thank you for your time
Diane Richardson
