Stu Bykofsky: Fight puppy-mill horrors: Tell your rep to back HB 2525

RETURNING from summer recess today, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives can make once-in-a-generation changes to the Keystone State's outmoded Dog Law - if they show the loyalty to dogs that dogs have always shown to us.

House Bill 2525 will be taken up today and tomorrow, supported by more than 100 humane and fair-minded representatives of the 203 total in the House, along with Gov. Rendell. It is opposed by a gaggle of heartless maggots who lick the hands of callous pet-profiteers: the commercial kennel breeders who have turned our state into the Puppy Mill Capital of the East. To breeders, innocent puppies are just a cash crop, like peas, carrots or potatoes. Westmoreland County Democrat James Casorio is the primary sponsor of HB 2525. "If folks would know - and they're beginning to know - the conditions these poor dogs are subjected to on a day-to-day basis, they would be sick to their stomach," he says.

"Sledgehammering a PVC pipe down a dog's throat so it won't bark," Casorio says, "I'd like to have someone justify that to me."

HB 2525 isn't revolutionary. I wish it were. All it does is establish minimal health-and-welfare standards that will drag Pennsylvania's 650 commercial breeding kennels from the Dark Ages into the . . . Middle Ages. HB 2525 doesn't require that dogs get filet, a personal trainer and a swimming pool.

HB 2525 doubles the minimum cage space, now about the size of a newspaper honor box. This is how thousands of breeding dogs are imprisoned for their entire lives, never once standing on solid ground, let alone going for a romp. What did these pitiful dogs, faithful companion animals that love human contact, do to deserve this?

HB 2525 requires access to an exercise area twice the size of the cage, and solid flooring instead of the painful wire flooring now widely used. It mandates annual veterinary care, unbelievably not required now. It orders free access to fresh water, which dogs are not now guaranteed.

Currently many dogs used for breeding are trapped in tight cages, often caked with their own excrement. The cages might be stacked high in dim, stuffy barns, or in rabbit hutches exposed to extreme weather. When the dogs are spent, they can be shot, as 80 were last month.

HB 2525 permits only veterinarians to put them out of their misery. The new law may cost commercial breeders some money, but any modest cost increase will be passed on to the ignorant people who buy puppies at pet stores, the puppy mills' notorious outlets. Decent Pennsylvanians want the minimal reform offered by HB 2525.

Space doesn't allow me to recount all the horrors of the puppy mills. Check these Web sites: www.stoppuppymills.org, www.aspca.org/puppymills or www.unitedagainstpuppymills.org.

Chester County is horse country, and the leading opponent of the proposed law is a Chester County horse's ass named Art Hershey. In trying to stifle the bill, Rep. Hershey larded HB 2525 with 20 of the 52 amendments that "improve" the bill the way barnacles make a ship sail faster. Hershey's transparent scheme is to kill the bill by delay, says Cori Menkin, senior director of legislative initiatives for the ASPCA. The cruelty-enabling Hershey offered amendments to cripple standards for heat, cooling and lighting. My favorite amendment coming down Hershey's highway is A08348, which adds "dishwasher" to the list of prohibited ways to house a dog. Yes, dishwasher. Taxpayers pay him more than $75,000 to dream up crap like that?

Another Hershey kiss of cruelty is Amendment A08366, which says that potable water should be offered as necessary, instead of continuously. Hershey's stinking hypocrisy is revealed on his own Web site, www.arthershey.com.

Clicking on "Tips to keep pets healthy this summer" (it was there as of Friday) takes you to info from Penn's Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital. Point 3 says dogs need "plenty of clean, fresh water, accessible at all times."

Hypocrite Hershey, who didn't return my calls, isn't the only Harrisburg villain, he's just the most prodigious and vicious. Because he's not seeking re-election, he may feel free to disgust the state's humane voters.

As the fight to improve the miserable lives of dogs imprisoned in puppy mills moves forward, the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the U.S. are sponsoring a rally at noon tomorrow in Soldiers Grove at the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg. People and dogs welcome.

If you can't come to the rally, you can call your state rep to say you are sick of horrific conditions for dogs that benefit only pet profiteers. Demand a "yes" vote on HB 2525. Two additional bills address animal cruelty and its consequences: HB 2532 and HB 499. If you can't name your state rep, call 717-772-2854 at the state agriculture department and they'll help you.

By making the calls, dog lovers and other people of conscience will help rid us of the deplorable title of Puppy Mill Capital of the East.

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.