Category: Animal Welfare

Last week, state senator Carolyn Comitta issued a memorandum announcing that she was going to introduce a bill to ban declawing in Pennsylvania, as a companion bill to HB508 in the state house. Declawing is already illegal in some communities, including Allentown and Pittsburgh. Once considered standard practice for housepets, declawing has become steadily less…

The “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act”, HR 4417, was introduced in June 2023 by Ashley Hinson of IOWA, seeks to roll back a number of state protections for animals, such as California’s Proposition 12. As you may guess from its libertarian-sounding name, this proposed law would curb individual states’ ability to set certain standards for…

Senate Bill 746, aimed at strengthening Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement (BDLE) has passed. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Elder Vogel, facilitates the online sale of dog licenses in all counties, increases penalties for violations of Pennsylvania’s Dog Law, and raises dog license and kennel inspection fees. The bill aims to stabilize the BDLE,…

Not too many animal welfare issues make it to the Supreme Court, but that is where we will find California’s Proposition 12 today. Proposition 12 is in the spotlight more because of its implications for interstate commerce than for what it means for animal welfare per se, but it’s a big deal on both fronts.…

Following Pittsburgh’s ban on declawing cats passed in late 2021, Allentown this year has also banned the practice ($500 fine for violations). The vote in the city council was unanimous. Allentown has recently become one of the state’s leaders in animal protection, after banning puppy/kitten/bunny mill sales in October of 2022 ($600 fine for violations).…

The Pennsylvania Dog Law of 1982 Just about everything having to do with dogs in Pennsylvania goes back to Public Law 784, enacted on December 7th, 1982 and commonly just called “The Pennsylvania Dog Law of 1982”. The Pennsylvania Dog Law of 1982 is a piece of legislation that governs various aspects of dog ownership…

Today Aurora Velazquez resigned her executive director position at ACCT Philly (Animal Care and Control Team Philadelphia). ACCT has been widely criticized from many sides for the conditions of the shelter and lapses which included procedural errors that led to (among other things) the mistaken euthanization of a dog put into their protective custody. Ultimately, a change.org petition demanding the removal of key…

This week Pittsburgh’s City Council advanced legislation that would make it the first city in Pennsylvania to prohibit the practice of declawing cats. The ordinance, #1877, has the hashtag-ready name “Ordinance amending The City Of Pittsburgh Code, Title Six (“Conduct”), Article III (“Dogs, Cats And Other Animals”), Chapter 633 (“Dogs And Cats”), by adding a…

If a dog spends over a year at a shelter, watching patiently as the dogs around her come in and out every few weeks, you can be pretty sure the dog has some medical or behavioral challenge that makes it necessary for the shelter take extra time to find the “just-right” adoptive family. Or maybe…