Meehan, Gerlach Tour Radnor No-Kill Animal Shelter, Promoting Puppy Mill Bill

RADNOR, Pa. (CBS) - Two local congressmen toured a no-kill animal shelter in Delaware County to highlight legislation designed to protect pet owners and crackdown on puppy mills.

Congressmen Patrick Meehan and Jim Gerlach met with volunteers and staff at the Francisvale Shelter to talk about how the Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act or PUPS would end inhumane treatment of dogs at large breeding kennels.

Meehan says the measure calls for all commercial breeders selling more than 50 dogs a year to the public to be federally licensed and inspected regularly, "Between two to four million dogs a year are sold through pet stores that are raised in puppy mills and there's great concern about the conditions when you're looking at these kinds of animals not as pets but as cash crops."

He says some large breeders have evaded federal animal welfare laws by selling dogs on the Internet. Unfortunately, he says, Pennsylvania is one of the leading puppy mill states in the country.

Gerlach says the proposed PUPS Act would make accountable people motivated by profit rather than humane treatment of dogs, "But bottom line is there's far too many puppy mills, places where dogs and cats are bred in a very inhumane and intolerable conditions."

Reported by Suburban Bureau Chief Brad Segall, KYW Newsradio 1060