The following is my email in reply to an email I received from my Representative Betty Komp which indicated to me that Betty was interested in looking to workable verbiage for HB2470. Betty indicated she does feel there needs to be a cap, but that she supports a common sense approach.


March 26, 2009 Betty - if I may ...

Let me see if I can help you with some deductive logic here why I feel (as do most AW's ) number caps do not work for state laws. Individual counties, cities depending on population of an area is another story. Basically there in lies part of the answer - more local control to be reasonable and equitable to citizens and to not penalize those who do choose to live rural so that they can for what ever reason exercise their right have multiple dogs, or other companion animals. To me this is basic common sense - want to have animals move to the country! That's is exactly what we did :-) And mind you when we did there were no numbers restrictions in place...

As far as hobbyist's are concerned lets see if I can briefly describe to you why it is that we often will have more than 10 intact dogs (intersex). It starts out with one really nice representative of the breed that does well in the chosen sport. When that dog grows up (generally after the age of 2 is considered "grown up" in dogs) that dog in this case a female is bred, the top one or two puppies is retained by the breeder for future exhibition. A "kennel" is born, that person picks a prefix, (kennel name) and becomes known as ( we will use me here) as Brier Goldens. Jump ahead ten years, after many successes in exhibition and several well planned breedings 4 to 5 over 3 generations and retaining puppies here we are. Grandma, great grandma, great great grandma, is now 10 might be spayed, but if she is still actively showing in AKC conformation events she can not be altered to be eligible to compete in regular classes. (My foundation bitch Kaycee was showing and winning at age 14 in non-regular classes, she was altered) Also along the line of this whole ride of 10 years, the hobbyist has purchased a couple of male dogs so that he/she can maintain a good working breeding program that is not interbred. Jumping ahead another 5 years - here we sit - Grandma may have passed on, maybe not, (my personal dogs tend to live to be 13 to 14) But anyway the breeder now has - 4 to 5 intact males ranging in age of 13 to 1 year old. Six intact females ranging in age of 7 years to 6 months of age. Two females age 7 that have each had two litters of puppies, one female age 6 that has had one litter, one female age 4 that has had two litters, one female age 2 with a litter, and two young females coming up to be exhibited between 18 months and 6 months of age. Bingo over the limit... Oh and maybe the breeder wants to keep a puppy from the current litter... Who are "we" to say this is unacceptable, as long as these animals are being cared for in a manner that is in keeping with good animal husbandry? For the record these dogs that are exhibiting must be in tip top condition, which means they can not be sloppy, living in cramped conditions. Point?

As far as how an irresponsible breeder gets to where they get to, I covered in my letter to you of March 19th regarding Ted Tellefson which you can revisit on my blog if you would like to:

http://political-dog.blogspot.com/

I also think you might want to read some of the information on this page of the NAIA website as well as to the legality of imposing numbers on a state wide level:

http://www.naiaonline.org/body/articles/archives/limitlawpennsylvania.htm

I feel very strongly that Oregon's responsible dog owners will untie along with other companion animal species owners should HB2470 pass with number limits. One more ditty on numbers, did you go to the USDA links I sent (also referenced again on my blog) Do we have a problem in Oregon? I do not think we do, with so few USDA brokers and dealers - with mostly the brokers importing from out of state I have to question the numbers motive - HSUS motive?

Regarding Lemon laws I believe this link says it all:

http://www.naiatrust.org/PDF/dogpurchaserlaw.pdf

But just to elaborate on that I have attached to this some of my personal documents I send home with my puppy homes, all of which potential owners must acknowledge reading prior to me accepting their deposit on a given litter . These particular documents pertain to my last litter of 13 puppies, but have gone basically unchanged for the past 10 years.

So in closing I hope that this is met with what it truly intends, an offer of education! Perhaps we will meet on the 30th, I do have an appt with your staff person Andrea at 1:00 on the 30th.

Best, Gina

* Attachments:

Individual puppy evaluation
Parents clearance information
Go Home Notes
Ownership V Guardianship
Pet Puppy Contract & Disclosures

* to anyone reading this blog that would like to have copies of these documents please send an email to: gina@briergoldens.com
subject line: send attachments HB2470 Komp