...is adapted from the guide provided by the Legislative Commissioners’ Office (LCO) of the Connecticut General Assembly (LCO, 1999).
Title: Humane Treatment for Breeding Animals Act
Preamble/Statement of Purpose: A cottage industry has developed that produces domestic pets, specifically puppies, as a commodity for sale. This industry is largely unregulated, except when treatment of the breeding animals can be judged to violate existing criminal animal cruelty laws (Seibel, 2007). Nevertheless, according to the standards of common decency, which are universally acknowledged by pet owners and the communities in which these cottage industries operate, the treatment of breeding animals frequently violates community standards of decency. The dogs used as breeding animals frequently spend their lives in cages; never allowed to have exercise outdoors, while producing two litters of puppies per year.
While the state acknowledges that all breeding dogs is a business enterprise and, therefore, the motivation of profit is legitimate, the state also acknowledges that there are well-established standards for animal breeding and these standards should be...