Bill would lift the secrecy around Minnesota's inspections of pet breeders

A handful of state lawmakers found themselves literally herding cats on Wednesday as they argued for more transparency among the state's commercial pet breeders.

Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, and Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth, said in a news conference that the bills they have authored in the House and Senate would make state inspection reports of large-scale dog and cat breeders public.

They were joined at the briefing by special guests: the kittens Lima and Pinto (who briefly joined Freiberg by standing on the lectern), and the German shepherd puppies Cupcake and Danish, all of which are adoptable pets at the Animal Humane Society.

"This is an opportunity to help consumers make informed decisions about the pets that they are bringing into their homes," Westlin said. "When families bring a pet into their home, that this is a significant emotional and financial investment."

The Minnesota Pet Breeders Association is opposing the bill, saying that it would reveal business information that should remain private.

"All this does is invite every member of the public who looks at a licensed breeder's website to contact [the Board of Animal Health] to get a bundle of proprietary info about the breeder's business," Elaine Hanson, the association's legislative liaison, wrote in an email. "Other businesses are not treated in such manner."

Freiberg responded that the change would actually put breeders in line with public data requirements for other licensed jobs in Minnesota, like accountants, doctors and barbers.

Under a law passed in 2014, dog and cat breeders with 10 or more unneutered animals that birth more than five litters a year became subject to state supervision and licensing. Smaller hobbyist breeders were not included.

But Freiberg said "a last minute change to the bill" made most information about these breeders secret. The only public information available now is the names of licensed breeders; there are over 100 in Minnesota.

Under the new bills, the three most recent inspection reports, the city or township a breeder is located in and all the business names a breeder has used in the past would become public information. Whether a license was revoked would also become public. Anyone could request this information from the Board of Animal Health.

Licensing information about nonprofit animal shelters is already public under state law. Breeders who sell to pet stores are subject to inspections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Reports of those inspections are public, but that excludes many of the commercial breeders in the state, said Paul Sorenson of the Animal Humane Society.

For state-licensed breeders, "we know that there were 47 violations over the past five years," Sorenson said. With the new bill, "we'd be able to know who had those violations. Were they repeat violations? Were they record-keeping violations or were they health and safety violations?"

But Hanson said breeders worry that shelters would start using the reports to discourage people from buying an animal from a breeder. In the bill's first hearing in the Senate, later on Wednesday, she called the legislation an effort to "harass and slander pet breeders."

During that same hearing, Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, argued that the original provision to keep breeder information secret was not a sudden addition to law in 2014 but rather a negotiated compromise between animal adoption agencies and people who raise puppies and kittens.

He questioned the latest bill, and whether it was part of "a witch hunt again like we have been [on] for several years to go after these breeders, because there have been some bad apples and we want to go over the whole bunch."

In the committee meeting, Westlin said the legislation was only meant to provide more information to those who want it.

"There's no punishment here," she said.

Freiberg and Westlin said they were confident the bill would pass this session. It has bipartisan support in both chambers; Republican Rep. Andrew Myers and Republican Sens. Jim Abeler and Karin Housley, the assistant minority leader, are co-authors.