New puppy mill regulations will take effect in a few weeks, after Governor John Kasich signed a compromise bill into law last Friday.
That has forced animal rights activists who wanted to put a puppy mill crackdown before the voters to end their campaign. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
Activists had wanted a constitutional amendment on high volume dog breeders. But campaigns are expensive. Corey Roscoe is the Ohio director of the Humane Society of the United States, and while an amendment would be harder to change than a law, she says Ohio is in a puppy mill crisis.
“A lot of the care requirements that are passed under House Bill 506 will go into effect sooner than voters would have even had a chance to vote on the ballot measure.”
In May, animal rights advocates pushed for 13 amendments to the puppy mill bill, including food twice a day and continuous access to water, at least 30 minutes of exercise, new rules for cages and limits on how many times female dogs can be bred. But they continued to collect signatures for a ballot issue in case the law didn’t pass.
