You can help make it illegal to sell lost or stolen pets to research labs. Representatives Mike Doyle(D-PA) and Phil English(R-PA) and Senator Daniel Akaka(D-HI) have introduced a bill (S. 714 & H.R. 1280) that would make it illegal for Class B dealers to sell “random source” animals to labs. The bill is named “Buck’s Bill” in honor of an abused and neglected dog named Buck who was rescued from C. C. Baird, a Class B dealer, only to die months later from the mistreatment he had endured.
These Class B dealers acquire cats and dogs from different sources (“free to good home” ads, shelters, breeders, theft) and sell the animals to labs and veterinary schools where they are used for testing, biomedical research, and educational purposes. Lost and stolen pets are often caught up in the animal dealing.
This bill would work to end that by:
- Prohibiting Class B dealers and unlicensed individuals from selling dogs and cats to laboratories
- Preventing stray animals, who may be lost family pets, from being sold to laboratories
- Providing pet owners peace of mind that their animals will not be sold to a laboratory, should their animal be stolen or become lost
This bill won’t prevent Class A dealers from supplying animals to labs or prohibit research facilities from breeding animals and supplying them to other research facilities. It won’t prohibit individuals from donating their own
animals to labs for research purposes. And it won’t “supersede any state law pertaining to pound seizure.”
HBO’s Dealing Dogs investigated the business of Class B dealers by going undercover to document the horrors at Martin Creek Kennels, run by C. C. Baird, one of the most notorious Class B dealers.
This bill has been introduced before, but never passed. It has a better chance this time, thanks in part, to the documentary Dealing Dogs. Contact your Senators and your Representatives and urge them to support S. 714 & H.R. 1280.