TO ALL SUFFOLK COUNTY ANIMAL LOVERS:

We have the chance to enact regulations for Suffolk County's pet stores. On Tuesday, April 29th, I will be the voice of the voiceless in Riverhead, as Legislator Jay Schneiderman sets forth Resolution No. 1047-2014, a bill to protect companion animals being sold in the pets stores of Suffolk County. You can bet I will be there to speak on the behalf of innocent puppies and their parents left behind to suffer unknown fates. Will you?

Suffolk County has approximately nine pet stores and a few kennels that sell dogs from puppy mills — commercial breeding facilities which many of you are aware are inhumane factories for puppies. The parents of pet store puppies live in a world without love, without human contact at all, often in chicken/turkey wire, bred as often as possible, sometimes until death, sometimes until they are auctioned off for pennies at a pathetically inhumane mill auction.

One field trip to these facilities would change your life forever. The dogs are merely stock, inventory in a very deep, very dark profitable business, sparsely regulated by the USDA. It is the business of selling lives and making big money off the backs of these innocent baby companion animals. Puppies are often ripped from their mothers as young as five weeks old and brought to Long Island in cramped vehicles, arriving sick, dirty, and drenched in their own urine and feces. Some live, some die but to a pet dealer it is all part of doing business. We regulate cars at a dealership better than we regulate puppies coming into Suffolk County.

New York State law will not allow us to ban the retail sale of dogs and cats (yet), BUT Suffolk County can certainly make it more strict for pet dealers (puppy stores) to do business. I have spoken individually to many of our legislators to ensure full understanding of the importance of this bill. By restricting puppy mills that have either direct, indirect or no access violations by the USDA, and disclosing to consumers exactly where the puppies are from as well as size of cages and amount of dogs in each cage, we will be at a starting point for change. But we need your support! Please come out on Tuesday, April 29th and speak on behalf of the puppies whose lives are in your hands. If the pet dealers get their way, we will be back to square one.

Through our organization we have rescued hundreds of parent dogs from puppy mills across the United States and can attest to the horrid conditions. I have seen first hand, the atrocities bestowed upon man’s best friend. As an animal advocate for over 30 years and founder/president of Save-A-Pet Animal Rescue and Vice President of Guardians of Rescue, I am urging everyone to come out, speak up, this is your chance to BE THEIR VOICE and LET'S SET THE STANDARD FOR THE REST OF NEW YORK STATE!

Together we save them,

Dori Scofield

Support Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman as he presents his Suffolk County Pet Dealer Bill. Legislator Jay Schneiderman has introduced Resolution No. I.R. 1047-2014 to combat puppy mill abuse in Suffolk County.

What: Public Meeting on Pet Dealer Bill
When: April 29, 9:30AM
Where: Riverhead Legislative Auditorium,
Suffolk County Legislature, Evans K. Griffing Building, 300 Center Drive, Riverhead

If you can't attend the meeting, please call or fax his office to let him know you support the bill: Phone: (631) 852-8400 | Fax: (631) 852-8404