The American Kennel Club and the Pet Animal Welfare Statute of 2005:
Whence Comes the Reversal of Course?

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Effect of PAWS on Compliance with Local Zoning Ordinances

One of the least-discussed potential negative impacts upon hobby breeders is the effect that adoption of PAWS will have on state, county and local legislative bodies in adoption of breeder restrictions, and the effect it will have on those administrative agencies who enforce local zoning laws.

AKC's own position statement about breeding restriction - taken from their website July 24, 2005 - is as follows:

The American Kennel Club opposes the concept of breeding permits, breeding bans or mandatory spaylneuter of purebred dogs. Instead, we support reasonable and enforceable laws that protect the welfare and health of purebred dogs and do not restrict the rights of breeders and owners who take their responsibilities seriously.

This position cannot be squared with the AKC's position on PAWS. What is PAWS if it is not the mother of all breeding restrictions? Local and state legislators will immediately pick up on this point to our detriment. Certainly animal extremists have, as a spokesperson for HSUS has called PAWS "the first step."³³

As state and local legislators, many of whom are sympathetic to extremists, introduce restrictions that may, in fact, regulate breeders within their jurisdiction, the AKC's position on PAWS makes it nearly impossible to argue in favor of a commercial/household retail restriction, much less a retail/wholesale distinction. What we can expect to be left with is a patchwork quilt of breeding restrictions throughout the country, some of which are destined to be more restrictive than PAWS. PAWS will likely be viewed by the vanguard of the animal extremist movement as the lynchpin in their efforts to regulate hobby breeders out of existence, as PAWS takes away all effective arguments against local control of breeding that we currently have.

What is more, county and local zoning agencies may view that hobby breeders subject to USDA licensing are contemporaneously deemed to be businesses under local zoning regulations, which may and probably do contain restrictions on home-occupancy businesses, if not outright bans. Thus, the effect of PAWS may be a tsunami of new restrictions and enforcement of existing zoning laws unfavorable to hobby breeders throughout the United States.

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³³ United Kennel Club website, quoting unidentified HSUS spokesperson.