"House Bill 39, which clearly defines the painful and inhumane procedures on dogs that constitute animal cruelty and takes the next important step for Pennsylvania in protecting dog," said Rendell. "Until now, these cruel practices could be carried out by dog owners without proper training and without supervision by a licensed vet, which could lead to long-term injury, pain and, in some cases, death to these defenseless animals."

Rendell brought his dog, Maggie, to the bill signing.

The golden retriever is a former breeder dog that Rendell adopted.

Banned Surgeries

1. Cropping, trimming, or cutting off an ear

2. Debarking by cutting or injuring the vocal cords

3. Docking or cutting off the tail of a dog over five days of age

4. Surgically birthing a dog

5. Removing the dewclaws from a dog over five days of age

The dog’s owner must keep a record of the surgery, including the vet who performed it, as well as the location and date where the surgery was performed. The law further protects dogs by making it a 3rd degree felony to steal an animal for the purpose of dog fighting.

Any thoughts on this? Is it better for vets only to do this? Why or why not?

Pa is a messed up state, believe me I know...its beyond repairable. If PA was to become a country on its own it would collapse within a few measly seconds. As for those surgeries being banned I am for # 1,2,3,5. I am against cutting a dogs tails or ears or claws off. God created the dog to hunt, or swim and if he was unsatisfied with its performance because of ear or tails...then there wouldn't be tails or ears at birth like some breeds out there are born with no tails. I am against debarking a dog, if you seriously cannot stand the way your dog barks so much that you want it removed then you shouldn't be owning the dog. You know someday, you will miss that dog's bark or whine whenever it passes away. Now for number 4, I have no idea what that sentence is talking about =P so I cannot give my opinion on it. Is birthing a dog like a C-section for dogs?

xXEvilMistressxX wrote:

Now for number 4, I have no idea what that sentence is talking about =P so I cannot give my opinion on it. Is birthing a dog like a C-section for dogs?

Well I wouldn't know if PA is really messed up, I mean every state has their issues.lol.

As for number 4 I think that it means a C-section type surgery. Which is reasonable to ban people who are unexperienced and unsupervised from doing. I didn't even know that there were people that would do this without vet supervision...thats just incredible. The thing is just that these surgeries cannot be done at home, it has to be a vet that does them, which sounds good to me.