Your Feb. 15 front-page article "Dogs' ordeal spurs call for law" showed a stunning lack of balanced reporting. You sought out only a very narrow perspective on the actual situation here in North Carolina. A well-balanced story on regulation of commercial dog breeders would have gathered information from several differing sources and presented those findings to readers.
Mainstream opponents of excessive dog breeder licensing, such as the N.C. Federation of Dog Clubs or the American Kennel Club, were not quoted on their reasons for opposing breeder regulation bills. Both organizations are highly visible and longtime proponents of responsible dog ownership and dog breeding and have an in-depth understanding of the regulatory issues.
A 2009 attempt to pass unrealistic dog breeder legislation (SB 460) did not fail because of agriculture-based lobbyists but because of the magnitude of comments and personal contact legislators received from citizens concerned about the effects of the bill. If accountability must be found for the failure of that bill, then blame the tens of thousands of dog owners in North Carolina. These are the people who worked hard to educate their legislators on the real effects of that problematic bill with letters, phone calls and emails.
Most erringly, you did not ask the biggest question at all: Is there really a problem with abusive commercial breeders in North Carolina that current law is not adequately addressing?
North Carolina has effective animal abuse laws and they should be enforced. The prosecution and conviction of abusive breeders over the years proves this, a perfect example being the recent raid on the sorry facility in Stokes County. You should have verified or omitted unsubstantiated claims, including that the majority of people want regulation of commercial dog breeders in North Carolina.
Taken as a whole, your article paints an unrealistic picture of the breeder regulation situation here in our state. Animal abuse is morally repugnant wherever it occurs and should not be tolerated in any of our communities. But attempting to regulate it out of existence is not the answer; if that were the case, we would have regulated crimes like murder away centuries ago.
Let us hope your readers will be given more balanced and even-handed reporting in the future as the debate goes forward on this emotional and divisive issue.
Steve Wallis
Director
N.C. Federation of Dog Clubs
Raleigh
The length limit was waived to permit a fuller response to the article.