Frustration in handling the case of animal cruelty in a commercial dog breeding facility revealed that little can be done now in Hawaii to prevent cruelty to puppies. Government restrictions should be enacted to include both minimum standards of care and punishment for criminally irresponsible breeders.

The issue received attention in response to more than 150 puppies being found in disgusting condition at a Waimanalo dog-breeding operations in 2010. The company that owned the facility dissolved with no assets to pay any fine or restitution. A former manager of the facility was released after serving six months in prison and pleading no contest to 153 counts of animal cruelty.

A bill before the Legislature would require judges to impose a mandatory minimum of one year in prison for anyone convicted of second-degree animal cruelty in a case involving five or more pet animals in a single instance. Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro supports that part of the bill because, he says, Circuit Judge Glenn Kim "totally ignored" the prose- cutor’s urging of a five-year sentence in the Waimanalo case. Judges, however, should have discretion in sentencing.

Criminal investigation and enforcement against dog-breeding cruelty should be part of broad breeding laws, including government regulation. In recent years, a number of states have enacted laws to regulate the commercial breeding industry, according to the Animal Legal and Historical Center at Michigan State University.

The center points out that although coping with budget restraints in recent years, many states have found funds to carry out inspections: "The sheer number of states enacting or amending breeding laws since 2008 demonstrates that state legislatures are finally regarding the puppy mill problem with greater seriousness."

The Hawaii bill attempts to take that path, assigning regulation to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, but that would be barking up the wrong tree. Celia Suzuki, that department’s licensing administrator, notes that dog-breeding regulation "is completely different from any of the other businesses that the department regulates."

Instead, the state’s dog section — and it’s a large one — is in the Department of Agriculture, which regulates the quarantine for importation of animals from the mainland. Inclusion of a section regulating commercial dog breeders would be a good fit. Oklahoma discovered its mistake last year and transfer- red such duties to its Board of Agriculture. After all, federal animal welfare laws are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including regulation of commercial breeding facilities.

The Hawaiian Humane Society estimates that nearly 5,000 puppies are sold on Oahu each year, reaping $4.5 million. Pamela Burns, the society’s president, is right in pointing out that "puppy breeding is big business and the welfare of a puppy’s parents is often not the priority."

Outrage over the Waimanalo breeding offenses, the largest case of animal cruelty in years, has created public support for more extensive regulation, although caring operators of particular breeds take offense. But regulation should be assigned where it belongs, and legal penalties for puppy-breeding criminals should be determined by a judge.