Editorial: Puppy law has flaw

State regulators need to put more teeth in Pennsylvania's puppy-mill law to prevent animal abuse.

In approving the new rules for the remaining 100 commercial kennels in the state (down from 300 a year ago), the Independent Regulatory Review Commission left a loophole criticized by animal welfare advocates.

The law requires adult dogs to have solid flooring in cages, but it allows puppies under 12 weeks to stand on wire flooring. That means adult dogs that are nursing puppies could live on wire for many months.

That's the very condition that the law was supposed to protect dogs against. The loophole casts a shadow over the much-heralded 2008 puppy-mill law proclaimed by Gov. Rendell to be the toughest in the country.

The Rendell administration's solution to the problem is to require half of a nursing mother's cage to have solid flooring. But experts say no dog should be kept under those conditions. Although wire flooring is cheaper and easier to clean for kennel owners, it can cause painful paw abrasions and other conditions for dogs.

Not all of the rules in the law's 873 pages are deficient. New rules governing temperature extremes in kennels, for example, will prevent life-threatening conditions. But the wire-flooring rule needs to be reconsidered. Pennsylvania has made great strides to shed its standing as the puppy mill capital of the East. It needs to stay on that track.