Kennel

The Pet Farm in Southampton Township, a combination kennel, pet shop and animal shelter, was ordered to shut down its kennel operation yesterday while a Superior Court judge considers a township order permanently revoking the facility's kennel license. Southamption Township Solicitor Stacy Moore said an order issued by Superior Court Judge Harold B. Wells prohibits Steven J. Marshall, the owner of the Pet Farm, from boarding, breeding or selling dogs pending the outcome of the court case.

East Nantmeal resident Louise Ross Kamp apparently is operating a dog kennel in violation of township zoning - but the township supervisors aren't inclined to crack down on her. The township building inspector, Garfield Smith, checked out Kamp's kennel after Font Road resident Joseph Glenski complained to the supervisors that the dogs were barking loudly. Smith said at a supervisors meeting Thursday that, when he visited the site earlier this month, he heard little barking.

Southampton's Pet Farm, which serves as a pet shop, petting zoo and shelter for 200 unwanted animals, will get rid of its dogs if the Township Committee has its way. But the owner said yesterday that he would fight the township's decision to revoke his kennel license. "I'm not going to remove one single animal," Steven Marshall said. "I am going to fight them in court. " Marshall and the three-acre Pet Farm, on Route 70 near the Medford border, have been under pressure since June, when health officials cited the farm for health-code violations.

Owners of a nursing home and a kennel have proposed expansions in applications before the Tredyffrin Township Zoning Hearing Board. Representatives of Eliza Cathcart Health Center, a 95-unit retirement and nursing facility at 445 Valley Forge Rd., presented a plan to begin interior renovations to one of the center's two buildings. Estimated to cost more than $600,000, the expansion plans include the addition of 12 apartments on the third floor of the original nursing home, as well as cosmetic repairs to the dining room.

The state Attorney General's Office has moved to shut down a major dog kennel operator. In a contempt petition filed yesterday, Attorney General Tom Corbett asked Commonwealth Court to revoke the right of Joyce and Raymond Stoltzfus of Lancaster County to do business in Pennsylvania and to impose fines of $4.4 million. The request alleges hundreds of violations of a three-year-old consumer-fraud settlement over the sale of sick puppies. The filing charges that the Stoltzfuses, who operate CC Pets L.L.C.

HARRISBURG - The state Attorney General's Office has moved to shut down a major dog kennel operator. In a contempt petition filed yesterday, Attorney General Tom Corbett asked Commonwealth Court to revoke the right of Joyce and Raymond Stoltzfus of Lancaster County to do business in Pennsylvania and to impose fines of $4.4 million. The request alleges hundreds of violations of a three-year-old consumer-fraud settlement over the sale of sick puppies. The filing charges that the Stoltzfuses, who operate CC Pets L.L.C.

An early-morning fire yesterday gutted the private no-kill kennel Sharon McCaffrey worked 17 years to build. The 8 a.m. fire, which claimed one of McCaffrey's 30 cats but none of her 12 dogs, left only the 25-by-56-foot building's 8-foot-tall concrete walls standing. "It's insured, or at least it should be," she said, alternatingly wistful and weeping. "I've been trying to call my insurance company all morning, but the phone there just rings and rings and rings. " McCaffrey, 50, who works at Chester County Career Link helping people find jobs, said she began harboring stray and donated animals in 1984 on her 15-acre property on Conestoga Road.

In a move applauded by animal-welfare advocates, Gov. Rendell has reassigned the director of the bureau of dog law - the person responsible for enforcement in the state's 2,700 licensed kennels - to a new position within the Department of Agriculture. Mary Bender, who had served as the bureau's director since 2003, was named head of the Resource Enhancement and Protection Program, a new farmland-conservation program within the department, Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said. Ardo would say only that it was a mutually agreed-upon transfer, but individuals who have advised the governor on ways to improve the problem-plagued bureau say her removal was at the top of their list.

A veterinarian has been granted permission, for the second time, by the Kennett Township Zoning Hearing Board to build a clinic and kennel off Old Kennett Road. Dr. Caroline Hughes Strange, of Kennett Square, was granted permission on June 9 by the zoning board to build her facility on a 5.8-acre site in Clifton Estates. However, Court of Common Pleas Judge M.J. Melody later ruled that the ruling was invalid because several neighbors of the site had not been notified of the hearing.

An Upper Township couple can sue a large Pennsylvania dog kennel in New Jersey court, a Superior Court judge ruled yesterday. Lewis and Stephanie Ostrander, who live in Upper Township, are suing Lancaster Countybased C.C. Pets L.L.C., alleging that the Labrador-poodle mix puppy they bought in November was diseased and dying. The lawyer for the kennel had asked the New Jersey court to dismiss the suit, saying that the company was regulated by Pennsylvania. The kennel company had sufficient personal jurisdiction in New Jersey, Judge Joseph C. Visalli ruled yesterday.

Banana Joe , the Affenpinscher with the bouncy step and shiny black coat, walked off as America's top dog on Tuesday night, winning best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club show at New York's Madison Square Garden. The 5-year-old wagged his tail after earning his 86th best in show title overall, a day before he was set to fly back to the Netherlands with his owner. Old English sheepdog Bugaboo's Picture Perfect was picked as the runner-up on the green carpet of the Garden. Also in the best-of-seven final ring were a German wirehaired pointer, an American foxhound, a Portuguese water dog, a Bichon Frise, and a smooth fox terrier.

The contestants are prepped and primped, sometimes for as much as $250,000, as if they were models getting ready to sashay down a prestigious runway. They are models of a sort - four-legged ones, anyhow (that's twice as much sashaying) - and the runway is one of the most prestigious in the United States, if you are a dog, or a human owner, breeder or handler of one. The Kennel Club of Philadelphia's annual National Dog Show Presented by Purina takes place this weekend at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks.

HARRISBURG - The Department of Agriculture allowed a virtual suspension of kennel enforcement during the last 15 months by failing to properly inspect most commercial outfits, allowing oversize or poor-performing operations to skirt regulations and citing no violations, according to a new report by members of the state's Dog Law Advisory Board. The nearly 100-page report, produced by a subcommittee charged with advising the governor on dog issues, came to "the disturbing conclusion" that the state has failed to enforce critical components of the dog law and companion canine health regulations, leaving close to 500,000 dogs in 2,000 kennels at risk.

HARRISBURG - The Department of Agriculture imposed a virtual moratorium on kennel enforcement during the past 15 months by failing to properly inspect most commercial kennels, allowing oversized or poor-performing operations to skirt stringent regulations and issuing no citations for breaking the law, according to a blistering new report by members of the state's Dog Law Advisory Board. The nearly 100-page report, produced by a subcommittee of the board charged with advising the governor on dog issues, came to what it called "the disturbing conclusion" that the Dog Law Enforcement office has failed to enforce critical components of the dog law and the companion canine health regulations leaving close to 500,000 dogs in 2,000 kennels at risk.

HARRISBURG - The controversial director of the agency charged with overseeing Pennsylvania's more than 2,000 licensed kennels has been removed and transferred to a lesser position amid accusations the state was failing to enforce the law governing commercial breeding operations. Lynn Diehl was a former bank manager and Republican Party volunteer with no experience in animal welfare or law enforcement when she was named director of the Dog Law Enforcement Office in June 2011. In her new job as an administrative officer in the Department of Corrections, Diehl will be making $44,675 a year and hold the lowest ranking in that job category, said Office of Administration spokesman Dan Egan.

What's Gov. Corbett got against puppies? After years of complaints from dog lovers and people who unknowingly purchased sick and dying pets that had been raised inside puppy-mill cages no bigger than a rabbit hutch, Pennsylvania passed a 2008 law ensuring humane treatment for tens of thousands of kennel dwellers. That law, aimed at ridding Pennsylvania of its reputation as the worst puppy-mill state in the East, has served as a model for 20 other states. But Corbett isn't interested in its enforcement.

HARRISBURG — In 2008, when Gov. Ed Rendell signed Pennsylvania's toughest-in-the-nation law governing commercial breeding kennels, the objective was to end the state's reputation as the "puppy mill" capital of the East. Now, nearly a year after key regulations governing temperature, lighting, ammonia levels, and ventilation went into effect, there is little if any evidence that the Department of Agriculture is enforcing that provision of the law. The agency, which is facing a deepening financial crisis, is failing to cite repeat violators and is "committing a serious abuse of its discretion" by allowing the wife of a convicted animal abuser to hold a kennel license, according to state records and one legal expert.

HARRISBURG - Tom Corbett's arrival in the governor's mansion signals a new era in Pennsylvania dog-law enforcement. He replaced the top "dog cop" with a career banker who has no experience in animal welfare and tasked her with a top-down review. The Office of Dog Law Enforcement (formerly the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement) oversees the welfare of tens of thousands of dogs housed in 2,191 licensed kennels. The swift changes alarm some animal-welfare advocates who fear a return to the era, circa 2002, before Oprah Winfrey targeted the state's infamous "puppy mills.

HARRISBURG - The state has pulled the plug on the Chester County dog breeder who sold Vice President Biden a puppy. The Agriculture Department revoked the license held by Linda Brown, who operates Jolindy's Shepherds in Spring City, for repeated violations of kennel laws. In a Nov. 19 order, the agency listed dozens of violations, including filthy kennels, contaminated food and water, and dogs crammed in cages with fewer than six inches of headroom. The agency made the order public this week at The Inquirer's request.