Animal-welfare groups are applauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture's ruling today that expands federal oversight of puppy mills and online dog sales.

The ruling closes a regulatory loophole in federal Animal Welfare Act that previously exempted Internet dog breeders from being licensed and inspected by the USDA.

The act requires minimum care standards for animals bred for commercial sale or transport, used for research purposes, or exhibited to the public.

It was signed into law in 1966, before the advent of the Internet.

While the act required pet stores and other outlets that breed puppies for commercial sale to be licensed and inspected, breeders who sold directly to buyers over the Internet, newspaper classifieds or other outlets were exempt from oversight.

Consumers presumably could

visit the breeder and see the welfare of the dogs for themselves, which isn't the case when they order animals online.

In the absence of regulation, many puppies sold online come from “puppy mills,” where they are bred in overcrowded, unsanitary, and often inhumane conditions.

Many lack sufficient veterinary care, food, water, or socialization and arrive at their new homes unsocialized, sick or dying.

“The ASPCA has witnessed the abhorrent cruelty that often exists behind the pictures of happy puppies posted on a breeder’s website, and this rule will crack down on the worst Internet breeders,” says Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations.

The

, the

and other national groups gathered about 350,000 letters and signatures from concerned citizens supporting the USDA’s efforts to provide more regulation of unlicensed breeding operations.

Following pressure from the public and animal-welfare groups, the USDA’s inspector general looked into the laws regulating commercial dog breeding and agreed there was a gap.

introduced in March further galvanized support

to finalize and implement the rule.

“Puppy mills aren’t going away overnight, and it’s still important for any potential puppy buyer to meet the breeder in person at his or her facility to see how and where a puppy was born and raised,” writes HSUS director Wayne Pacelle on his blog

“But this rule has the potential to allow federal inspectors to peer behind the closed doors of puppy mills and improve the lives of tens of thousands of animals.”

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