I am writing as a constituent and animal advocate to urge your support for AB 1482 (Bowie’s Law), a vital bill that addresses California’s escalating animal welfare crisis.

Our public shelters are overwhelmed. Healthy, adoptable animals–many of them young–are being euthanized simply because there is no space and no coordinated system to help them find homes. At the same time, backyard breeding continues largely unchecked, further contributing to the crisis by flooding shelters with more animals than our infrastructure can support.

AB 1482 proposes long-overdue solutions:
– Transparency in Shelters: Requires public shelters to list all adoptable and impounded animals online, increasing their visibility and giving them a better chance at adoption.
– Study on Shelter Overcrowding: Directs the Department of Food and Agriculture to study overcrowding and explore the feasibility of a statewide adoption database, improving coordination and access across counties.
– Stronger Breeder Regulations: Updates the outdated Pet Breeder Warranty Act by lowering the threshold for what qualifies as a “breeder” (from 3+ litters/20+ dogs to 2+ litters/10+ dogs annually). It also mandates: Microchipping before 8 weeks, with breeder registration as the first owner, Transfer of microchip ownership upon sale,Required vaccinations and a licensed veterinarian health check before any dog is sold or given away.

These are not extreme measures–they are basic, reasonable standards to promote responsible breeding and protect animals and consumers.

Similar bills have failed in the past, allowing unregulated breeding to continue while shelters remain under pressure and adoptable animals are killed for lack of space. We cannot let this cycle continue.

Please support AB 1482 and help make California a leader in humane, responsible animal care. Our shelters–and the animals depending on them–can’t wait.