A decade ago, Minnesota adopted legislation to provide oversight of large-scale commercial dog and cat breeders in response to public concerns about animal welfare. But a last-minute addition to the 2014 law classified nearly all dog and cat breeder data as non-public, restricting access to critical information the law was designed to collect and disseminate. The Dog and Cat Data Transparency Bill makes this data public.

What the bill does

The Dog and Cat Data Transparency Bill was introduced in the 2024 regular state legislative session. This bill:  

• Provides consumers important information on commercial dog and cat breeders currently classified by the state as secret information, including animal population size and inspection reports.
• Applies only to state-licensed commercial dog and cat breeders (defined by state law as breeders with a minimum of ten or more intact adults that also produce more than five litters a year). The bill does not apply to small breeders that are not required to be licensed by the state.

Why should the public have access to this information?

There are over 100 commercial dog and cat breeders in Minnesota yet consumers have access to virtually no information about these breeders due to current Minnesota law. A special exemption for dog and cat breeders added to the state’s data practices act makes almost all information about these businesses secret. This secrecy deprives consumers of critical information about the conditions in which their cat or dog was raised.

Summary data from the Board of Animal Health indicates that state inspectors issued 47 violations to commercial dog and cat breeders in the last 5 years. But Minnesota consumers have no access to data about which breeders were found to have violations, the nature of those violations, or how they were addressed. 

What’s more, many large breeders advertise their business as “small and home based” yet the public’s ability to verify these claims is severely limited. Without access to verifiable information, consumers risk investing hundreds to thousands of dollars in an animal bred in unknown conditions.

In contrast, not-for-profit animal shelters are held to higher data transparency standards than for-profit commercial breeders. The state licenses and inspects both commercial cat and dog breeders and nonprofit shelters. Yet information on nonprofit shelters is public while the same information on commercial breeders is secret. This double standard needs to end. 

The Dog and Cat Data Transparency Bill will:

• Create the same level of transparency for commercial breeders that is currently required for non-profit shelters and other regulated businesses. 
• Protect consumers by allowing access to information on breeder size, animal health, and facility conditions — information the state already collects.
• Increase trust in the Board of Animal Health’s oversight of commercial breeders by providing public access to inspection information.