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Ollie’s Law: Puppy’s death inspires dog daycare regulation
Advocates say the kennel industry is underregulated.
When Amy Baxter took her new labradoodle puppy Ollie to a doggie daycare in East Longmeadow, she never imagined he would be in danger.
An hour and a half after she dropped him off, she got a troubling text.
“I get a text saying your dog has a cut, could you come pick him up and take him to a vet,” she told State House News Service (SHNS).
“When I got there, my dog couldn’t stand up. Turns out, dogs had broken his legs with their teeth. He was mauled by a pack of dogs.”
The Brockton Enterprise reported that not only was Ollie left unsupervised at the back of the daycare’s play yard at the time of the attack, but that even though there was a veterinary hospital next door, Ollie wasn’t taken there because the daycare didn’t have emergency protocols and staff members weren’t sure what to do.
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Ollie’s family fought for him to survive, getting him three surgeries and hospital care, but after two months of treatment, he died.
According to the Brockton Enterprise, the daycare at which Ollie was attacked has been shut down. But Baxter is now on a mission to make sure what happened to Ollie doesn’t happen to any dog in Massachusetts ever again.
To do this, she’s worked with state legislators and kennel owners around Massachusetts to draw up a law that would regulate kennels and doggie daycares — an industry currently underregulated, SHNS reported.
“Ollie’s Law,” which was created by Baxter’s state representative, Brian Ashe, would have the state’s director of animal health create rules for doggy daycares and kennels.
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These rules would include staff to dog ratios, maximum group sizes, supervision requirements, minimum housing and care requirements, physical facility requirements, dog handling training requirements, insurance and emergency plan requirements, and penalties for not meeting standards.
MSPCA Senior Animal Protection Researcher Melissa Ekvall told SHNS that the lack of regulation allows for situations where pets get hurt. She said dog fights often happen because there are no rules preventing housing small dogs with larger ones.
Beyond that, she said, staff may not be properly trained to break up dog fights, and the overall condition of a facility can vary greatly between facilities.
Ekvall told SHNS that legislators need to look at passing a law that, at minimum, creates dog to staff ratio standards and an inspection system.
“Stuff that you would see at a child day care,” she said. “They’re basically your children. Some people, they are their children. And so, you just want them protected and you want the staff protected too.”
The Consumer Protection and Licensure Committee sent Ollie’s Law (H 305) to study, meaning it most likely won’t be voted on this legislative session.
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Supporters of the bill believe the legislation was sent to study because of opposition from the American Kennel Club Association, SHNS reported.
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But advocates known as Ollie’s Law Coalition are also supporting two other bills (H 949 / S 1322) that would set minimum standards for boarding kennels and day care facilities, SHNS reported.
The Senate bill disallows the sale of puppies and kittens younger than eight weeks old, requires the creation of regulations for boarding facilities and breeders, prohibits the roadside sale of animals, and updates language advocates say is “outdated,” SHNS reported.
According to SHNS, the Municipalities and Regional Government Committee held a hearing on the bill at the end of September 2021 and then reported it favorably to the Senate Ways and Means Committee in December 2021.
Whichever law is passed, Baxter told SHNS she wants to see action taken on this issue quickly.
“There have been 16 deaths since Ollie. This has to stop. And as far as I’m concerned, we’ve made a lot of noise, we have made people aware of this,” she said. “So when the maulings continue, it’s as much on the State House as it is on the kennel owner.”
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