Sponsors (21)
Official title: Amend the Animal Welfare Act to establish additional requirements for dealers, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 29, 2026 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress April 29, 2026
The bill raises minimum care standards for dogs to improve animal welfare and reduce disease risk, but increases compliance costs for regulated dealers and facilities.
Dealers, research facilities, and exhibitors must provide dogs with minimum space, regular exercise, socialization, and veterinary care, improving animal welfare and reducing disease transmission among animals and staff.
Small-business dog dealers and facility operators will face higher operating costs for facility upgrades, fencing, additional staffing, and veterinary services to comply with the new standards, which could squeeze margins or force adjustments/closures.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds minimum housing, exercise, socialization, feeding, water, temperature, and veterinary-care standards for dogs under the Animal Welfare Act.
Establishes minimum humane-handling, housing, exercise, socialization, feeding, water, temperature, and veterinary-care requirements for dogs held by dealers, exhibitors, and research facilities under the Animal Welfare Act. Sets minimum indoor floor space by dog size, bans stacked enclosures, requires appropriate temperature ranges, mandates daily socialization and exercise or veterinarian-prescribed alternatives, and prescribes prompt and preventive veterinary care including an annual hands-on exam and core vaccinations. Applies to dogs older than eight weeks for housing-space rules and to dogs older than 12 weeks for exercise requirements. The law adds these standards to the Secretary’s dealer standards that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service enforces under the Animal Welfare Act.