The Kansas Pet Animal Advisory Board has held preliminary discussions on regulating pet boarding facilities to keep animals safe in them.
“We’ve seen an increase in licensees and we’ve seen an increase in complaints in that category,” said Heather Lansdowne, director of communications for the Kansas Department of Agriculture. “It involves a lot of unrelated dogs getting together and that can be a potential problem.”
Most stays at dog boarding facilities are uneventful, but injuries and deaths of dogs have been reported at Kansas facilities. Last year, an Olathe family lost both dogs while boarding them at a facility called Lucky Paws.
“Dogs in general are inherently dangerous because they have teeth and claws, so in any boarding or kennel situation the staff is at risk of being bitten,” said Julie Castaneda, a member of the Kansas Pet Animal Advisory Board who operates a boarding facility.
Discussions have centered on the broader dog-keeping laws of other states, such as Iowa and Colorado. Iowa mandates certain sizes for community play areas, behavior screenings before a dog is admitted to group activities, medical history taking and a limit of 30 dogs in a playgroup.
Kansas has less stringent requirements for its dog boarding facilities, and its regulations are more tied to safe facilities than the facilities’ specific practices. However, the biggest safety concern is often in how staff manage the dogs in their care.
“The biggest issue is that many people don’t know enough about dogs to take care of them,” Castaneda said.
It’s still early in the process, but at the board meeting, most panelists wanted to move away from stricter regulations such as staff-to-animal ratios and square footage of facilities.
“If you are a well-run day care, you manage a lot and you know the language and behavior of the body and how it performs, so I said at the beginning that the education, training and management of the staff is keeps the dogs safe,” said Castaneda.
There are tough rules to consider, such as requiring supervision during off-leash play.
The number and nature of pet boarding facilities has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, and modern kennels can include luxuries such as one-on-one playtime, grooming, special dog treats and supervised group play. Old school kennels are more spartan and may include a place for the dog to stay.
The rise of more amenity rich doggy day cares coincides with more spending on dogs in general. In 2020, Americans spent nearly $100 billion on pet-related products and services. And the American Pet Products Association estimates that number could reach $275 billion by 2030.
“We as a society have evolved in terms of making our animals our family, and people want to provide for them as a member of the family and consider their social needs and their emotional needs and their physical needs,” Castaneda said.
The Pet Advisory Board’s discussion is just the first step in potentially regulating dog boarding facilities, and it hopes to speak about it again at its next meeting before making a more concrete list of policy recommendations. From that point, the board will seek feedback before making final recommendations.
This article originally appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas jails could be safer with regulations from pet advisory board
