I have decided to create this petition to create a faster and efficient process in creating a law that makes licensed dog sellers responsible in performing a behavioral evaluation on dogs.

I volunteered at an animal rescue shelter where I evaluated dogs based on the SAFER® behavioral evaluation tool as a way to indicate a dogs behavior before placing them for adoption. This method has been designed and approved by the ASPCA as a valid resource to identify future aggression and other behavioral traits that may not be as easily diagnosed during the dogs day to day interactions. This type of behavioral assessments would indicate how a dog reacts to certain situations such as food behavior,  how they act when being squeezed, and how they behave with other animals. These methods would also give us a good idea on whether or not a dog would be comfortable in an environment with small children. If a dog is to fail these assessments, the shelter/seller would be responsible in providing follow-up training to improve dogs behavior before placing dog up for adoption.

The animal rescue shelter that I volunteered for was in discussion of removing the behavioral assessments. After doing them myself and seeing how successful this program is,  I tried my absolute hardest on reaching out to other organizations to see if this could be prevented.  I learned real quickly that there is no law protecting animals from being placed for sale/adoption without behavioral assessments.

Right now in Wisconsin, any licensed rescue shelter & dog seller can sell a dog and is "encouraged" for them to assess their behavioral traits but this isn't required. This law also encourages consumers to have their best judgement. However, using your "best judgement" can only go so far when you aren't provided the most correct information about an animal's behavior before purchase. If no assessments are placed, this choice can lead to dangerous circumstances from a small injury to death.

In Wisconsin our statutory laws are created by the legislative branch of our state’s government. In order for there to be a law requiring behavioral assessments, the state legislature would need to change the current dog seller’s law to add this as a requirement.

I'm asking for your support in signing this petition. If approved, this assessment would follow the same procedure as the ASPCA's SAFER® test and would be required to be completed before a dog is placed up for sale/adoption.