A Lancaster County dog breeder has entered a guilty plea to five counts of kennel violations, and his son faces a criminal court trial on four charges related to unsatisfactory conditions at his kennel.

State dog wardens during a November inspection "found dogs living in small cages, with excessive amounts of feces and without adequate rabies records" at the Twin Maple Farm Kennel owned and operated by John E. Esh of Ronks, according to a news release from the state.

At the breeding kennel located next door to Mr. Esh's kennel, dog wardens found "unsatisfactory conditions ... including moldy food, excessive feces, poor maintenance and inadequate records. The wardens also found that several of the cages were not large enough to house dogs," the release says. "One cage, holding six dogs, was less than half the size required by law."

That second kennel, Scarlet-Maple Farm Kennel, is operated by Daniel P. Esh. No trial date has been set yet.

John Esh has been sentenced to the maximum fine of $300 on each count, for a total fine of $1,500.

State officials issued this news release this week as proof that they are engaged in a "crackdown on unsatisfactory kennels," as the headline of the news release states.

Gov. Rendell "announced sweeping changes to the state's dog law and regulations in October 2006," the release says. His actions include naming Jessie Smith as Special Deputy Agriculture Secretary for Dog Law Enforcement, hiring a special prosecutor for dog cases and increasing the number of dog wardens, who are the hands-on people who inspect kennels and enforce the regulations.

The governor, by the way, gets high marks in dog circles because he has two golden retrievers that were adopted from rescue organizations.

The Esh men operate what the state calls "large scale commercial kennels." They have the required state kennel licenses, and are classified as "K5" operators, which means they have 251 or more dogs in any given year.

Though the elder Esh has entered guilty pleas and the younger Esh faces a court trial, both kennels are still open and operating. However, there have been multiple inspections since November, when dog wardens cited both men, and corrections and improvements have been made at both kennels. More followup inspections are planned, a state spokesmen said in a telephone interview.

Concerned readers can go to www.agriculture.state.pa.us/padoglaw to follow the progress at this, and other breeding kennels. Go to "Click here to enter the kennel inspection database." You'll see inspection reports and followups and can see comments from the dog wardens. It makes for interesting reading.

Many people don't realize that dog wardens inspect all licensed boarding kennels, and you do need a state license to board dogs. So if you have ever boarded a dog, you can look up the kennel. This is also something you can look at when considering using a boarding kennel.

Lancaster County has 327 kennels, and many of them are the large K5 breeding facilities. Allegheny County has 103, and most of those are boarding kennels. Allegheny County has no K5 breeding facilities listed on the state database. There are five K5 licenses issued to pet stores that sell puppies.

Pennsylvania is being called "the puppymill capital of the country" on various animal Web site and e-mail lists. That's a tad unfair, because we are not the only state that has a lot of breeding facilities.

What is a puppymill, by the way? It's a loaded term. It's used by some people to describe a facility where large numbers of dogs are kept in cages with little or no socialization or exercise. The adult dogs are constantly and repeatedly bred and the puppies grow up in cages with little or no human contact.

Other people use the puppymill term to describe anyone who breeds dogs. These types of people generally think that anyone who breeds dogs is bad because there are so many dogs in shelters and rescue groups.

There are good and responsible breeders, in my opinion, and I'm not the only one who thinks this. The good breeders work to breed puppies that have good health and good personalities. Their puppies are usually raised in their homes, and quite often in their own bedrooms. Responsible breeders usually have waiting lists of people who want their puppies, for they are not interested in producing unwanted puppies.

People who want great puppies from those kinds of breeders are entitled to make that choice. Many of them also have dogs adopted from shelters or rescues, but again, that is their choice.

So now back to the state crackdown on unsatisfactory kennels. Many people undoubtedly will be disappointed by the size of Mr. Esh's fine. Many will be disappointed that he is still in business.

At least the state is trying, here.

Don't look to the state to put unsatisfactory kennels out of business. You have the power to shut down puppymillers, or whatever tern you choose to use.

Don't buy puppies from large-scale commercial breeders. Don't buy puppies sight unseen off the Internet. Don't buy puppies from pet stores because virtually all of them come from large-scale breeding kennels.

Eliminate the demand for these puppies, and the supply with dry up.