RICHMOND -- A Senate committee delayed action Monday on two animal welfare bills until next week.

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources delayed votes on bills to strengthen regulations of commercial dog-breeding operations and to increase penalties for animal fighting.

House Bill 538 targets "puppy mills" and would limit the number of adult dogs and puppies a breeding operation can maintain. It also would establish licensing and inspection provisions.

The bill was filed largely in response to a 2007 fire at a Bland County kennel that killed nearly 200 dogs. A subsequent investigation by the Humane Society of the United States detailed unsafe conditions and practices at several large dog-breeding operations in the state.

The bill's sponsor, Del. Bobby Orrock, R-Caroline County, said the bill's intent is not to ban large-scale breeders but to "put them in a regulatory framework."

Opponents, however, argue that the restrictions and new regulations are overkill.

"This bill will put large- to medium-sized commercial breeders out of business," said Alice Harrington of the Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders.

She said the new regulations would be "onerous" and drive breeders underground, to become "puppy moonshiners."

Senators eventually decided they needed to look at federal breeder regulations more closely before making a decision on what to do with state law. The bill will be back up next week.

The committee, meanwhile, held off entirely on discussion of legislation to toughen penalties for those who engage in the fighting of dogs, game fowl and other animals.

House Bill 656 would broaden the Class 6 felony applied to dogfighting to other animals as well. The bills would make attendance at an animal fight a Class 1 misdemeanor and give law enforcement officials additional tools to conduct warranted searches.

The Senate passed its version of the bill on a unanimous vote earlier this month. House bill sponsor Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said work is still being done on the bill.

Both bills will be heard by the committee Monday.

-- Mason Adams

House committee won't revive redistricting bill

A House of Delegates committee voted again Monday against reviving a bill that would reform Virginia's process for drawing General Assembly and congressional districts.

The House Privileges and Elections Committee voted 13-7 against a motion to revive Senate Bill 38, which was killed Friday by a five-member subcommittee. The bill would create a seven-member bipartisan redistricting commission to draw boundaries for Virginia's state and federal legislative districts, but would still allow the General Assembly to change the commission's plan.

The full committee on Friday voted down a motion to bring the bill up for debate, but the meeting was adjourned before Democrats could get a roll call vote on the motion. Del. Jim Scott, D-Fairfax County, was left shouting for a roll call vote as committee members left the room.

Del. Mark Cole, R-Fredericksburg, called a Monday meeting to hold the roll call vote, which broke largely along party lines. Del. Johnny Joannou of Portsmouth was the only Democrat who opposed the motion to bring the bill to the full committee.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, passed the Senate earlier this month by a vote of 33-5. The bill had the backing of Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican. But, on a 3-2 vote, a House Privileges and Elections subcommittee killed the bill in an early-morning meeting Friday.

House rules allow members of the full committee to ask to bring up a bill that has been killed by a subcommittee, but a majority on the full committee must support the request.

-- Michael Sluss