I want to thank you again for helping me with this topic.
I'm afraid contacting local humane groups hasn't helped much.  They
are aware of the problem, but seem unable to do anything about it.  I
understand that they are overloaded with cases, but I'm not satisfyied
leaving it at that.  I have contacted our local news crews as well, so
time will tell what comes of that.
My last course of action will be to try to change things legally,
hence these questions.
I want to try to get local or state lawmakers to think about making it
illegal for people to sell animals off the side of the road (read city
property) without a permit or some other such legal paper.  I know
next to nothing about legal issues, but with the proper knowledge I am
willing to go all the way to city hall or the capitol with it.  So my
questions are these:
Is such a law feasible (meaning it is a law with a possibility of passing)?
Would it be a city (Houston) or state (Texas) issue?
Many of these individuals are selling on the highway right outside of
a "flea market".  How can I work the law to make it more difficult for
casual animal selling to occur there?
Lastly, can you point me to a good site that tells step by step how to
go about doing this?
Other than appealing to the animal welfare issue, I will also remind
lawmakers how easily people can be scammed by these "deals", thus
appealing to business ethics as well.
I would deeply appreciate any hints you could give me.  Thanks again.

Thank you for asking for me! I wish I had more to offer, but pet
rescue is a highly localized kind of thing. I am based in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and I have no ties to organizations in Houston.

Here are some links to articles about puppy mills that I hope will be
of some use to you:

Puppy Mill Fighters
http://www.puppymillfighters.com/

Puppymills: What You Can Do
http://www.turner.com/planet/promotions/puppies/help.html

Help Puppies: Pet Stores and Puppy Mills
http://www.helppuppies.com/pmill.html

CritterHaven: Puppy Mills - help us stop them.. NOW!
http://www.critterhaven.org/puppy_mills.htm

DORG: Puppy Mills: What They Are and What You Can Do About Them
http://www.dachshund.org/puppymills.html

The Petition Site: Help Stop Puppy Mills!!! 
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/280310085?ts=1095896224

Houston Stop Puppy Mills Meetup Group
http://stoppuppymills.meetup.com/26/

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: stop OR stopping puppy mills
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22stop+OR+stopping+puppy+mills

Google Web Search: "puppy mills" "what you can do"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22puppy+mills%22+%22what+you+can+do

Bless you for giving the animals a voice.

Best wishes,
Pink

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 27 Sep 2004 13:46 PDT

I recently came across this article about pet rescue in Houston:

About Houston: Pet Rescue in Houston
http://houston.about.com/cs/pets/a/aa101901.htm

~Pink

Thanks for at least looking at this.  It puts me a few steps ahead of
where I was.  I've never done something like this before, and this as
given me some food for thought.

Wolfenheart,

Thank you for requesting my services in this matter, but I think it
would be better if you posted several separate questions on GA so that
other Researchers with more expertise in legal matters can help.
Although I am an animal-lover, I know very little about Texas law.

One thing occurs to me: in my area, quite a bit of legal activism is
conducted through local animal rescue organizations. You might want to
investigate that angle.

Here's an online list of such groups:

http://people.txucom.net/window/shelters.htm

Best regards,
pinkfreud

You might want to contact some state legislators to voice your
concerns over puppy mills. Here's a list that should be helpful:

http://tspca.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Dog_Rescue_June

Dear Pink, thank you for your advice and links.  I appologize for not
writing back sooner.  Even though you felt unable to answer my
questions, I would at least like to pay you for your time.  If you
post anything as an answer, I will do so.

Thank you very much for the five stars and the nice tip!

~Pink