There could soon be less accountability for puppy mills across the state, if a new budget-cutting bill is passed.

It's an industry where abuse of rules many times means abuse of animals. And Legislative Bill 6, introduced by Senator Tom Carlson of Holdrege to save just under $200,000, would limit dog and cat breeding facilities to complaint-only inspections - a method many say is unreliable.

"Is this something we'd like to do? No. But we're kind of acting like surgeons back here because we have to have a balanced budget and we're looking for areas we could change for a temporary period of time," Carlson said.

Carlson proposed the bill last week, which he says would save approximately $182,000 over the next 18 months. But Executive Director of the Captial Humane Society Bob Downey says it will cost much more down the road to fix the inevitable problems to follow.

"Several years ago when additional funding was given to the commercial dog and cat inspection program, a lot of good things happened. Mandatory inspections of facilities at least once every two years that are licensed, so that people with knowledge about what's going on in there can see that things aren't necessarily going well," Downey said.

Senator Tony Fulton of Lincoln has worked in the past to make kennel inspections mandatory, and says a complaint-driven inspection process just won't cut it.

"The bill was well-intentioned and perhaps it's necessary in the end, but I'm going to be working within the budgetary process to ensure that what we did in the last budget is protected, because I've spent three years on this issue and I have some knowledge that there is some need there," Fulton said.

A need Carlson says he doesn't want to ignore, just prioritize.

"We've authorized the expenditure of funds in the first place, hopefully for good reason, but if it comes down to money spent on people or money spent on animals, I'm afraid I'll go with people," Carlson said.

But for those animals, who don't have a voice, Downey stresses the state is still responsible.

"I don't put people not being cared for over animals not being cared for, but society is a balance of caring for everything that is alive and I think we have that responsibility," Downey said.

Since the legislation requiring inspections of the breeding facilities was passed in 2007, Senator Carlson says the number of inspections of breeding facilities has gone up from about 130 a year to 700 to 900 a year, shutting down more than 30 offending operations.

If you want your opinion heard, L.B. 6 is fourth on the agenda for the public hearings at the State Capitol Building to start Monday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.

To hear more from Senator Fulton on what to expect this week in the Legislature, just click on the video links above.