Several States Move to Ban Sales of Pets in Stores

HOW MUCH IS THAT DOGGIE in the window? That question may become just an old song title instead of a hopeful customer inquiry, if a trend continues against selling certain animals in pet stores.

Maryland recently became the second state to ban retail pet stores from selling puppies and kittens, a move supporters of the legislation say will help discourage “puppy mills” that breed dogs in inhumane conditions and euthanize the animals when they are no longer able to breed. The law follows a similar one passed last year in California, though the Golden State will allow shops to sell cats, dogs and rabbits that came from shelters and rescue centers.

More than 250 municipalities have imposed their own bans or restrictions on pet sales and breeders. This fall, Ohio voters will decide whether to approve a statewide referendum that would require commercial breeders to meet prescribed standards of animal care and treatment, and would prohibit breeders and sellers – wherever they are located – from peddling pets to Ohio consumers unless those humane standards are met. And state lawmakers in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are working on their own legislation to ban puppy- and kitten-mill pet sales or encourage municipalities to do so.

“They say the values of a society can be judged by how it treats its animals. It’s a poor statement about us” that puppy and kitten mills continue to exist, says New York state Sen. Michael Gianaris, a Democrat, whose bill would allow pet stores to offer shelter and rescue animals for adoption, and not for sale. Gianaris – who has two rescue cats – says reputable breeders are OK, but “it’s the mass production of animals for sale we’re trying to prevent.”

Maryland already had rules in place that required pet stores to disclose information about breeders and to reject for sale any animal from a breeder that received a citation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the previous two years. But critics said the law was toothless – partly because federal regulations, they say, are insufficient (a breeding dog’s cage can be just 6 inches wider than the dog’s mass), and partly because enforcement is lax. A Humane Society of the United States investigation in 2013 found many stores selling puppies in Maryland were not complying with the disclosure law.

That led Maryland Del. Benjamin Kramer, a Democrat who has a rescue Doberman, to author more stringent legislation banning the sale of dogs and cats at pet stores outright. The law was signed this week by Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican and dog lover whose beloved Shih Tzu died last year.

“In order to starve the [pet mill] industry, we have to cut off sales at pet stores of puppies and kittens,” Kramer says. “Our companion animals have evolved with humans for thousands of years. Dogs have the same chemical releases in their brains we associate with love. We know they experience pain and fear. That’s all they know in those horrific puppy mills. It’s a barbaric institution that has no place in the 21st century.”

Pet shops, meanwhile, say it’s unfair to penalize an entire industry for what some bad players are doing. The Ohio-based animal retailer Petland, for example, supports the Buckeye State’s ballot initiative to require stricter standards – including veterinary care, nutritious food and water, socialization and exercise – for animals bred for sale, spokeswoman Elizabeth Kunzelman says.

“Unfortunately, misguided pet bans are eroding the only regulated and inspected source for pets. The ordinances ban the sale of pets from breeders who are licensed, regulated and inspected by the USDA in favor of rescues, shelters, and internet sellers, many of which are buying directly from the same breeders,” Kunzelman says. Pet lovers, she says, “have a right to choose the type of pet they want and where they want to find it, whether it be a shelter, a rescue, or a pet store who buys from licensed, inspected breeders.”

The pet store lobby is fighting back, winning passage of legislation in Arizona and Ohio that pre-empts municipalities from passing their own bans on commercial pet sales at stores. In a half dozen other states – Illinois, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Missouri – legislative efforts to defang municipal bans were attempted and failed, says John Goodwin, senior director of the Stop Puppy Mills Campaign of the Humane Society.

Some of the efforts have been sneaky, Goodwin says, with the emotionally loaded words like “puppy mills” or even “pets” not mentioned in the legislation. Lawmakers in Florida, for example, tried to attach language to a tax bill that would have prohibited localities from banning the sale of taxable personal property that may be lawfully sold in the state. Once animal rights activists noted the language, the effort failed.

While pet shops note that just a small portion of companion animals are bought at the stores, they are “a major outlet for puppy mills, along with Internet sales and flea markets,” Goodwin says. As for pet lovers who want a certain breed – for example, asthmatics who want a hypoallergenic dog – “when you look at all of the shelters and those from responsible breeders, there are plenty of places to get dogs,” he says.

Gianaris is hopeful his puppy- and kitten-mill bill will garner enough support for passage. “The good news about this is that there are animal lovers on both sides of the aisle,” the New York City lawmaker says.

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