Maryland Considers Pet Store Dog Bans
A bill that would prohibit retail pet stores in Maryland from selling dogs younger than 9 months was tabled in a February committee hearing pending further review.
Under Senate Bill 505, pet stores would not be able to display, sell, deliver, offer for sale or adoption, barter, auction, give away or transfer or dispose of a dog less than 9 months old.
Pet stores that violated the ban would face a $500 fine for a first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
The bill would exempt breeders who sell directly to the public, humane societies and nonprofit animal adoption organizations. Adoption events operated by a humane society or nonprofit adoption agency in connection with a retail pet store would be permitted.
The 9-month age limit is not justified by any science-based criteria and would do nothing more than shift the market for puppies from pet stores to shelters, according to the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (Washington), which testified against the bill in a February hearing.
The bill’s advocates, including sponsor Sen. Lisa Gladden, claim the bill is needed to dry up demand for dogs from “puppy mills.”
A similar rationale was given for a West Hollywood, Calif., ordinance prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores that took effect in March. “This ordinance represents an important step toward ridding our nation of the cruelty of puppy mills and other commercial assembly-line animal breeders,” Councilmember Jeffrey Prang said in a statement.
The West Hollywood ordinance provides exemptions for “humanely bred, reared or sheltered animals.”
Although the ordinance provides that existing pet stores may continue to sell cats and dogs until September, none of the four pet stores in West Hollywood currently sell the animals, according to Michael Haibach, Prang’s deputy. “The ordinance is symbolic and is to prevent any future stores from selling cats and dogs,” he said.
South Lake Tahoe, Calif., passed a similar law in 2009, and Bernalillo County in New Mexico adopted a ban on dog and cat sales in pet stores in 2008. [April 2010 PET AGE]
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