Hillsborough County passed a ban in ’17, but allowed 3 stores. Today they said, “Shut them all down!”

Back in May of 2017, Hillsborough County said “no more” to puppy stores, but grandfathered the three puppy stores in. Which in our eyes is no ban, of course.

But the puppy mill paradigm reared its ugly head last September when 300 puppy mill dogs had to be rescued in Hillsborough County in deplorable condition.

Who let the dogs out? Hillsborough County says puppy mill rescues now ready for adoption

More than 300 dogs were rescued in mid-September from terrible conditions inside a Valrico puppy mill. They will be put up for adoption in a few weeks.

These are four of the puppies rescued from a puppy mill in Valrico as they wait to be checked by veterinary staff at the Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center. More than 300 small-breed dogs were rescued in September and will soon be put up for adoption. [MARTHA ASENCIO-RHINE | Times]

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Just like Reno’s errant puppy store’s Grand Jury indictment got Reno to entertain a ban in earnest once again, so to the terrible ways of the puppy mills and the stores that sell them (all retail stores, as you should know by now) always seem to inflame animal rights and consumer protection activists to get bans passed in their cities, counties, states and even entires countries.

We track jurisdictions that have passed strong restrictions rather than full bans because we believe their inherent flaws will eventually lead to full bans being passed. This is a great example of why jurisdictions should just pass a full ban, no grandfathering and be done with the whole hot mess.

Dog and cat retailers banned in Hillsborough, commission rules

The change prohibits all commercial cat and dog sales in the county, which could force Hillsborough’s three remaining pet shops out of business.

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Olympia WA tells new puppy store: No Thank You!

Just weeks after puppy store Puppy World opened in Olympia Washington, activist and veterinarian council member Lisa Parshley led the charge at the city council which passed a ban unanimously in a first reading on 2/11/20.

Council Member and Veterinarian Lisa Parshley

Puppy World is part of a small, but clearly interested in expanding, franchise called PuppyLand which operates in Puyallup, WA; Olympia, WA (but only until amortization expires next September); and Meridian, Idaho.

This passage brings the count to 7 bans in Washington.

One wonders if activists in neighboring Oregon just don’t care…. They are the only state on the west coast to not have a single ban anywhere in the state.

To be fair, the state legislature entertained a state-wide ban in the 2018 session, but without a single town or city making a statement, it’s hard to get states to sign on.

See all 23 states without a single local ban.

Jurisdictions with puppy stores in them when bans were passed has now increased to 72. Two in a row now with the fantastic news from Naperville, Illinois, whose ban passed 1/2020 after 6 years of fighting to get it done.

Legend for our GOOGLE MAP OF INTERNATIONAL BANS & RESTRICTIONS.

Maine’s Convoluted Path to Statewide Ban

Maine is the third state In the US to ban puppy mill sales. Fourth in the world after the Australian state of Victoria.

The state allows puppy mill stores that were in operation in May 2019 to continue, but they cannot expand past the number of sales per year of the 2019 level.

Not many puppy stores in Maine. There’s this nightmare, but hopefully the only one. And perhaps protestors will shame them into closing.

LePage Both houses of Maine’s legislature passed a bill prohibiting the sales of dogs and cats in 2015 while evil Governor Paul LePage sat on the Governor’s chair.

Had he signed the bill or passed it into law without signing, Maine’s would have been the first statewide ban in the world: the first in the US by 2 years (CA passed in late 2017) and beating out the first statewide ban in the world by a few months: Victoria, Australia, passed in the closing days of 2017.

Governors typically have 4 ways of dealing with a bill:

Sign it into law
Pass it into law without signing it
Do nothing: do not sign and do not pass into law (next Gov could sign)
Veto, effectively killing the bill

Monster Governor, Paul LePage, chose Door #3 and the bill languished.

Chrisie Oh so reminiscent of (twin brother?) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie choosing Door #4 for his state even after an overwhelming passage in both houses in March of 2017.

In November 2019, a new Governor was elected by the good people of Maine. Gov. Janet Mills also sat on this and many other “no action” bills on her brand new desk for a full year until January 12, 2020, when she opted for Door #2: move the bill to law.

Gov. Janet Mills did not sign the bill, effectively saying she didn’t necessarily approve of the bill, but since it passed both houses she thought it should become public law.

Another blue state!

Other states are doing the same.

Read about them in Landslide of Statewide Bans if OR, CO, WI, MA, PA, ME, & NY Pass Pending Bills

Fairplay, CO: Ordinance 1, First of 2020

Fairplay, Colorado started the new year off right with the first known ban of the new decade, passed 1/6/2020.

Fairplay is a small town and the ordinance passed easily from an activist asking the council to do it last December. They said “Sure!” and here it is, signed, sealed and delivered. Would that all jurisdictions would go so smoothly.

Wales steps up the pace after BBC doc exposes more animal cruelty at Welsh puppy farms

The current flurry of bans across the UK was triggered by the condition of Lucy, a badly disfigured breeding female uncovered in a Welsh puppy mill.

Changing legislation is not a quick process, and nor should it be. The correct procedures must be followed to ensure the development of sound, evidence-based, proportionate legislation aimed directly at optimising standards of animal welfare and encouraging responsible animal ownership.
I have already committed to reviewing the Animal Welfare (Breeding of Dogs)(Wales) Regulations 2014 and also made clear the value I see in banning third party sales of puppies and kittens if a ban could deliver the health and welfare standards I wish to see in Wales. Further urgent action is needed and the following actions have been undertaken this week:
CABINET WRITTEN STATEMENT: Dog Breeding in Wales

The BBC Wales Investigates documentary, “Inside the UK’s Puppy Farm Capital“ and accompanying clip “Wyre Davies is on the trail of the people behind the multi-million pound puppy industry” is a blistering video essay on the horrors of puppy farms, mills or large-scale breeding ops, however you wish to call the despicable practice.

BBC Wales Investigates the people behind the multimillion-pound puppy industry. New owners can spend thousands of pounds on dogs, but what’s really going on inside licenced premises? Wyre Davies confronts the breeders, inspectors and vets who should be policing the trade.
BBC Wales Investigates

First year since 2016 where bans will be higher than previous year.

Nearly all years since the breakthrough 2009 passage in South Lake Tahoe that started the movement have had a higher number of bans than the previous year with exceptions in 2011, ’17 & ’18.

2019 broke that trend when Dillon, Colorado passed the 41st ban of 2019, besting 2018’s count by 1. Since, 2 more bans have rolled in before the holiday break.

As Many Bans As There Are Days in the Year

December 10, 2019 — Metuchen, New Jersey, passes the world’s 365^th ban.

Average bans per year just bumped to 33

We track average bans per year since the first activist ban targeting a puppy store was passed by the hard work of Dawn Armstrong, then Executive Director of South Lake Tahoe Humane Society, which no longer exists. ¹

Dawn and the whole community were disgusted by the puppy store there, Brock’s Pups, run by the Franks family, grandfather and grandson, who also owned Lil’ Pups in Carson City and Pets R Us in Meadowood Mall, Reno.

The day Dawn got the ordinance passed, the language of which is still largely in use to this day, the Franks were lead out of Brocks’ Pups in handcuffs for 1). Drug trafficking to minors for which ol’ man Franks was sent up the river for 6 years; and, 2). Parole violations.

Since that fateful day that started a movement, 364 bans have been passed in total, 41 have been passed in 2019, which just bested the previous year, and our average bans per year popped from 32 to 33.

We do have to note, however, we’re only at 40% of the bans passed in the single year 2016 and at just over 10% of the total bans passed. And so far, with the clock ticking to the end of the year, no statewide bans have yet been passed in 2019.

Good news, though: one COUNTRYWIDE ban passed this year, in England, with 2 more on the way in Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland may join soon, though no action has yet been taken.

¹ Dawn Armstrong told us in 2013 when we interviewed her at the start of Puppy Mill Free Reno and our tracking sites Puppy Mill Free US and End Puppy Mills World, that she was able to retire in peace and tranquility now that her work was being duplicated not only all over her home state of California, but was finding passage throughout the US and into Canada.

When Ms. Armstrong left in 2013, Niki Congero was hired as Executive Director. We spoke with her on several occasions regarding animal welfare issues at the lake, but didn’t get a satisfactory response.

Three years later, news broke that Congero had been arrested for embezzlement of the South Lake Tahoe Humane Society, by running up charges to the limit of the credit line of the non-profit. That limit was $60,000. Much of it went to personal expenses, included a gambling jones for which the SLTHS footed the bill.

The organization was not able to recover. The Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe, a merger in and of itself, absorbed the SLT HS and now runs shelters all around the lake and the nearby High Sierra town of Truckee, California; which, by the way, passed the 124^th ban in February 2016.

The first puppy store ban was in 2006, right? Buzzer. Try 1952.

Re-examing puppy mill ban numbers/history

Activists in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have long been honored for having the cajones to pass the first ban on puppy and kitten store sales in the world in 2006.

South Lake Tahoe, California, activist Dawn Armstrong of the local humane society, started a movement when the language used in the 2nd ban in the US was repeated throughout the country and still is to this day with the city name as fill in the blank:

6.55.350 Retail sale of dogs and cats in pet stores prohibited.
…
C. Prohibition. No pet store operator or pet store shall display, sell, deliver, offer for sale or adoption, barter, auction, give away, or otherwise dispose of cats or dogs in the city of South Lake Tahoe.
Municipal code: https://bit.ly/2w7PVrf

But after another exhaustive round of puppy store bans research, we or saying to ourselves, “Not so fast….”

When I first started this project in 2013, I counted jurisdictions in Florida that had previously passed bans. Not able to find the year they had done so, I lumped them in with 2011. Turns out 4 of those villages and townships passed a ban long ago. Way long ago. 1952 long ago. 67 years ago.

§ 91.11 – Keeping dogs for commercial purposes prohibited; exception.

It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association, or corporation to house or keep dogs for commercial purposes in the Village other than a licensed veterinary doctor which such doctor has dogs in his custody and control solely for the purpose of providing them with medical care and attention.
(1964 Code, § 4-2; Ord. 69, passed 7-17-52)
Municipal code: http://bit.ly/1LDXDtm

Boom. Bingo. End of discussion.

And, frankly, that shouldn’t be too surprising. Many changes at the USDA were underway and to this day still brick-up the foundation of farming, animal husbandry and slaughter.

World War II’s massive deployment of US troops into numerous war zones in Europe, Africa and the Eastern Hemisphere—the vast Japanese theater stretched from The Philippines through Burma and included bombings as far south as Townsville, Australia. But, suddenly, the war was over and the time came apace to bring the thousands of people involved in the war effort back home: the veterans of combat, the medics, the admins, the the service sector preparing food, clothing, shelter for the troops and admins, the mechanics of planes, trucks, ships, the ordinance keepers, the navigators and radio operators, indeed even the Code Talkers were on their way back to their hometowns en masse. Many US agencies stepped up to find work for those returning who did not have a career or family business to return to.

Farmers needed help. Single gentlemen returning might be interested in helping out on a farm. Or a ranch. Or a puppy mill.

That’s right, puppy mills were going strong after the war. The US economy was booming, as were babies, and returning soldiers saw farming as an opportunity to work with animals out in the country. A quiet life after the carnage in which many had been ensconced. For some, a tranquil life among animals was just what they wanted.

It is no surprise that as early as 1952, seven years after the great return, some communities might feel the need to curb a store when there were likely plenty of pups to go around anyway. Or perhaps there was some other now hidden reason why a handful of cities in Florida felt the need to curb dog purchasing.

Enter North Bay Village, Florida, which, on 7/17/1952, passed Ordinance #69:

§ 91.11 – Keeping dogs for commercial purposes prohibited; exception.

It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association, or corporation to house or keep dogs for commercial purposes in the Village other than a licensed veterinary doctor which such doctor has dogs in his custody and control solely for the purpose of providing them with medical care and attention.
(1964 Code, § 4-2; Ord. 69, passed 7-17-52)
Municipal code: http://bit.ly/1LDXDtm

Opa-Locka followed suit in May of 1955, as did Lauderdale Lakes in the spring 1963.

Flagler Beach, Florida, outlawed all animal sales at Christmas 2002.

Coral Gables did this in September 2005:

Sec. 10-38. – Keeping dogs commercially prohibited.

It shall be unlawful for any person to keep dogs for commercial purposes in the city other than a licensed veterinary doctor when such doctor has dogs in his or her custody and control solely for the purpose of providing medical care and attention.
Municipal code

That leads us to our most current “Bans By Year” graph where we lump the above ordinances into a single span of years, 1952-2005

New Jersey Code Sweep

We’ve completed linking every jurisdiction to their online municipal code in New Jersey, the final state in our online municipal code linkage project.

Now that NJ is complete, we hold an unarguably definitive count of retail sales bans of various animals as site guests are able to link directly to local, state or province, or national legislation. It also means we have read every ordinance on the books and noted various details in our blog, in the jurisdictions pop-ups of our Google Map and our signature Jurisdictions roster.

Casualties

Westville

Though we see a copy of a 2015 ordinance on an unrelated non-governmental site, there is no mention of the restrictions anywhere in Westville’s online codebase, which “Includes legislation adopted through 06-13-2018.” There is nothing under New Laws, Notes, Legislation or Public Documents.

Union City

While we see an unsigned, undated, unassigned (no ordinance number) ordinance draft on a non-governmental site, we cannot find the ordinance anywhere else online. Union City online code “Includes legislation adopted through 04-05-2016.” The draft ordinance is purported to have been enacted in July 2016.

Their website points to this roster of 2016 ordinances that span from February to December. An Animal Code update for pet sales provisions is not included.

Is it Springfield or is it Springfield?

Neither fit the bill

Whether in Burlington or Union county, neither codebase includes the ordinance.

Union County’s Springfield code is only updated through December 31, 2015. The code does have a December 2017 Animal Code update, but it’s a prohibition of dogs in public buildings and nothing else. If the ordinance had passed in this time period, it would be seen nearby.

The Burlington County Springfield code base only Includes legislation adopted through 09-11-2013, but, the 12 documents in the New Laws section does not include the unsigned, undated ordinance draft we see on a non-governmental site, cited as Ordinance 2017-12. The updates cut off at 2017-08, so it’s impossible to confirm if the code as in effect.

Shamong

Shamong, NJ’s, code Includes legislation adopted through 12-04-2018. But there’s no retail sales prohibition on their books and nothing in their “New Laws” section.

Stays

Counties

Many counties in New Jersey do not have jurisdiction over business licensing or animal control. We count them nonetheless as they contain the following language in their resolutions, such as Mercer County’s Resolution 2015-550

Restrictions on the Sale of Animals

1A. A pet shop may only offer for sale those dogs and cats that the pet shop has obtained from or displays in cooperation with:
a). An animal care facility; or
b). An animal rescue organization
County web page, FREEHOLDER UNANIMOUSLY PASS ANTI PUPPY MILL RESOLUTION

New Jersey counties are indicated in our jurisdiction roster with a †.

Deptford

Some organizations do not count Deptford as they enforcement of the resolution goes to the local county, but this language leaves us counting them in. Their intent is clear:

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Governing Body, in the Township of Deptford, County of Gloucester, State of New Jersey that pet shops in the Township of Deptford are prohibited from selling dogs or cats unless they obtain such dogs or cats from animal shelters or animal rescue organizations;
Resolution

Upon adoption by Ordinance of the Township of Deptford, in the County of Gloucester, enforcement of such ordinance shall be provided through the Department of Health & Human Services

Deptford has been added to our Resolutions of Support column for this language:

The Governing Body of the Township of Deptford, County of Gloucester, and State of New Jersey, hereby supports and urges the Gloucester County Municipalities, the New Jersey State Assembly, the members of the New Jersey Senate, the Governor of the State of New Jersey, and the New Jersey State League of Municipalities to approve and pass the bill for the reasons expressed herein

Formerly Pending Deletion

Bellmawr

UPDATE, 1/31/2020: Bellmawr has posted 12:14-15 under New Laws. It stays.

Bellmawr council passed ordinance #12:14-15, first reading December of 2015, second, January 2016, directing an ordinance change at Chapter 137, Article V. The code base notes it has been updated through 2018, but the ordinance language is not included in the codification. No laws are indicated as pending. So why isn’t the code updated? A search for various keywords from the ordinance abstract do not find it inserted anywhere else.

Equally puzzling is the absence of Ordinance #12:14-15 which is not listed for ordinances in 2015 or 2016.

We’re keeping Bellmawr in due to verification of the second reading which makes an ordinance a formal law, but may delete if the code base isn’t updated by the end of the first month of next year, 31 January 2020.

Lastly, Alas…

Tavistock Country Club

Sadly, we’re removing Tavistock Country Club’s 9/2016 resolution from our count. It was always an outlier, but our argument was that apparently a board resolution was agendized and voted favorably on; Golf courses have pro shops and making sure dogs and cats aren’t sold there was neither infeasible nor frivolous; and we like to honor anytime activists’ hard work result in passage.

But, we don’t have access to the private club’s Board of Directors minutes, and therefore can’t verify the resolution online. That breaks our own rules of verification, so off it goes.

If we are ever able to view the resolution, we’ll pop it back up.