Editorial: State needs better watch on pet store puppy sales
With the pandemic allowing many of us greater time at home, more have taken the opportunity to expand their families with the addition of a dog or cat. Last July, The Washington Post reported, shelters, nonprofit rescue operations, private breeders and pet stores were seeing more demand than there were dogs and puppies available; some shelters had dozens of applications for the same dog and some breeders were reporting wait lists into this year.
That demand also has increased the opportunity for less reputable breeders — puppy mills and kitten factories across the country — to take advantage of the situation, creating consumer protection issues for potential owners and concerns for the health and welfare of animals.
And it’s revived an effort in the state Legislature to bar the sale of cats and dogs by pet stores in the state, an attempt to sever the link between consumers and puppy mills where lax oversight by state and federal regulators have often allowed less-reputable breeders to thrive, those keeping animals in crowded and poorly equipped facilities that result in disease, health problems and death.
Proposed by state Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, at the urging of two Bellevue teens and Humane Society interns, House Bill 1424 initially would have banned the sale of cats and kittens by pet stores and would have limited pet stores’ sales of dogs and puppies. Over the course of the session, the bill has been scaled back; cat and kitten sales would be prohibited, but sales of dogs and puppies could continue without restrictions for those stores that offer sales of dogs at the time the law would take effect, effectively a moratorium. According to testimony during public hearings on the legislation, there are only six or seven pet stores currently offering sales of dogs, five of them in Western Washington.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-state-needs-better-watch-on-pet-store-puppy-sales/
