In May we told you about a proposed ordinance in San Diego, Calif., to ban the commercial sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores. This July, San Diego City Council voted unanimously passing the ordinance and making San Diego the 32nd North American city to prohibit retail stores to commercially sell these innocent animals.
This is a victory for shelters and rescue organizations. The approved ordinance now requires pet retailers to get their rabbits, kittens and dogs from nonprofit rescue groups, humane societies and city or county animal shelters. The ordinance promotes pet adoption and gives authorities a better chance at fighting puppy mills. The ban takes effect August 2013.
According to pet store owners present in the court house when the ban was approved, this will only punish the legally-run and regulated shops. All other suppliers will continue to use the Black Market to sell and profit from these animals.
“This has got to stop. This movement of accusing every single breeder having pet stores as puppy mills is absolutely ridiculous,” David Salinas of San Diego Puppy Inc. told NBC Sand Diego.
Sydney Cicourel of the Companion Animal Protection Society believes the ban is beneficial to many animals, especially puppy mill pets.
“These animals live their entire lives in small cages. They never touch the ground, they never have a name, never have a toy,” said Cicourel.
Other cities that have approved this ban are Aliso Viejo, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Burbank, Huntington Beach, Los Angeles, and West Hollywood. We can only hope that all U.S. cities join San Diego and there could be a nation-wide ban on retail sale of pets.
