With this new piece of legislation on the books, the state hopes to make progress toward ending the support for the inhumane puppy mill industry in the state.
In 2017, California was the first state to take legislative action to ban
the practice of puppy and kitten mills. These operations are generally
large-scale commercial breeding facilities designed to sell animals for
profit. The animals are kept in are wildly unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
To produce the maximum amount of puppies and kittens to sell, female animals
are impregnated several times a year. Kept in rusted metal crates, these
animals often do not see the light of the day. Once the breeding animals
cease to be “useful” to the mills, they are usually either abandoned or
killed. Puppy and kitten mills can also harbor dangerous diseases that
spread at these facilities and infect the animals. While disease can run
rampant at puppy/kitten mills, the animals generally lack adequate—or
any—veterinary care. The breeders also proliferate unhealthy hereditary
conditions in the animals they sell, often passing over to the new pet
owners an animal that will cost thousands of dollars in veterinary care.
There are around 10,000 puppy mills in operation in the United States, and
over two million puppies from these mills are sold each year.
California’s AB 485 made it illegal for any pet store operators to sell any
dog, cat, or rabbit unless the animal was obtained from a shelter or rescue
organization. Maryland enacted a similar law in 2018 and New York passed a
bill to end the retail sale of pets on July 21 of 2020, which was,
appropriately, National No Pet Store Puppies Day. Other cities around the
country have passed bans on the retail sale of pets, such as Boston,
Philadelphia, and Cook County in Chicago. While individual states and cities
are taking action, the federal government has failed to take any meaningful
action to end the suffering of animals in these puppy/kitten mills. The
Animal Welfare Act is the federal legislation designed to regulate animal
breeders, but these protections are so minimal and so under-enforced,
commercial breeders can continue their inhumane practices essentially
unchecked.
In California, breeders and business owners opposed AB 485 on several
grounds. First, these groups argue that rescue and shelter dogs are
unregulated—that these shelter dogs come from potentially inhumane and
unregulated locations and can harbor zoonotic disease, unlike dogs from
inspected and licensed breeders. Second, these groups argue that this bill
takes away consumer choice. They claim that consumers may be looking for a
particular breed and will be forced to look for dogs in unsafe and
unregulated markets. The law is “push[ing] rescue animals on customers who
never asked for them.” These complaints are baseless. As previously
mentioned, the conditions animals are kept in at puppy mills are horrifying,
and laws designed to protect these animals are under-enforced. Additionally,
retail pet sale bans don’t impact small, “hobby” breeders, who generally
work directly with potential pet owners to ensure their animals will be
placed in safe and loving homes. Pet owners who don’t want a shelter animal
“forced” upon them can still seek out designer or pure-bred animals from
these avenues.
Unfortunately, California’s AB 485 was not as successful as its supporters
had hoped, as pet store owners in California found a loophole in the law. An
undercover exposé revealed that several puppy mill operations in the Midwest
organized 501(c)(3) non-profit “shelters” in order to sell their puppies to
California pet stores as “shelter” puppies. These stores tricked consumers
into believing they adopted shelter dogs, while charging thousands of
dollars per dog as “adoption fees,” all while keeping puppy mills
operational.
To address this loophole, California Assembly members Gloria (D), O’Donnell
(D), Bloom (D), Chiu (D), Boerner Horvath (D), and Waldron (R) sponsored AB
2152. This bill, known as Bella’s Act, proposed to prohibit the retail sale
of all dogs, cats, and rabbits in California. Instead, pet stores would be
able to provide a space for a public animal control agency, rescue group, or
shelter to “showcase” their adoptable animals. This Act also requires that
the animals displayed for adoption be sterilized and requires the adoption
fees not exceed $500. The Act was named for a corgi named Bella, who was
bred in a puppy mill and sold for thousands of dollars as a “rescue” in San
Diego. Bella experienced several health issues that required thousands of
dollars of treatment.
This Act was a product of the collaboration between several animal welfare
organizations, including the San Diego Humane Society, Best Friends, the
ASPCA, and the Humane Society of the United States, among others. Assembly
member Todd Gloria, a known champion of animal issues, introduced the bill
and advocated for it in the most trying of circumstances—during the COVID-19
pandemic, where most every non-essential bill was sidelined in order to
address immediate, pandemic-related needs. However, this bill proved
relevant to the state’s health and welfare, as phony rescue groups were
bringing potentially sick animals in from across state borders and exposing
Californians to transmittable viruses. Due to the incredible effort of these
groups, this bill was signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 18,
2020, and became effective on January 1, 2021. With this new piece of
legislation on the books, the state hopes to make progress toward ending the
support for the inhumane puppy mill industry in the state.
Return to Companion Animal Care