KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Retail pet stores in California will only be able to sell kittens, rabbits and puppies if they come from a rescue organization after a new state law goes into effect Tuesday, possibly affecting Santa Clarita residents.
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California officials originally signed AB 485 in October 2017, but the law is only just coming into effect over a year later.
This new law came about as part of the effort to help reduce the profitability of mass breeding programs, also known as “puppy mills” or “kitten factories,” which are notorious for the mistreatment of animals.
“All of the pet stores typically buy from puppy mills and that can often mean puppies with health or behavioral problems and dog moms and dads that are still at the mill in horrible conditions,” said Dr. Jaimie Ronchetto, owner of Cinema Veterinary Centre in Santa Clarita. “If we can remedy that in any way and still get animals into good homes, then I think we’ve achieved something great.”
On Tuesday, Jan. 1, retailers are set to be banned from selling live dogs, cats or rabbits unless the animal was obtained from a public animal control agency, shelter or humane society group.
“I think this law is an important step in the direction of eliminating puppy mills in California,” said Allison Cardona, deputy director for the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control. “It will help puppies that need homes find them, and eliminates the outlet for sales that these pet stores gave puppy mills.”
The law does not prevent owners from purchasing animals from breeders, but these animals cannot be sold via pet stores, and breeders will have to sell to owners directly.
While city laws have banned mass breeding in Los Angeles, and hundreds of other cities across the country for several years, there have not been any state or federal laws against the practice until this point.
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Animals that come from shelters are notorious for having behavioral problems.
This is just another example of too much government control.
If there is wrongdoing then arrest the people doing it. Don’t make another law that drags in the rest of the population.
Don’t know where you got your information, but having done rescue work for over 10 years and pulling animals from shelters, “behavior issues” is not the reason most animals are in the shelter. It’s overpopulation. So many animals aren’t sterilized and that leads to overpopulation. I have owned dozens of animals over the years with probably 98% of them coming from shelters or rescues and NONE of them had behavioral issues. Get your information straight before giving shelter animals an undeserved bad reputation.
Don’t know where you got your information, but having done rescue work for over 10 years and pulling animals from shelters, “behavior issues” is not the reason most animals are in the shelter. It’s due to overpopulation. So many animals aren’t sterilized and that leads to overpopulation. I have owned dozens of animals over the years with probably 98% of them coming from shelters or rescues and NONE of them had behavioral issues. Get your information straight before giving shelter animals an undeserved bad reputation.
Laws like California s are part of a growing movement to combat puppy and kitten mills, large-scale commercial breeding facilities that keep animals in poor conditions while mass-producing them for sale. Retail pet stores that sell live animals source from puppy and kitten mills (or from third party brokers who do) and provide very little information to consumers about the origin of the animals.