Working paper: Sale of pets in pet stores
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Residents may have seen that on Friday, the City opened a long-awaited consultation on the sale of live pets (specifically cats, dogs and rabbits), in pet stores. The consultation details are here, and comments are due February 29.
I'm fortunate to have in my office at the moment a co-op student from the University of Ottawa, Nevena Vucetic, who's helping me look at a variety of policy questions. Recently, I asked her to prepare a briefing for me on the pet store question in anticipation of the upcoming by-law review.
I found Nev's paper very useful. Rather than keep it just for my eyes, I'm reproducing it here in case it's useful to others to help frame the debate and their own input into the process. I'm looking forward to hearing your views. Be sure to participate in the online consultation to make your views known.
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Banning the Sale of Pets for Profit in Pet Stores
Currently in Ottawa, pet stores are not required to obtain their cats, dogs or rabbits from reputable sources. This topic is currently up for discussion as there has been impetus toward implementing a ban on the sale of pets for profit in pet stores, which will be brought up at Council in the spring. I have prepared the following to summarize the key facts and issues.
Introduction
The aim of any proposed ban would be to make progress toward reducing the market for puppy mills. When pet stores source animals from for-profit breeders there is the potential to support abusive and harmful breeding practices such as those seen in puppy mills. Puppymill Awareness Working Solutions (PAWS), a volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to educating and raising awareness of the cruelty and abuse associated with puppy mills, explains that these breeding practices are designed to maximize profits, rather than ensure the health of the mother and her litter. Females dogs are continuously bred resulting in unhealthy puppies that often contract genetic conditions which are an economic burden for future puppy owners. Customers at pet stores are often unaware of this important information and, rather than making an ethical purchase, may impulsively buy these pets thus further fuelling the industry. [Jeff Leiper note: there is no evidence or reason to believe that Ottawa’s remaining live-animal pet stores purchase their animals from puppy mills].
PAWS is hoping to bring an end to this and other unethical breeding practices by amending Ottawa by-law 2011-241 and prohibiting the sale of animals in pet stores (specifically cats, dogs and rabbits) from commercial breeders. Rather than selling these pets, they recommend that pet stores collaborate with local registered and approved animal rescue and/or shelter groups. The benefits include a reduction in the impulse purchasing of pets bred for profit and thus a decline in unhealthy pets and their abuse. More importantly, there will be a decline in numbers of pets in shelters thus allowing for more animals to be taken in and more funding for vet bills, food etc.
The Situation in Ottawa
There are currently three pet stores in the Ottawa region selling pets for profit. The remaining 50 pet stores in the region either do not hold live animals or already have shelter/rescue animals for adoption. There have been 9482 signatures collected in support of the proposed ban (collected June through December 2014) and these include individuals in all 23 wards.
After consulting the City’s by-laws, it is apparent that although there are specific criteria on the treatment of pets in and outside of pet stores, they do not address the origin of these pets. This indicates that the bylaw currently does not consider puppy mills to be illegal. It is hard to prosecute an alleged puppy mill because, under the Canadian Criminal Code, there is a requirement to prove ‘intent to harm’, making it almost impossible to hold puppy mill owners responsible for neglect. While changes to the Canadian Criminal Code are unlikely to unfold any time soon, implementing the proposed ban could cut off a large market of illegally-bred pets and reduce the number of puppy mills.
Jurisdictions with Similar Bans in Place
Five other Ontario cities (Toronto, Kingston, Mississauga, Waterloo & Vaughan) have already passed legislation supporting this ban.
- Toronto and Mississauga both state that persons/businesses selling more than ten dogs per year are to get their animals from municipal animal shelters, registered humane societies, shelters or rescue groups. Toronto also allows pet stores to sell surrendered pets that they take in at no charge (they appear to be the only city doing so).
- In Waterloo, the same criteria exist. However, there is no set minimum of 10 dogs. Vaughan extends the criteria to cats as well, stating that dogs and cats are only to be purchased from municipal animal shelters, registered humane societies, shelters or rescue groups.
- In Kingston, pet store owners are not permitted to purchase or take in any surrendered dogs, cats or rabbits to later sell. None one of these three animals are permitted to be sold in Kingston pet stores unless they come from municipal animal shelters, registered humane societies, shelters or rescue groups.
Following the ban’s passage in Kingston, Kingston Humane Society President Janice Saunders stated that “there will be an uptake of animals in the short term [in shelters], but it will lower in the long term” with fewer people impulse buying and therefore fewer unwanted animals being left at shelters. This implies long term cost savings, a reduction in animal overpopulation and more animals adopted into good homes.
It is worth noting that this ban alone will not be an adequate solution to solve the issue of unethical breeding practices. A city of Kingston staff review showed that only 10% of all sales of dogs, cats and rabbits are sold annually through local pet shops. Non-registered breeders are still able to sell pets over the internet and in newspaper ads. While this may be next to impossible to regulate, there are some solutions. Other cities such as Calgary have introduced a “Responsible Pet Ownership Program” to allow their Animal and Bylaw Services to work with local people to ensure cats, dogs, their owners and neighbours live together safely and in harmony. This program is based on five principles: licensing and providing permanent identification for pets; spaying or neutering pets; providing training, physical care, socialization and medical attention for pets; not allowing pets to become threats or nuisances in the community; and procuring pets ethically. By combining this program with a ban on selling cats and dogs from potentially unethical sources, Calgary has had success in reducing the number of animals in shelters. In 2009 a total of 4,291 dogs were impounded, 86% of which were returned to their owners thanks to prior registration and microchipping, 9% were adopted and only 5% were euthanized. Just two years after implementing the program for cats in 2007, return-to-owner percentages rose 39% to reach 56% and euthanasia rates decreased from 37% to 18%. In comparison to national totals of 2% return to owner rates and 74% euthanasia rates, this is quite impressive. It should be noted that this program is not funded by taxpayer dollars but rather licensing (80-85%), adoption fees, impound fees and fines.
Possible Negative Impacts of this Ban
Pet store owners often argue that it would be detrimental to their business to no longer be able to sell live animals. While it may be true that a large amount of their revenue could be decreased, adjusting their business structure should allow them to succeed. PetSmart has successfully functioned since their establishment in 1994 while never selling dogs or cats, but rather through their PetSmart Charities, helping to save the lives of homeless pets.
With increasing amounts of awareness campaigns, it is doubtful that consumers will be willing to support stores who continue to sell pets for profit and so in the best interest of their business, owners should consider supporting more ethical practices.
It is often argued that implementing this sort of ban will just push people to go internet or newspaper ads to find family pets. The problem is that these ads can often be for unethically bred animals and people are often unaware of this fact. Awareness campaigns would then be needed to combat this issue and to encourage adoption.
Additional Options
If the city chooses not to implement this ban, other options to consider include:
- Increasing inspections of pet stores to ensure existing by-laws pertaining to animal welfare are being met
- Problem: this does nothing to stop puppy mill sales, just ensures animals are treated well after they are placed in a pet store
- Passing a requirement for pet stores to keep a registry of information on the cats, dogs, and rabbits sold. Could include information such as the date of purchase and a full description of the animal along with the name, address and description of the individual purchasing the pet.
- Allows the store and city to locate people abusing their animals
- Problem: once again, this would do nothing to decrease the purchasing of unethically bred animals.
- Pet stores required to keep a record of where they acquired their pets (could be added to the previous recommendation)
- Forces stores to get ethically bred animals because it is written on record if they do not
- Would require some sort regulatory body/enforcement to ensure pets are from reputable breeders or shelters (i.e. someone to look over these records)
- Require pet stores to provide customers with a detailed receipt containing the date of the sale and the price; the breed, age and sex of the animal; a full description of the animal; and a health certificate from a veterinarian.
- This method would ensure customers that their pet is in good health, thus reducing turnover rates
- Problem: Still allows pet stores to purchase unethically bred animals however, with a required health certificate only healthy animals would be sold which could force improvements to breeding practices
- Increasing public awareness campaigns via communications strategies
- This would deter the public from purchasing from puppy mills and give them the information to identify a legitimate breeder
- A campaign aimed at informing children would be an extremely effective way to raise an entire new generation with the beliefs that adopting or buying from legitimate breeders is the more ethical choice.
- I would recommend this be done even if the ban is put in place
Suggestions
I would suggest that the City take on an approach similar to that of Kingston where they banned the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits and put no minimum on the amount of pets sold annually in order to have the ban apply to a store owner. By placing a minimum of 10, as Toronto did for example, the city makes it justifiable for some to still purchase and sell unethically bred animals, which defeats the purpose of the ban. In addition to this ban, it would be beneficial for the city to look into either a larger amount of enforcement against illegal breeding practices or to take on an approach similar to Calgary’s ‘Responsible Pet Ownership Program’. The City already requires cats and dogs to be registered and has a system in place that works quite effectively; it is reported that, thanks to microchipping, 60% of pets are returned to their owners in a timely manner. While this is not a bad result, by making microchipping mandatory, more animals could be saved and less money would be spent on keeping animals for extended periods of time in shelters. Lastly, an awareness campaign would help to reduce any remaining public demand for unethically bred pets.
Conclusion
Ottawa has a real opportunity to stand for what is right and make a difference in the lives of thousands of innocent animals by amending by-law 2011-241. Several other cities in Ontario have been successful in passing similar bans which have been met with praise from the public. While there are pros and cons to each of the regulatory options presented, Ottawa can and should use them as baselines for creating its own regulation in order to ensure the ethical treatment of animals.
A full list of other cities who have implemented retail pet sale bans: http://bestfriends.org/resources/jurisdictions-retail-pet-sale-bans
References:
http://www.animalsheltering.org/resources/magazine/jan_feb_2011/license_to_succeed.pdf
http://app.oshawa.ca/agendas/community_services/2014/02-06/cs-14-19.pdf
http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/ABS/Pages/Animal-Services/Responsible-pet-ownership-bylaw-dogs.aspx
https://www.cityofkingston.ca/residents/animals-pets/responsible
http://ottawa.ca/en/residents/animals-and-pets/registration-and-regulations/cat-and-dog-registration
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