Growing up I was never fond of that common teenage ritual: frequenting the mall. But some of my friends were, so sometimes I would accompany them on the trip. I did enjoy going to a couple stores like the bookstore and our local mall’s pet store. I’ve said many times before how much I wanted a dog growing up, and the cat my parents adopted instead made me love cats as well.
By my later teenage years we didn’t have any pets in the house anymore, so I enjoyed going to look at the pets in the pet store. The whole process did torture me a little bit, but I loved the chance to get close to animals, even for a short period of time.
Now, if a new trend takes hold in more cities, my experience window shopping at a pet store will become a thing of the past. Some cities in America have begun banning pet stores, and though they represent a tiny fraction of towns in this country, their numbers are growing.
MSNBC reports that West Hollywood, CA, Albuquerque, NM, and South Lake Tahoe, CA, have banned retail pet sales. Towns in Florida, New Mexico, and Missouri are considering similar measures.
Cities don’t ban pet stores because they hate pets – rather, the opposite. The restrictions are enacted out of fears of puppy mills supplying retail pet stores. Puppy mills raise dogs in cramped, unhygienic conditions, and now there are a growing number of “kitten factories” as well.
I sympathize very much with those who want to ban pet stores. The thought of puppy mills makes me ill, and I use shelters as my primary means of pet adoption. But the problem is there are no real statistics on the number of dogs at stores that might come from mills. Plenty of puppies at stores do come from mills, but there are likely just as many, if not more, that don’t.
Enacting pet store bans only combats a symptom of the problem, not its cause. But creating nationwide bans of puppy mills takes a long time; I’ve been following the Humane Society’s updates on their efforts and while the past few years have seen some victories, a full ban is still awhile away.
I’m torn, then; until an across-the-board puppy mill ban takes place, I can’t help but support any other legal actions that hurt the puppy mill business. At the same time I don’t think it’s fair for humane pet stores to be punished due to what others do immorally.
Shutting down pet stores also hurts pet adoptions; some people prefer stores because they’re more guaranteed pets that don’t come with the baggage/behavioral problems some shelter pets do, but don’t cost the often hefty prices charged by licensed breeders. Without pet stores, many potential pet owners might not become anything more than that.
However, it seems the bans won’t take off in more than isolated areas. Hopefully by the time they might have wider reach, a complete ban of puppy mills will have taken place and the measure of shutting down pet stores might be repealed.
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