Hermosa Beach considers banning puppy and kitten sales in pet stores; measure passes initial vote

Hermosa Beach is poised to become the second Southern California city and the third in the state to ban the sales of puppies and kittens in pet stores.

Councilman Jeff Duclos proposed the legislation, which is intended to help put puppy mills and kitten factories out of business and is modeled on a similar ban approved in West Hollywood last month. A preliminary vote Tuesday received the unanimous support of the Hermosa Beach City Council, the Daily Breeze reports. A final vote is scheduled for April 13.

"We commend the humane leaders of Hermosa Beach for recognizing the direct link between inhumane puppy mills and local pet store sales of dogs and cats," Jennifer Fearing, the senior director of California programs for the Humane Society of the United States, said of the proposal. "Rather than supporting inhumane puppy mills by purchasing an animal from a pet shop or over the Internet, we encourage people to adopt pets from a shelter or rescue group, or to seek out a reputable breeder and visit their home to ensure any pets they purchase were reared with kindness." 

Like West Hollywood's ordinance, Hermosa Beach's won't bar businesses from offering rescued animals for adoption. And like West Hollywood's ban, Hermosa's wouldn't immediately affect any businesses, since no pet stores within city limits currently offer puppies or kittens for sale.

Rather than addressing a problem in Hermosa, City Manager Steve Burrell told the Daily Breeze, the proposal "is thought to provide the beginning of the emphasis on cutting down on the number of puppy mills and cat factories in various places." Pet stores are a common means by which puppy mills distribute their puppies -- and unsuspecting buyers all too often wind up with pets riddled with health problems and other hazards of the puppy-mill trade.

South Lake Tahoe adopted a similar ban on pet-store sales of puppies and kittens last year.

RELATED:
Iowa lawmakers consider new regulations aimed at cracking down on puppy mills
Pennsylvania's Main Line Animal Rescue takes on puppy mills, one dog at a time

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Dalmatian puppies romp at a New Jersey pet store in 1996. Credit: Mike Derer / Associated Press

Comments

[carole sax]

Bravo Hermosa Beach! I hope Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Orange County follow your example and the animal cruelty of puppy & kitten mills will shut down. Everyone our shelters are FULL, please adopt, really cute wonderful adoptable dogs & cats are in the pound and you will be saving their lives, not suppoting the cruel pet trade business. Thanks Hermosa.

[Ed Buck]

This is clearly an effective way to cut the demand side of the puppy mill trade. Congratulations to Jeff Duclos and Hermosa Beach for going Humane.

[Susan Werner]

I would like to thank Councilman Jeff Duclos from the bottom of my heart, for focusing on an issue that is the most important to a lot of people and animals. Its time for puppy mills and kitten factories to GO. This new law will reduce suffering and make the world a little better place for animals. As others follow suit, cruelty will no longer have an outlet in our country.
Thanks SO VERY MUCH...Councilman Jeff Duclos ...you are my kind of leader.

[Carole Raphaelle Davis--Companion Animal Protection Society]

Bravo to the City Manager Burrell and the City Council of Hermosa Beach, including Councilmember Jeff Duclos for your wise and compassionate decision to ban the sale of pet factory cats and dogs in your city.

We are proud that you have joined us in the fight against the cruelty routinely inflicted on animals in the pet trade. The puppies and kittens sold in pet stores come from commercial breeders, often from out of state, that confine their parents to wire cages, just big enough for them to turn around in, for LIFE. Though puppy mills are still legal, at least the public will be protected from buying into this despicable business.

Puppy mills and pet factories that supply pet stores and direct sellers on the Internet are part of agribusiness and in order to stop the abuse of companion animals in these factories, we have to strengthen existing regs and place new measures to limit the abuse. But curbing the mills themselves isn't enough--the consumer also needs to be protected and that's what this ordinance does.

This type of ordinance addresses the consumer fraud issue very efficiently. It also gives the consumer a choice of adoptable animals from the local shelter system as well as the choice to buy from a local, responsible hobby breeder. Small hobby breeders who treat their dogs with kindness are not affected by this ordinance at all. The conversion of pet stores to the humane business model works. Pet stores that once sold animals born out of cruelty in inhumane breeding operations will now be showcasing adoptable rescued animals, disburdening the shelters, saving lives and taxpayer dollars.

This measure saves lives and money. It costs American taxpayers $2 billion/year to house and euthanize dogs and cats in our nation's shelters. We are killing 5 million companion animals a year because there aren't enough homes for them. This ordinance gives those animals a chance.

For the consumers who want a purebred, the facts are clear: 25% of the dogs at the shelter in S. CA are purebred. How? Simple. People impulse buy a pup for Xmas and then 6 months later realize it's a lot of work to raise a pup. The dog ends up at the pound. The idea that one cannot train an adult is pure hogwash.
You don't choose your human friends when they are in diapers, do you? A dog or cat can learn the ropes in your home at any age.

For those who think that this ordinance is an example of "over-reaching" by government: you don't know what we know to be true as an organization that has been investigating (since 1992) pet stores and the pet factories that supply them. Believe me, USDA commercial breeding operations are mistreating dogs and cats LEGALLY. The minimum standards of care for them provides 6 inches in front of them for LIFE and no socialization. They freeze outdoors in winter and roast in summer. They are injured, sick and in anguish. Thank your city council for hearing their cries in the Midwest.

So this ordinance is something to celebrate in Hermosa Beach. Your city council is smart. Your city is humane. Your city is progressive. And your pet stores will be giving back to the community and strenthening their ties to you with a more meaningful relationship.

Pop the champagne corks, lots of other cities are following in your footsteps.

Carole Rapahelle Davis, West Coast director, Companion Animal Protection Society
www.caps-web.org

[Mary Carlisle]

We are on a mission with no permission! The fact that this is the second city in California doing this shows we are relentless and will not stop until pet stores are a thing of the past!We have been successful so far and other cities across the country and world are now trying to do this. We will stop at nothing to protect our fury friends from this insane abuse!

[Dr David]

Wonderful!!! I am very impressed with the the city! There is some good leadership in Hermosa! Hope other cities will soon follow this humane action.

[Kris Kelly]

Thank you Hermosa Beach for your humane decision to ban the selling of puppys and kittens. Wow I am impressed!
As a nation we need to evolve regarding the plight of the animals. There should be no selling of living creatures...this is the last form of slavery in the US and it must be banned. Laws are the way to go with humans because sadly it is the only way that certain people do the right thing. Kudos to Hermosa Beach!!!!!

[Leslie Gallagher]

Wow. Way to go Hermosa Beach!!! This is fabulous news!

[Norma Sandler]

It's wonderful that Hermosa Beach is doing this because it will save lives, help close puppy mills and cat factories and save the public lots of money and heartbreak. Thank you for printing this story.

[Pam Holt]

What a wonderful compassionate trend that I am grateful to Councilman Jeff Duclos and the Hermosa Beach City Council for continuing! May the city of Los Angeles be next for the sake of the thousands of animals killed in the shelter every year!

[Don Scott]

What a wonderful beginning to my Sunday! To Councilman Jeff Duclos and the Hermosa City Council, thank you for having the understanding and showing the fortitude to locally address what is a chronic, criminal problem across the nation. Your actions in Hermosa protect animals locally from abuse and inhumane treatment while at the same time set an example for animal compassion and true animal welfare across the country. Too many use animals as sources of revenue, with not an ounce of concern for their health or happiness. As human beings we have an obligation to protect the unprotected, safeguard the less fortunate, and give voice to creatures that need one. Kudos to Hermosa Beach today!

[Kim Lores]

I applaud these lawmakers. The horrors of puppy mills and animal over-population is horrific. What most people can not look at for a moment is the struggle that is their life. These laws need to be adopted everywhere. We simply need stronger legislation in this Country to protect the voiceless. We are all entitled to live life in the body we were born into, with respect and dignity. Thank you West Hollywood! Thank you Hermosa Beach! Beverly Hills? LA County? State of California? Federal Gov't? We're waiting!

[Rory]

I am so moved by the City Council. Bravo! Allowing stores to sell animals from puppy mills, when hundreds of thousands are euthanized in shelters, is preposterous. Not only does it cost taxpayers an incredible amount of money, but it's just plain wrong. One only needs to see one minute of video footage to know how horrific puppy mills are and that every measure needs to be taken to stop them.

[thorvald]

This is great,those of us in europe look on with gladness at these progressive measures for animal welfar that LA is taking. Keep it going!

[Neil]

It's encouraging that people are at last beginning to understand that animals are not products and that puppy mills and deliberate breeding of dogs and cats results in the suffering and death of millions of animals. Congrats to Hermosa Beach for leading the way, I hope that the rest of the US is listening.

[Zana Fong]

Congratulation Hermosa Beach and thank Councilman Jeff Duclos!
I too hope that Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Orange County etc. will follow soon this amazing example!

I hope to see the day soon when animal cruelty of puppy & kitten mills will be a bad horror story of the past and the shelters empty!

Blessings, Zana

[Jerry Friedman]

This is great leadership on the part of Hermosa Beach and those who are helping make this happen.

[H Green]

This is another example of a flawed attempt to do "good" but over-steps the reaches government should have in citizens' lives.

I'm 100% against puppy mills and the sort and have adopted all my dogs from local shelters, but I'm against over-legislation that will have NO effect.

There are 0, NO, nadda pet stores in hermosa beach, so this law only inhibits new business from coming into the city. What if a pet store comes in that wants to sell only rescue animals or animals certified from humane/ethical breeders? Not possible with this law.

All this law will do is send business elsewhere with no impact on saving animals.

If they wanted to really do good they should do things like INCENTIVES to people to adopt rescue animals such as waiving the licensing fee or giving tax credits to individuals who adopt rescue animals.

Banning local businesses is the wrong approach and shows only half-baked efforts going into this idea.

[L.A. Voter]

"H" -- don't you see that it is completely illogical to say you are "100% against puppy mills" but you oppose any legal means to stop them selling the puppies they breed?

Being pro-business does not have to mean you support every business. If a guy sets up in a storefront selling guns and crack to school kids it doesn't make you anti-business if you oppose it. If a guy, or woman, sets up a store to sell thousand-dollar (or more) puppies created in a hell hole hundreds or thousands of miles away, from parent dogs who never see the sun or feel the grass under their paws -- who in fact live torturous lives of confinement in tiny cages, only to be killed when they stop breeding fast enough -- it doesn't make you anti-business to oppose it. Like it or not, life has a moral component. If something is inherently abusive it is morally wrong and we should not allow it in a civilized society.

In addition, what agency certifies "humane/ethical breeders"? If you are so pro-business you should realize the obvious fact that a business requires a steady, reliable supply of inventory. Although there are many who would argue that deliberately breeding puppies for profit in a world where so many healthy, adoptable dogs are killed every minute is inherently unethical, there are actual standards for "humane" breeding. These standards include not treating the breeding dogs like objects; conscientiously breeding for health rather than simply expedience or appearance, i.e. not breeding mother to son, brother to sister; maintaining your dogs in a sanitary, healthy environment; providing necessary vet care; not forcing females to breed several litters a year; allowing puppies adequate time with mother and littermates to become socialized; and not killing breeding dogs when they stop producing fast enough. Does that sound like a profitable business model that will generate a steady supply of fast-selling puppies? No, it does not.

Puppy mills are designed to extract maximum profit with minimum overhead -- like costly vet care (or ANY care). It's a business built on the bodies of dogs.

And FYI, "adopted" or rescued animals are not "sold" by any reputable rescuer. An adoption fee is charged, but adoption fees don't come anywhere near covering the costs of rescue. And what about months where no dogs or cats are adopted? Vet bills, food bills and rent still need to be paid.

Not everything has to turn a profit to be worthwhile.