Toronto Bans Sale of Puppy Mill (kittens and puppies) Pets

Congratulations to Toronto.

BBB

I am not sure I completely approve how about small local home breeders?

Yes I know about puppy mills and they need to be ended however that does not mean that small local breeders that have nothing to do with puppy mills should be interfere with.

Footnote all my cats came walking through my front door under their own power and will over the years so my arrangements/agreements was directly with the cats themselves not with other humans.

I can see all of Canada going in this direction in the next few years, with the exception of Quebec, apparently they have the most invested in puppy mills. Most of the pet stores here no longer sell kittens or puppies for this very reason.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/844617--council-candidate-wants-to-ban-sales-of-cats-and-dogs-in-pet-stores

Butt, however, contends pet stores can responsibly sell cats and dogs.

The Church St. pet store manager says his store buys from home breeders and tries to ensure older pets are sold before bringing in a fresh crop of kittens and puppies. He says he would be saddened to see the ban implemented — not only would he lose revenue, he would also lose the opportunity to sell pets to first-time owners.

“For independent stores, they are a good place for people who are first-time pet owners,” he argues. “Yes, I think, cats and dogs are overbred. At the same time, I don’t think people who are inexperienced pet owners should be getting pets from shelters.”

Butt would like to see stricter regulations placed on pet stores rather than an outright ban.

“Make them a little more strict,” he says. “But completely banning (pet store sales) altogether is not the answer.”

According to Maher’s report, Toronto had 27 registered pet shops as of March 28, eleven of which sold cats or dogs. In his bylaw proposal, stores currently selling dogs or cats would have one year to sell off their inventory.

There's a bit of momentum in this direction here too
http://www.oscarslaw.org/

Nothing concrete yet though.

I presume that breeders are still able to sell well bred animals of recognized breeds?

It look like the answer is no at least by way of pet stores are concern.

Now can the small scale local breeders sell directly to the public or not is an open question.

My family never purchase from pet stores and away did deal with small breeders directly.

I frankly see this is taking a sledge hammer to a problem that does not require a sledge hammer to solve.

Just only allow pet shops to only sell puppies from small local license breeders with heavy fines and being shut down for not obeying that limit on the sources of the dogs would be the answer.

If small breeders want to sell their animals let them do it from their home so the buyer can see how the animals are taken care of. If there is not a problem with the environment then the small breeders should not have a problem with this arrangement.
I live in Texas and as a home health nurse in a rural area I can tell you it is not reputable breeders who are selling animals to pet stores. The sheriffs dept. receive so many calls from me regarding the numerous puppy mills in my area we all knew each other on a first name basis. Unfortunately there was not much they could do on many occasions because the living standards of many of the animals was just above the deplorable conditions required for legal intervention.
I am going to make a presentation to our city council using Toronto as an example and can only hope I can accomplish such a great outcome.

Reputable breeders don't sell through pet stores.

Once more there is zero reason to ban pet stores from selling dogs/puppies from license and local breeders.

The government should always take the path of least harm to people running legal businesses to solve a problem and in this case they took an overkill approach.

An interesting claim would you care to back it up?

Excellent, Toronto!
That is so positively enlightened!
And such a wonderful thing for all those poor dumped critters doing their time in shelters. And worse ...
This is the best thing I've heard today.

Quite a few of the better stores already sponsored pet-rescue adoption events. They didn't actually sell the pets - just gave the rescue organizations the space/time/advertising - and then make the bucks on pet supplies. They've generated a lot of good will for themselves by doing it that way.

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Raising the legal standards of care seem a fairer solution..........

How many families businesses are you planning on putting out of business with no need to do so to solve the problem?

Good on ya scubawithdogs!

So the real purpose is to force people to deal with the pound if they wish a dog not to solve the mistreatment of dogs in puppy mills?

Note two out of the last three dogs in my family came from the local pound and the other was a private adoption by way of a friend of a friend so I have nothing at all again dealing with the local pound it just being force to do so annoy me.

Scubawithdogs how long is it going to be before you think that an excuse to go after small scale breeders is found?

After all with the local shelters needing to sadly kill unwanted pets the real purpose of such laws is to stop any breeding of dogs is it not sooner or later?

The level of care of the dogs and puppies is beside the point.

Nobody is interested in you travelling to Toronto so you don't have to worry about it.

This is a movement that is not limited to Toronto.

This is to limit the public to only having the pound as a source of pets and seem to be in fact an anti-breeder movement that have little to do with the treatment of the animals by breeders otherwise a ban would be the last mean try to solve the puppy mills problem not the first.