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Opinion: May is National Pet Month! And What Does Dallas Do? Bans Pet Sales in Dallas!

pet store
Pet store | Image by BearFotos

Recently, Dallas passed a pet sales ban supposedly to eliminate substandard breeding facilities or what they call “puppy mills.” This is a nationwide agenda item being pushed by HSUS/ASPCA/PETA and THLN (Texas Humane Legislation Network in Texas) to eliminate the use and ownership of animals for any reason. In fact, this agenda does not stop ‘puppy mills’.

This ordinance will shut down an A+ Better Business Bureau rated business that has operated with an excellent record for 13 years. No one from the city or DAS (Dallas Animal Services) even visited the store or consulted with the owner. Apparently, they based their decision totally on DAS recommendations without any verification of their recommendations! This forces this business to source only animals from unknown, unregulated, unlicensed shelters/rescues, instead of USDA/TDLR regulated, inspected, licensed breeders!

Were the citizens of Dallas given any opportunity to weigh in on all this? No this was all put together in secret meetings at DAS!

Animal rights organizations during the city council meeting argued a pet store ban is necessary because retail pet stores across Texas sell puppies sourced from out-of-state, large-scale commercial breeding facilities. They further claimed puppies are shipped hundreds upon hundreds of miles from these facilities to Texas via the “puppy mill pipeline”. These groups even claimed these pets often arrive at retail pet stores dehydrated and sick from super viruses like Campylobacter and Giardia. Fortunately this is untrue because pet stores source from licensed and inspected breeders as stated above and they are further subject to all state and federal animal welfare laws.

Unfortunately, the CDC reports that approximately 1 million dogs have been imported for resale by unregulated, uninspected 501-C3 “Non-Profit” shelter and rescue operations in 2019 alone. These animals have been proven to lack proper health clearances before being brought into the US, and have been imported into the U.S. with diseases such as brucellosis, rabies, screw worm, several Asiatic tick species that cause disease in cattle, distemper, and multiple variations of influenza viruses.

According to the APPA (American Pet Products Assn.) National pet owners survey from 2021, only 9% of pets obtained in the U.S. come from retail pet stores. Approximately 38% come from rescues, shelters or human societies; with the remainder coming from a variety of other sources.

More information on how pet store bans fail to protect pets and undermine responsible pet choice can be found here.

A link to help citizens better understand the difference between animal rights and animal welfare can be found here.

More information on pet choice can be found here.

The above information clearly demonstrates the key differences between regulated pet stores and unregulated rescues and shelters. These key points were completely ignored by the Dallas City Council as they passed this onerous ban.

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