JEFFERSON CITY — Democrats recently tore into a strategy relocating the Missouri House to restrict regional control of family pet shops, a Republican-backed reaction to relocations in blue states and cities to prohibit purchase of puppies raised by breeders.
Rep. Ben Baker, a Neosho Republican, acknowledged throughout argument last Wednesday he wasn’t familiar with any such guidelines in Missouri, however said policies somewhere else were putting family pet shops out of business. He said such family pet sales keep purchasers far from less-reputable puppy dealerships offering online or from merchants’ parking area.
“This is happening in other places,” Baker said. “When something is not going on and there’s not a lot of tension, that’s a good time to look at legislation that’s preventative.”
He said Petland, a nationwide family pet store brand name, was among the businesses associated with the legislation. St. Louis-location Petland shops lie in Fenton and Lake Saint Louis.
Following argument, Republicans connected Baker’s strategy onto a costs that initially dealt just with animal confiscation. The legislation then won preliminary approval on a voice vote.
It should win another vote in the House, after legislators return from spring break next week, prior to advancing to the Senate for factor to consider.
Rep. Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat who said she invested years offering with animal rescue companies, called Baker’s proposition “terrible.”
“It is not good for animals. It is not good for business. It is not good for local municipalities,” she said.
She said animal rescue groups take a trip to auctions in rural Missouri to purchase old “breeder dogs” and put them up for adoption. “They are matted, they are sick, they are missing teeth, they’ve never had human interaction, they’ve never been on grass,” Aune said.
She said that while Petland does “go to some reputable breeders,” the issue is not simply that “they are buying from the wrong people.” Aune said business like Petland have been linked to bacterial infection break outs.
“That is one big reason a municipality might say ‘this is not for us’ and you are trying to preempt them from making that local control decision,” Aune informed Baker.
Rep. Michael Burton, D-Lakeshire, said Missouri had a puppy mill issue.
“I remember when I was growing up, I used to go to Chesterfield Mall and there was a pet store in there. And there was all these little puppies,” Burton said. “But we have realized where those dogs come from, and the problem that we have in this state.
“There are municipalities out there that realize this business is not conducted in the right way,” Burton said.
Some legislators complained how dog breeders were being defined.
“The word puppy mill is thrown around this chamber quite a bit,” said Rep. Hannah Kelly, R-Mountain Grove. “That word does not define the people that I know. I’m thinking today of a wonderful lady in my district who works very, very hard at what she does to raise puppies in a wonderful environment that is inspected.”
Baker’s legislation says regions won’t have the ability to “adopt or enforce an ordinance or other regulation that prohibits or effectively prohibits the operation of a pet shop.”
It goes on to permit “enforcement of any applicable building codes, general zoning requirements, or relevant inspections as otherwise required by ordinance or law.”
While no such regional guidelines to prohibit pet sales been enacted in Missouri, cities and states somewhere else have actually been prohibiting the sale of dogs, cats and bunnies in retail family pet shops amidst issues that family pet shops are equipped with animals reproduced and perhaps abused in “puppy mills.”
California was the very first state to carry out a restriction on retail sales of animals in 2019. Washington, Maine, Maryland, New York and Illinois likewise have restrictions in location.
On Jan. 9, simply days after the Missouri Legislature started its yearly spring session, Petland employed the lobbying company of Gamble & Schlemeier to represent them in the Capitol.
Sen. Justin Brown, R-Rolla, has also proposed legislation in the Senate to secure down on regional family pet store guidelines.
Rather than stopping puppy mills, Petland has actually argued pet store prohibits motivate them.
“Store bans eliminate the most transparent source of pets: a community store accountable to consumer protections, health codes, and elite standards in breeding,” Elizabeth Kunzelman, vice president of federal government affairs for Petland, informed the Post-Dispatch in January.
In a research study launched in 2015, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals discovered that 43% of the puppies delivered to New York family pet shops get here from Missouri, which is home to numerous business dog breeders, the biggest variety of any state in the U.S.
