Oviedo considers regulating pet sales
City council mulls ban on puppy mills and kitten factories
Oviedo City Council members will consider an ordinance to require pet stores to sell dogs and cats obtained only from animal shelters or rescue groups.
The goal is to eliminate the market for animals that come from high-volume breeding facilities, or so-called puppy mills.
If the ban is approved, Oviedo would follow the lead of Seminole and Lake counties and Sanford, which enacted similar ordinances in the past year.
“With all the rescues [groups] out there and animal shelters and everything else, I don’t see a need for puppy mills and kitten factories to come to our city,” council member Bob Pollack said. “With the county [Seminole] already having taken action on it, I think we should follow their lead and pass an ordinance that would prevent those from being sold here in Oviedo as well.”
The proposed ordinance also would ban the sale of dogs and cats on public thoroughfares and at parks, flea markets, festivals, yard sales, outdoor markets and parking lots within the city. But the ban wouldn’t apply to the sale of animals by shelters or rescue organizations.
Council members are scheduled to discuss the ordinance in August and enact it by September, according to City Manager Bryan Cobb.
However, officials with the Florida Retail Federation in Tallahassee said they prefer the Legislature enact statewide regulations on puppy mills to ensure that there are “legal, credible dealers statewide” rather than individual local governments taking action.
“What we prefer is to have statewide solution,” said James Miller, senior director of external affairs for the federation. “Because then you don’t have this local patchwork of regulations that differs from county to county and city to city.”
Local regulations also would discourage pet retailers from setting up shop in the state, Miller said.
“It would become confusing for stores to go from county to county or from city to city” to determine each individual regulation, he said.
Michele Lazarow, president of the Animal Defense Coalition, applauded Oviedo’s move. But she doubts the Legislature will pass statewide regulations strong enough to completely ban stores from selling dogs and cats from large commercial breeding operations.
“I would love it, but I don’t see it happening,” she said. “And if they’re not going to do it, then let