Best Friends news

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There are now 400-plus humane pet sales laws in place across North America.

HUMANE PET SALES LAWS GAIN A FOOTHOLD ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The fight against puppy mills used to be an uphill battle — with pet stores selling puppies and kittens from out-of-state breeding mills. Who can resist those cute faces? But the unsuspecting buyers don’t know the pets come from mills. (Or, if they do, they simply don’t understand what that means.)

Well, that’s happening a lot less today because more and more cities, counties and states no longer allow the retail sale of puppies and kittens (and, often, rabbits) from commercial breeding mills. In fact, there are now 400-plus humane pet sales laws in place across North America. What a long way we’ve come!

Elizabeth Oreck, Best Friends national manager of puppy mill initiatives, says: “The way to eliminate puppy and kitten mills is to target their profits by encouraging people not to support this cruel industry.” Humane pet sales laws address the problem of puppy and kitten mills from the point of sale. These laws help end the suffering of countless pets in substandard breeding facilities while increasing adoption opportunities for homeless pets.

It’s a win-win. “Once we got the City of Los Angeles to enact this innovative approach in 2012,” Elizabeth says, “it opened the doors for other large cities to follow, and the movement took off from there.”

Today, advocates are making change by getting humane ordinances passed in their communities. It’s grassroots advocacy at its best, and it’s helping to increase the demand for pets from more humane sources. The message is clear: People don’t want what puppy and kitten mills are selling. And for that, we’re incredibly glad.