City may ban sale of dogs, cats in stores
Stamford would be first in CT to prohibit petstore sales out of concern puppies, kittens are bred in cruel conditions
STAMFORD — The Humane Society of the United States is urging cities nationwide to prohibit petstore sales of puppies and kittens out of concern that the animals are bred in cruel conditions.
Stamford is considering what would be the first ban in Connecticut.
Annie Hornish, the society’s director for the state, told city legislators the need became clear after February 2017, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed the names of breeders from its online database.
“It went dark under the new administration” of President Donald Trump, Hornish said.
Now there is no easy way to view inspection reports and evaluate conditions at commercial breeding operations, she said.
Without the information, states like Connecticut cannot enforce laws they enacted to prevent stores from purchasing animals from puppy mills and kitten factories, Hornish said. Connecticut’s law, like those of other states, depends on the USDA’s licensing and inspection program, which is broken, she said.
“Connecticut has on the books what’s called a ‘sourcing’ law, which says pet stores can obtain animals from certain breeders as long as the breeders are licensed by the USDA and have no violations,” Hornish told members of the Board of Representatives recently. “But the USDA no longer makes inspection reports public, so there’s no way to know if a pet store is sourcing from a licensed breeder without violations.”
It’s worse than that, according to a report Hornish and Amy Jesse, the society’s director of public policy on puppy mills, presented to the board, which voted unanimously to set the ban plan for a public hearing,
scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The USDA no longer allows users to search inspection reports by breeder name or license number and redacts information that could connect a report to a specific breeder, they said.
The Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals asked the USDA to strengthen its standards of care for commercial breeders, and to improve enforcement, but it didn’t happen, they said in the report.
USDA standards allow breeders to keep dogs in small, stacked cages, where breeding females may remain for their entire lives, Hornish and Jesse said. The USDA does not require that dogs be exercised or socialized. Dogs can be kept in extreme temperatures for prolonged periods, and breeders are not required to vaccinate against diseases or provide regular veterinary care, they said. Females that can no longer reproduce are often abandoned or euthanized.
Hornish said the USDA acknowledges that a license is not a seal of approval for a breeder, and the standards are only minimum requirements.
“It’s legal under federal law to keep dogs in wire cages that don’t have to be any bigger than 6 inches beyond the size of a dog,” Hornish said. “They never have to be let out, and the females are bred over and over again. And the USDA is not even citing breeders for those low standards.”
The ASPCA has reported that enforcement action plummeted to a new low in 2018, when the USDA’s Office of Inspector General announced it would undertake an investigation this year into the agency’s oversight of commercial breeders.
It will be the first such investigation since 2010, when the inspector general released a scathing report detailing the USDA’s failure to enforce standards.
Big breeders targeted
Hornish said the USDA has about 100 inspectors to check more than 2,000 breeders nationwide. The agency regulates only those breeders that sell animals to stores or over the internet. It does not regulate breeders that sell directly to consumers because consumers can see conditions for themselves.
“The ordinance would not affect responsible breeders because they don’t sell to pet stores,” Hornish said. “For that reason, pet stores have to buy from commercial breeders. That’s who the ordinance affects.”
To date, more than 300 cities and two states — California and Maryland — have enacted petsale bans, Hornish said. A bill introduced in Connecticut during the last legislative session had bipartisan support but died after amendments to allow bear hunting were attached, Hornish said.
She said that, among the 120 pet stores in Connecticut, a dozen sell puppies and kittens, including one in Stamford, Safari Stan’s Pet Center on Hope Street. That store opened within the last year. A Safari Stan’s opened in New Haven in 2013.
Safari Stan’s is owned by Petland Inc., an Ohio corporation that according to its website operates 80 stores in the United States plus more in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, South Africa and China.
Petland is the only remaining chain in the nation that sells dogs and cats, Hornish said.
Abuses found
Because USDA inspection reports are largely inaccessible, the Humane Society obtained certificates of origin kept by Connecticut’s Department of Agriculture, she said. They show that pet stores in the state that sell commercially bred dogs imported them from some of the worst puppy mills in the country, she said.
One was Blue Ribbon Kennels, a puppy broker that was linked to a 2017 outbreak of campylobacter, a bacteria that can be transmitted to humans. The outbreak sickened 113 people in 17 states, and 23 were hospitalized, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hornish said two people in Connecticut were sickened.
The CDC linked the outbreak to contact with puppies sold through Petland stores. Of the 113 people who got sick, 25 were Petland employees. CDC doctors found that the bacteria was resistant to antibiotics because they are administered extensively to puppies, sometimes in place of good hygiene.
The Humane Society review showed that a commercial breeder in Dundee, Ohio, who sold dogs to Safari Stan’s in New Haven, was cited in 2017 for moldy food in multiple feeders and for not having physical examination records for dogs.
A commercial breeder in Dibble, Oklahoma, that also sold dogs to Safari Stan’s in New Haven was cited twice in 2014 and once in 2015 for failing to treat dogs with medical conditions, feces covering the floor, water bowls containing algae, rodent droppings and refusing to provide access to an inspector.
Petland explains
Elizabeth Kunzelman, director of public affairs for Petland, said copies of USDA inspection reports for both breeders show no violations for the past two years, indicating they have “made significant changes to their operation.”
“Breeders have their own USDA reports and supply them to the pet stores, and they are subsequently posted,” Kunzelman said in an email. “You can visit the store to see them.”
Hornish said pet stores rely on USDA reports that are not in fact reliable.
“Pet stores say they get reports directly from breeders, but breeders can choose which reports to send and leave out the ones with violations, since they know it will be hard to prove that anything is missing,” Hornish said.
Kunzelman said Petland teams and franchisees regularly visit USDAlicensed breeders and distributors.
“The owner of Safari Stan’s Pet Center is very active in frequently visiting his breeders,” she said.
She said the campylobacter bacteria is prevalent in dogs, and Petland worked with the CDC to contain the outbreak. The CDC’s final report did not identify a single breeder, distributor or transporter as the source of infection, Kunzelman said.
She questioned why the Humane Society would “support eliminating the only regulated sources of pets” and said shutting down pet stores would “drive sales to the underground, unregulated market.”
‘Humane model’
Hornish said two of the nation’s largest chains, PetCo and PetSmart, and most momandpop pet stores do not sell dogs and cats.
“They are very successful providing services such as grooming, boarding and training, and by selling products,” she said.
They commonly work with shelter groups to find homes for rescued animals by staging adoption days, Hornish said, which eases the burden on municipal shelters.
“Most stores thrive using a humane model,” she said. “The remaining stores need to evolve into what their own industry is doing.”
The public hearing before the Board of Representatives’ Legislative & Rules Committee is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Democratic Caucus Room on the fourth floor of Stamford Government Center, 888 Washington Blvd. After the hearing the committee will vote on whether to recommend that the full board enact the ban. The board will consider the ban at its Sept. 3 meeting.