Pet-industry bulldog to fight puppy-mill ban
RICHMOND: Don't Don't hurt legit business, group argues. Enact new licensing laws
By Brian Lewis, The ProvinceOctober 19, 2010
Is Richmond's proposed bylaw to ban sales of puppies from all its pet shops a case of barking up the wrong tree?
While the bylaw is based on a legitimate desire to reduce or eradicate unscrupulous puppy mills where substandard breeding and rearing conditions foster unhealthy and cruelly treated animals, the action may trigger unfair collateral damage to pet shop owners whose puppies come from legitimate sources.
That's the position taken by the Ottawa-based Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC), which now threatens to take the City of Richmond to court if the bylaw is approved later this fall.
This advocacy group is prepared to draw a line in the sand here because, if the bylaw passes, Richmond would become Canada's first municipality to enact such legislation, although similar laws have been passed in several U.S. cities.
As written, Richmond's bylaw bans the sale of puppies from all Richmond pet shops as of April 30, 2011. At this point, three pet retailers would be impacted.
"Our organization is looking at all options and certainly a legal challenge is one of them," PIJAC Canada executive director Louis McCann told me Monday.
"First of all, the Richmond bylaw doesn't address the issue of stopping puppy mills, which we certainly do not condone, and secondly, it targets one type of business over another," he adds.
McCann cites a 2008 Urban Animal Study published by Ipsos Reid that said only 10 per cent of dogs and nine per cent of cats owned by Canadians came from pet stores. The two primary sources for retail puppy sales in Canada are home and legitimate commercial breeders, he adds.
"With 90 per cent of puppies coming from other sources, why accept the argument that pet stores are a major source of the problem," the PIJAC states in arguing against such bans.
It recommends that, rather than regulating one small point of sale part of the industry, all B.C. breeding operations and anyone else selling puppies commercially should be regulated so that puppy mills have no options other than complying or getting out of the business.
That, in a nutshell, is PIJAC's position.
"We do not think that our member stores in Richmond get their puppies from substandard breeding operations, and they have the track record to prove it," McCann adds.
Even Richmond Coun. Ken Johnston, who initiated the bylaw, admits that it wouldn't completely shut down puppy mills.
"We're trying to take a step forward here and send a message that puppy mills are unacceptable," he says.
Fair enough, but if the bylaw side-swipes just one Richmond pet shop where acquiring puppies from legitimate sources can be proven, then the bylaw — well-meaning though it is — could blow up legally.
As Johnston also suggests, the solution likely rests with the B.C. government.
"Currently, there are no provincial regulations on this issue. So we've asked the provincial government, very strongly, to bring in regulations covering all puppy breeders and sellers, not just pet store outlets," he explains.
In other words, an animal-care act that would license, regulate and inspect all breeders, pet shops — and even animal shelters — may be warranted.