Richmond Review
City mulls puppy store ban
PJ’s Pets volunteer Christal Syrovy and employee Mariko Lainas socialize a 14-week-old Chihuahua.
Christine Lyon photo
Published: March 05, 2010 1:00 PM
Updated: March 05, 2010 2:20 PM
You won’t hear the question “how much is that doggie in the window?” in Richmond if the city implements a bylaw banning the sale of dogs in pet stores.
Bylaw proponents believe a ban would limit impulse purchases and help reduce the number of dogs bred in inhumane conditions without proper health care.
The proposed bylaw would affect three local stores: Pet Habitat, PJ’s Pets and Pets Wonderland.
Pet stores hide behind puppy brokers, who source puppies from multiple breeders, a cruelty investigator for the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals told city council Tuesday.
“Good, reputable breeders don’t sell to pet stores because this would prevent them from choosing the appropriate homes for their puppies,” said Marcie Moriarty.
At a general purposes committee meeting Tuesday, city council referred the issue back to staff for more information.
Ernest Ang, owner of Richmond Centre’s Pet Habitat, said his store only buys puppies from facilities certified by the United States Department of Agriculture, and noted his store complies with standards of care set out by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, the Humane Society and the B.C. SPCA.
He said a ban on pet sales would have an adverse effect.
“Puppy sales will now be driven to unregulated backyard breeders.”
He noted a 2008 Ipsos Reid study that showed only 10 per cent of dogs owned by Canadians came from pet stores. The rest come from other sources.
“When the city isolates only three stores it creates an issue of unjust competition and discrimination.”
City staff found dog sales generated 15 to 70 per cent of pet stores’ gross revenue.
Christie Lagally, a volunteer with the Richmond Animal Protection Society, supports the ban and provided council with surrender forms for dogs purchased from Richmond pet stores.
“We have an inordinate number of dogs that are getting purchased at pet stores here in Richmond and are quickly being surrendered or abandoned to the Richmond Animal Shelter.”
Speaking against was Gary Batt of Petland in Surrey. He said the bylaw would be counterproductive.
“The sale of puppies will increase on the Internet and in newspapers and on street corners and parking lots.”
He said people who buy from pet stores are well informed and he rarely sees impulse buying. He added that the ban will not stop the inhumane treatment of dogs.
“Puppy mills can only be eliminated or reduced by the licensing, formulating regulations and inspection of the source of the problem, namely the breeders themselves.”
Council was not convinced that banning the retail sale of dogs would do away with unscrupulous breeders and puppy mills.
“We need to ask the provincial government to start working at setting some standards,” said Coun. Evelina Halsey-Brandt. “What’s happening in individual homes we have absolutely no control over over.”
Coun. Ken Johnston took issue with the sourcing of the animals.
“I really think we need to try to snuff out the source which is the people who abuse animals by running puppy mills.”
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/86670592.html
Puppy ban proposal sparks dog fight at council
Alan Campbell, Richmond News
Published: Friday, March 05, 2010
The argument - oftentimes heated - raged on for more than two hours at city hall. Just about everyone had chipped in their two cents worth - the BCSPCA, Richmond Animal Protection Centre, Pet Habitat, PJ's Pets, city staff, councillors and the mayor.
In fact, the only party not to get a word in edgewise was the dogs themselves.
The subject: whether or not to ban the sale of puppies in Richmond's stores.
Animal advocates, such as the BCSPCA and RAPS, argue that removing puppies from pet stores will tackle impulse buying and subsequent rejection of the dog when it's given up to RAPS to care for.
Both organizations also contend that a ban will also go a long way to putting puppy mills out of commission, with the accusation that many store puppies are supplied by such mills.
All of the above is absolute tosh, say the pet store owners in Richmond, who turned out in force at Tuesday night's council meeting.The stores - which are still reeling from a new ban on selling bunnies in the city - argue that a ban will boost the unregulated black market with potential puppy customers simply going to newspaper ads and the internet to get what they want.
And they claim that they get all their puppies from "reputable" breeders and not from rogue puppy mills which are said in some cases to house the breeding parents and puppies in horrendous and cramped conditions.
In the end, after all the claims, conjecture, accusations and arguments, council decided it needed much more information from all parties before it could decide where to go with the proposed ban, if anywhere at all.
Earlier in the evening, the BCSPCA's cruelty investigations manager Marcie Moriarty said she's witnessed a large number of "disturbing" scenes in B.C. puppy mills.
"The City of Richmond has the power to stop the sale of sick puppies to consumers," Moriarty said.
"Where do pet stores get their puppies? Pet Habitat gets them from Hunte Corp, which was the subject of a CBC documentary on puppy mills.
"PJ's Pets claims it gets its puppies from licenced breeders? We don't licence breeders and I don't think anyone does."
Moriarty claimed that so-called "reputable" breeders do not sell their puppies to pet stores.
"You can't control the sale of puppies on the internet, but you can control your businesses," she added.
Coun. Harold Steves said he was worried that, if a ban was to be put in place, people would just go straight to the puppy mill to get their dogs.
"(Mill owners) don't want people going out to their mills. A ban would affect the impulse buyers," Moriarty replied.
RAPS volunteer and News pet columnist Christie Lagally said RAPS has an "inordinate" number of dogs being surrendered at their shelter after being bought in stores.
She added that in 2007/08 about 37 per cent of the dogs arriving at the shelter were a year old or younger and 57 per cent were pure bred.
Lagally brought with her at least ten receipts given to her from people surrendering dogs which show they got them from Pet Habitat in Richmond Centre, which sells 200 puppies per year.
I have more back at the shelter," she said, showing council a 1,500-signature petition, signed by people in support of the puppy sale ban.
Pet Habitat's owner, Ernest Ng, said his store has a screening process for customers wanting to buy a puppy and he only buys his puppies from "government certified facilities. Our puppies are inspected when they arrive. We are against puppy mills," Ng said.
"A ban will drive sales into backyards and promote the black market and it would discriminate against the stores."
Ng said his staff show customers how big a puppy will get and what kind of temperament it will have. But he did admit that, if a customer is adamant that they want the puppy there and then, they will sell it to them.
Steves, clearly passionate about the subject, said it was "criminal to take puppies away from their parents at a few weeks old anyway."
Coun. Sue Halsey-Brandt said she was "extremely disturbed" by the CBC documentary which claimed to feature a puppy mill used by Hunte Corp, a supplier of puppies to Pet Habitat.
"That particular breeder is not a supplier to Hunte Corp anymore. I talked to Mr Hunte himself when that show was aired," Ng replied.
PJ's Pets' representative, Sara Henderson, said her staff discourage the buying of pets as gifts and reward the spaying and neutering of the animals with store discounts.
Henderson further claimed that PJ's Pets source its puppies from "reputable family environments" and that all puppies are checked by vets on arrival.
Some councillors, however, had trouble with the use of the term "reputable," as there are no official Canadian standards or regulation for dog breeders.
"What's the measure of reputable?" asked Coun. Evelina Hasley-Brandt.
Steves believes that the city already has bylaws in place which can tackle the puppy mill problem -- a bylaw which restricts the number of dogs in one house to three.
However, the bylaw doesn't take into account puppies. "If we change that bylaw to include puppies, then we've solved that problem in Richmond. We already have the rules in place, let's close that loophole," Steves said.
In the event of a ban being side-stepped, Steves suggested that the city could make it a requirement for pet stores to source their puppies from B.C. registered kennels, thus cutting puppy mills out of the equation.
Coun. Greg Halsey-Brandt agreed with many others on council that a total ban on stores selling puppies would not get to the bigger problem of dogs breeding and being bred in cruel puppy mills.
The matter was then referred back to staff to investigate further a raft of issues and possibilities, such as:
- What are the standards for people selling dogs in B.C.?;
- Look at ways of getting store owners and RAPS working together;
- Making sure stores have the name and address and contact details of their puppy supplier;
- Look into what powers the city has to regulate the source of animals sold in stores;
- Grandfather the three existing stores in Richmond into buying their dogs from bonafide kennels.
http://www2.canada.com/richmondnews/news/story.html?id=316e2b0e-3dc1-4662-89f7-d825e84dff46&p=2
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