Pet stores can't sell puppies under Cooper bill Retail businesses could only display or showcase puppies available for adoption through a shelter By Patricia Proven & Elana Glowatz
July 27, 2011 | 04:19 PM
Alterations have been made on Suffolk Majority Leader Jon Cooper's bill restricting puppy sales.
The most significant change to the legislation, which is set for a second public hearing Tuesday, Aug. 2, is "to more clearly differentiate between good and bad breeders," said Cooper (D-Lloyd Neck), who introduced the bill with Legislator Ed Romaine.
A revision aims to ban the retail sale in Suffolk County of puppies from "substandard commercial breeding facilities" and takes aim at these breeders versus hobby breeders.
The updated resolution prohibits local pet stores from selling any puppies, allowing them only to "display or showcase puppies available for adoption through an animal shelter or an animal rescue organization." Hobby breeders — smaller, family operations — are not prohibited from selling puppies.
http://www.northshoreoflongisland.co...ll.Bill.1w.jpg Click on the photo to view the full text of Legislator Cooper's bill.
Cooper said people in the industry know the difference between puppy mills — with hundreds of female dogs on the premises — and smaller, family-owned hobby breeders, with only a couple of female dogs on-site. Small scale operations are better able than larger establishments to care for and socialize the animals, he argued. Also, banning puppy mill sales in Suffolk would encourage sales of puppies from hobby breeders as well as promote adoptions from local animal rescue shelters, Cooper said.
Mahlon Goer, a Dog Federation of New York board member, said, "While at first glance it may seem like a positive approach, our concern is that it may do more harm than good." She said the legislation could "shut down many, if not all, pet stores in Suffolk County which are lawfully-operated small businesses."
Goer said the problem with Cooper's bill is "a misunderstanding about the sources of the animals that are offered for sale by pet stores," and stressed it is not true they are all abused. She said legitimate pet shops in New York are licensed, regulated and inspected and the legislation, if it proves detrimental to those businesses, could force people who do not want to adopt a dog from a shelter to turn to illegitimate shops.
After speaking with both hobby breeders and pet store owners, Cooper said, he revised the bill, "working on the premise that any commercial breeder that would sell to a pet store almost certainly is a substandard breeder." He said hobby breeders told him they would not sell their puppies to a pet store "because they would lose control over who is the ultimate family for the puppies from their litter."
The law is enforceable because whenever a puppy is sold, the accompanying paperwork must show where the puppy came from. However, there have been instances in Suffolk where such papers were forged, Cooper said.
Any person or store caught selling puppy mill dogs could pay $500 or $1,000 per puppy, penalties that remain unchanged from the original legislation.
The public hearing is scheduled for this Tuesday during the Legislature meeting at 6:30 pm, in the W.H. Rogers Legislature Building, 725 Veterans Memorial Highway, Hauppauge.