Who bred that doggy in the window? Olympia eyes pet store ban
Olympia is poised to ban pet stores from selling dogs and cats in an effort to curb the demand for puppy mills and kitten factories — controversial breeding operations that put profits over animals’ well-being.
Instead, stores would be limited to hosting nonprofit humane societies, animal rescues, and animal control agencies for adoption events.
The ordinance, which City Council members passed unanimously on its first reading Feb. 11, answers a call from local animal-welfare advocates who are concerned about a new business on the city’s west side.
‘This whole industry has a shadier side’
Shelters and responsible breeders make sure their animals have proper medical attention, are up-to-date on vaccines, and will share the medical history of an animal, Sarah Hock, executive director for Joint Animal Services, told The Olympian. Their cats and dogs are adopted out at the proper age — after about 8 or 10 weeks.
A reputable breeder, Hock said, also will let you see not just the puppy you want, but the whole litter and the conditions its mom has been living in. If the animal doesn’t end up being a good fit, they’ll often take the dog or cat back, and they usually won’t ship their animals.
By contrast, a puppy mill or kitten factory is in it for the money: There’s a lack of veterinarian care, to avoid paying those bills, Hock said, and mothers are often kept in confinement and bred every heat cycle until they can’t anymore and then are killed.
She paints a dark picture. And one she said is allowed to exist because USDA-licensed breeders operate under minimal rules.
“Even if they say that they’re licensed by the USDA, it doesn’t mean anything,” Hock said.
So, what if you want to “save” a puppy from that environment by buying one? Hock said that’s a misconception. She said puppy mills are responsible for 2 million puppies per year in the United States, and shelters are euthanizing almost 750,000.
“So, you’re not really necessarily saving an animal,” Hock said. “And the only way to really discourage puppy mills, the reason why they are in business, is because people are still willing to buy them.”
They buy them online and at pet stores that source from the mills or from brokers that serve as middlemen, Hock said.
Olympia City Council member Lisa Parshley, who’s a veterinarian and co-owner of Olympia Veterinary Cancer Center, sponsored the proposed city ordinance. She told The Olympian she’s “pretty versed” in industry problems, citing her work on the state Veterinary Medical Association executive board and at the national level.
”This whole industry has a shadier side, but there’s a really good group of people working to prevent this from happening,” she said.
Cutting off supply to curb demand
Parshley said Olympia’s ordinance is modeled off of other cities’ ordinances: Almost 300 U.S. cities and counties have passed retail pet sales bans, and California and Maryland have taken action as states, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ website.
Under the Olympia ordinance, shelters, animal control facilities, and breeders could continue selling directly to prospective owners, and local pet stores could continue hosting nonprofit humane societies, animal rescues, and animal control agencies for adoption events. But stores that buy puppies and kittens and resell them would be banned starting 30 days after the ordinance is published.
A store out of compliance would face a $50 fine on a first offense, $125 on a second, and $250 on a third. Deputy City Attorney Annaliese Harksen told The Olympian the city also could seek an injunction in court to get a store to stop what they’re doing.
Any stores operating that way would need to change their practices by Sept. 15, 2020.
The idea, Harksen said, “is to protect the consumer, protect the animals,” and “to not provide this outlet and this incentive for these puppy mills or kitten mills to flourish.”
Harksen and Parshley said the new rule isn’t targeting any specific establishment, but rather is targeting a practice. The public comment that spurred action on the issue, however, was more narrowly aimed.
The store that sparked the outcry
When local residents started coming to City Council meetings, voicing a need for regulations, that’s when the council “stepped up” to support them with this ordinance, Council member Parshley told The Olympian.
“This community is pretty passionate about a lot of things, which is one of the things I really love about our town,” Parshley said.
Animal-welfare advocates started testifying at the council’s weekly meetings Jan. 21, a few weeks before the first vote on an ordinance.
One of the people who testified is Ashly Dale, Washington State Team Leader for Bailing Out Benji, a nonprofit with a mission to educate about puppy mills and their connection to pet stores.
Dale also testified at a public hearing earlier this month for a bill in the Washington state Legislature that would make similar rules state law, and testified on the same bill last year, according to The News Tribune’s previous reporting. The bill didn’t make it out of committee.
Dale lives in Puyallup and first started researching puppy mills when a store called Puppyland opened in Pierce County, she told The Olympian in a phone interview.
Records, which are now publicly available online from the state Department of Agriculture, show Puppyland was getting puppies from a business in Iowa called JAK’s Puppies.
The Iowa Attorney General’s Office sued to shut down JAK’s and two nonprofits last year, according to Des Moines Register reporting, alleging they were part of a national “puppy laundering” ring designed to bypass bans on puppy-mill pet sales.
The state alleged that a nonprofit had been buying purebred and designer puppies that JAK’s would get from puppy mills, according to the Register. Then, the nonprofit would sell the dogs as rescues.
Inspection results made available online by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that JAK’s was USDA-compliant in its most recent routine inspection in March 2019. There were 233 puppies on site, according to that inspection, and no adult dogs. Dale called the operation a “broker,” and said records show JAK’s pulls from hundreds of mills.
Dale also takes issue with some of Puppyland’s business practices: She says they sell puppies before they’re spayed or neutered, there’s no application process, no substantive plan to re-home a pet if a new owner can’t keep it, and it offers financing to pay for pups.
Puppyworld owners testify
When Dale learned the same owners were opening a store on Olympia’s west side called Puppyworld, she reached out to local animal welfare activists. Dale pointed to state Department of Agriculture records released this week that show the store in Olympia gets puppies from JAK’s, too.
The Olympian tried to contact Puppyworld’s owners via email and phone calls to the Puyallup location and did not receive a response.
However, at the Feb. 4 city council meeting, the owners, Kayla and Justin Kerr, testified that others’ accusations were false. She said the business gets puppies from licensed breeders they handpick and visit.
Justin Kerr said this sort of business can be done right, and that they’ve “been doing it the right way.” They cited their health guarantees, which are featured on their website.
According to the site, there’s a 15-day “viral guarantee” and a 10-year hereditary/congenital warranty. Customers can replace a puppy that dies from a congenital or hereditary condition within the first year with a puppy of equal or lesser value. Between ages 2 and 10, if a puppy dies from such a condition, customers get 50% store credit for a new puppy.
“We hope you’ll take the time to visit our store and see why it’s important for people in Olympia to have a safe place to purchase a puppy so that they can stay clear of things like Craigslist, online scams, and purchasing a puppy on the side of the road,” Kayla Kerr said.
Activists at work
Local advocates Cyndy Hahn and Michelle Andrews are part of an informal local group that wants to see stronger laws preventing animal cruelty and neglect — you might see them around town wearing purple.
Hahn said the Puppyworld store opened in February, and a post on the store’s Facebook page on Feb. 6 implied it was open. But when The Olympian visited the storefront on Capital Mall Drive last week, the door was locked, and no one could be seen from the window. Just puppies.
An employee at the Puyallup location told The Olympian the store was opening March 1. The ordinance is on the council’s agenda for a second reading Tuesday.
Hahn said she attended Puppyworld protests the last two weekends and that there was another one planned for this weekend.
“It was offensive that they would open a store like that in my hometown,” Andrews said in a phone interview with The Olympian. “The culture of Olympia is the polar opposite — we don’t condone stuff like that. The breeders that I know are very particular of who they’re selling their puppy to, not just that they can make money.”
To see the council pass an ordinance so quickly surprised Dale, and Hahn said it feels empowering.
“I feel honored to be a part of Olympia,” she said.
This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
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