Olympia City Council unanimously adopts ban on retail sale of dogs and cats
The Olympia City Council has adopted an ordinance banning the retail sale of cats and dogs within city limits following impassioned testimony Tuesday night.
Supporters of the effort to combat controversial breeding operations such as puppy mills spoke out, as did people concerned that the ordinance, while well intended, will do more harm than good.
Council members voted unanimously to approve the ordinance on second reading Tuesday evening. Under the ordinance sponsored by council member Lisa Parshley, who is co-owner of Olympia Veterinary Cancer Center, existing pet stores have until Sept. 15 to cease the sale of dogs and cats.
Breeders who sell directly to pet owners are exempt from the new law, as are animal control services and nonprofit organizations such as rescue shelters. Animal rights activists brought the issue to the city council after learning the owners of Puyallup store Puppyland, Kayla and Justin Kerr, planned to open a similar outpost in west Olympia called Puppyworld. They also have a Puppyland storefront in Meridian, Idaho.
“They’re coming from a place where people don’t care and it’s all about the bottom dollar,” said Leah Brown, who helps run the nonprofit Lucky Paws Rescue in Tacoma.
“By letting them run the store here, or any others here selling puppies and kittens that are clearly coming from a puppy mill like we know these are coming from, what are we supporting?”
The Kerrs did not appear at Tuesday’s council meeting, but spoke in defense of their business practices during a council meeting on Feb. 4. Paula Sardinas, a consultant and lobbyist based in Federal Way, spoke Tuesday on behalf of the Kerrs and said afterwards that the family has retained legal counsel.
Sardinas said she and her husband, Albert Sardinas, had communicated with the Kerrs during the meeting via text message, and that they were “devastated” by the council’s actions. Puppyworld was slated to open March 1, but that appears unlikely to happen at this time.
“They were willing to compromise,” Sardinas said. “They’re not against ordinances, they just want the ordinance to be fair.”
Attempts to reach the Kerrs and their legal counsel were unsuccessful.
“We’ll give (the Kerrs) our report tomorrow,” Sardinas said. “I told the client, ‘This is what I think you ought to do: consult with legal counsel and consider suing the city. Look at your options to sue the council and sue the city.’”
Kellie Purce Braseth, strategic communications director for the city of Olympia, said she and other city officials were unable to comment due to the stated possibility of legal action.
At the core of concerns raised by local activists is the business relationship between the Kerr family and JAK’s Puppies, an Iowa-based company recently sued by that state’s attorney general’s office.
The lawsuit alleges JAK’s was selling dogs bred at puppy mills to nonprofits in an attempt to skirt bans targeting puppy mills, which have drawn widespread criticism for lack of veterinarian care and other shortfalls in the name of higher profit margins.
As to the claim that Puppyland and Puppyworld get their puppies directly from the embattled JAK’s, Paula Sardinas said activists were misrepresenting the facts of the relationship between the company and the Kerrs.
According to her, Justin and Kayla Kerr get their puppies from reputable breeders from across the country with whom they meet and vet. Puppies purchased by the Kerrs from those breeders are then sent to JAK’s facility in Iowa, where they’re held for initial health screenings and a first round of vaccines before continuing on to Washington.
The stop in Iowa serves as a checkpoint to ensure high levels of quality control, Sardinas said, adding the Kerrs have terminated relationships with breeders who did not meet their standards of care. The family is aware of the legal issues and other concerns facing JAK’s and has been exploring changes to that aspect of their business.
“They’ve been at this for less than a year,” Paula Sardinas said. “I think before you close someone’s doors because you don’t like their conduit, essentially a holding facility for the puppy between you and the breeder, give them time to find another option.”
While the short-term ramifications in Olympia remain unclear, an effort underway to push back at the state level has been stymied so far. Legislation similar to the ordinance passed by the city council has failed to make it out of committee during each of the past two legislative sessions.
According to Paula Sardinas, the Kerrs have expressed interest in joining with other pet store owners to pursue legislation next year that would preempt local bans like the one passed in Olympia.
“People understand there needs to be some reining in of the industry, but you need to go after bad actors, not bad owners,” Paula Sardinas said. “Our clients are good owners.”