INDIANAPOLIS — The capitol city has become the latest municipality in Indiana to pass an ordinance banning the sale of dogs, cats, and other types of animals at pet stores.
The Indianapolis City-County Council approved the ban Monday night that bans the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits that are bred for commercial purposes. The endgame of the legislation is to squeeze and eventually help phase out puppy mills and other commercial breeding operations and encourage people to adopt from animal shelters.
“The proposal will encourage constituents to adopt from animal shelters, encourage pet stores to partner with shelters and rescues to adopt out, and protect consumers,” the council said in a news release.
“With this initiative, our city will join an effort that has already shrunk the demand for puppy mills and will ease the burden on Animal Care Services,” said Councilor John Barth.
Carmel and Bloomington are other cities in Indiana that have passed similar ordinances. Under the ordinance, any current pet stores that sell dogs, cats, and rabbits will have two years to come into compliance with the new rules.
Stores like PetSmart are exempt as the dogs and cats they sell come from local shelters.
The ordinance, proposed by Barth along with councilors Zach Adamson, Jason Larrison, Dan Boots, and Ali Brown, was a race against the clock with the Indiana state legislature considering a bill that would ban such ordinances from being enacted.
Senate Bill 134 was recently adopted by the Indiana Senate and is now under consideration in the Indiana House. Supporters say that the bill, like Ohio-based pet store chain Petland, says ordinances banning the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits will only promote nefarious trading of animals.
“Activists promote and push retail pet sale bans to eliminate mills. However it remains a fact that activists can’t point to a single puppy mill that was closed because of passage of a ban,” Elizabeth Kunzelman, vice president of legislative and public affairs with Petland, said last month. “Instead, pet store bans actually promote the use of underground pet trading.”
However, the bill also grandfathers in existing ordinances. This means that any ordinances banning the sale of animals at pet stores will be allowed to stay in place, but if the bill becomes law Indiana cities will not be able to adopt new bans.
This means if the bill is passed the ordinance just approved by the city of Indianapolis would remain in place.
