Shorter leash needed on pet stores to discourage puppy mills

For years now, the puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline has produced tremendous misery and heartache in Florida. The sale of puppies in pet stores leads to sick dogs, in-store neglect and suffering, hundreds of consumer complaints, dozens of lawsuits, outrageous interest rates and deceptive sales tactics. That’s why it’s a shock to see some state lawmakers going out of their way to protect bad actors in the puppy-selling pet store industry.

SB 994/HB 849, which cleared its first Senate committee Jan. 11, would void the ordinances enacted last year in Manatee and Orange counties that phase out the retail sale of puppy mill puppies and require stores to adopt a humane pet store model. This bill would also prevent the introduction of any future ordinances of that kind.

A public records request to Florida’s attorney general for pet store consumer complaints resulted in a torrent of disclosures, encompassing 800 pages of documents from 2019-2021. No wonder Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office remains involved in ongoing litigation against a Florida Petland store. A complaint alleges the store “misrepresent[ed] to consumers that the puppies are healthy, high-quality animals, and fit for sale, when in fact, in some instances, puppies have died soon after being purchased or suffered from congenital or other hereditary disorders.”

Commentary: Target puppy mills, not caring pet stores

OPINION: Let's end the puppy-mill pipeline in Florida

More: Iowa has third-largest number of problem 'puppy mills,' Humane Society says, naming 11 businesses

Quite predictably, there has been an influx of campaign contributions from puppy-selling pet store interests, including Petland, which operates 15 of the more than 80 puppy-selling retail stores in Florida. The Jan. 11 commentary from a pet store owner, “Target puppy mills, not caring pet stores” offers the basic rationale that industry lobbyists are pushing at the capitol. They’d like us to believe SB994/HB849 would put Florida’s pet stores on track to stop themselves from buying puppies from bad breeders, which they’ve demonstrated they do not wish to do. The provisions that appear to regulate pet stores are largely meaningless and unenforceable. Pet stores would still be free to buy from unregulated breeders and breeders with certain violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, just as they have been doing for years. The pet stores know what many Floridians do not, that federal standards are minimal and ineffectual, allowing breeding dogs to spend their entire lives in wire cages only six inches larger than their bodies, among other cruelties.

Public records show that in the past year, at least 30 Florida pet stores bought puppies from one of the worst puppy mills in the country. This Iowa breeder received over 120 Animal Welfare Act violations before the U.S. Department of Agriculture revoked his license and the Department of Justice sued him, resulting in a settlement that led him to relinquish over 500 dogs. The violations were not trivial: dogs wallowing in feces, debris and trash, dead dogs lying in their midst, dogs suffering from heat distress, a case of severe emaciation, a dog with injuries from a fight, and others in need of veterinary care.

This is the kind of cruel and shabby facility Florida pet stores keep in business. Their reliance on puppy mills is a guarantee that mother dogs are bred repeatedly and suffer immensely until their bodies wear out and are tossed away like trash. It’s rare for the USDA to issue citations like the ones imposed on the Iowa breeder, making it clear we cannot rely on federal agencies or Florida pet stores to keep these breeders honest and humane.

We can only hope that state lawmakers will give some thought to the values of Floridians who have been appalled, and in some cases, betrayed, by the puppy mill-selling pet store industry in the state, and put Petland and the other supporters of this unworthy measure back on their haunches.

Kate MacFall is the Florida state director for the Humane Society of the United States.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida pet stores need stronger regulation to discourage puppy mills