HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 4/16/2024 - Memorandum From Ginny Sawyer Re: Animal Welfare/Pet Store Follow-Up
City Manager’s Office
City Hall
300 LaPorte Ave.
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6505
970.224.6107 - fax
fcgov.com
MEMORANDUM
Date: April 11, 2024
To: Mayor and City Councilmembers
Through: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager
From: Ginny Sawyer, Project and Policy Manager
Subject: Animal Welfare/Pet Store Follow-up
Purpose:
This memorandum addresses recent inquiries from City Councilmembers related to a local
movement aimed at eliminating puppy and kitten sales in retail settings in Fort Collins. This
summarizes information gathered through the USDA, the State of Colorado, research from other
Colorado municipalities and a brief search of more academic related research studies. Specific
Council questions included:
1. Do local retail bans impact national dog breeding numbers?
2. What have other communities done?
Bottom Line:
Online research shows a decrease in the number of licensed dog breeding facilities
(4,600 in 2008 to 2900 in 2022); however staff could not verify these numbers or
attribute causation to any particular action or reason.
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA),
close to 300 U.S. cities and counties nationwide have passed retail pet sales ban
legislation. Fountain was the first Colorado municipality, of 14 total, to pass an
ordinance banning the sale of dogs and cats from pet stores (2011.) They are also the
only municipality that had an existing pet store selling pets and they allowed it to
continue operating.
Existing ordinances in Colorado
Ordinances addressing breeding and sales of puppies/kittens have been enacted in
fourteen Colorado municipalities. Most have banned the sale of dogs and cats from pet
stores; however, a couple of municipalities have banned all dog and cat sales generally.
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A pet store is typically defined as “a retail establishment where animals are sold,
exchanged, bartered, or offered for sale as pets to the general public at retail, but
excluding an animal care facility or animal rescue organization.”
All bans distinguish pet stores from lawfully operated non-profit animal organizations,
such as animal care facilities, shelters, and rescues, excluding such organizations from
the prohibition.
A few municipalities also distinguish pet stores from hobby breeders, which sell directly
to the public animals that were bred and reared on the premises, and which allow buyers
to speak directly with the breeder and view the actual conditions where the animals were
bred and reared.
The Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act (PACFA) Program is a licensing and inspection
program within the Colorado Department of Agriculture that licenses and inspects pet
animal facilities (Any person or firm who is operating a pet animal facility or business that
engages in selling, transferring, adopting, breeding, boarding, training, grooming,
sheltering, rescuing, or transporting pet animals may need to be licensed under PACFA.)
The current PACFA Active Facilities List shows 91 licenses in Fort Collins.
Additional online findings are highlighted below.
General Trends:
Research in this area produces a multitude of conflicting opinions, values, and data. Staff
did find one seemly relevant academic paper that utilized Colorado data sources and is cited
below.
Education campaigns, neutering practices, and increased pet ownership has led to a
geographic supply issue resulting in the importing of dogs and dogs being transported
across state lines. One article from 2019, “How outdated perceptions have reshaped dog
marketplace” states that as the campaigns from the 1980s and 1990s emerged to combat
an increasing number of dogs in shelters, the demand for shelter and rescue pets has
increased dramatically. The article states that, “Thirty years ago, animal shelters in most
regions of the country were filled with local dogs but shelters in many states today would not
have enough dogs to remain viable without importing rescue dogs from regions where
surplus dogs still exist.”
https://www.naiaonline.org/uploads/WhitePapers/Outdated__Perceptions_Dog_Marketplace2019.pdf
Colorado Specific:
Colorado has some of the most restrictive breeding licensing and requirements. This has
resulted in having no USDA level breeding facilities in the state which has raised concerns
as to why animals would be brought in from out of state facilities.
As mentioned, there are also regulations, inspections, complaint processes, and state-wide
data collection through the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s (CDA) Pet Animal Care
Facilities Act (PACFA) regulations.
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Federal Specific:
Many businesses that sell or adopt out dogs must be licensed or registered under the
Federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Breeders with more than 4 breeding females who sell puppies must be licensed.
USDA standards may be considered sub-par by some. The organization has suffered
cutbacks, the removal of public records, and deregulation in the recent past.
More recently, a 2023 Federal Appropriation bill “includes language requiring USDA
inspectors to record all violations they observe at regulated facilities on inspection reports. It
even directs the agency to reform its current licensing and enforcement procedures to better
protect animals and uphold the law.” (https://www.aspca.org/news/puppy-mill-update-new-
trend-dog-breeders-and-dealers.)
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