California lawmakers announced three bills Tuesday, with the aim of cracking down on puppy sales from out-of-state mass breeders. Consumer protection.
The move, in a Times survey last year, revealed that many doodles, French bulldogs and other expensive dogs from profit-led popular breeders were poured into the state from the Midwest, and was small. It happened after it was discovered that people who claim to be supplying the underground markets they are selling again. A breeder from a local family.
California had previously tried to end its puppy factory pipeline when it became the first state in the nation to sell commercial dogs from 2019. However, the law did not apply to online pet sales. COVID-19 pandemic.
Rep. Mark Berman (D-Menlo Park) said his bill would close a loophole in California’s pet retail ban by banning brokers from selling or shipping dogs to state consumers. Congressional Bill 519 Broker defines it as a person or business that sells or transports a dog that someone else has bred. This includes major national pet retailers such as Pupyspot, Puppies.com and Premier Pups, as well as California-based businesses that sell themselves as pet matchmakers.
“The ban on brokers is a big swing. It’s one of the final valves that can be closed for a puppy factory pipeline to California” – supporting three bills from the San Diego Humane Society.
The bill does not apply to police dogs or service animals. Consumers can purchase directly from breeders, including those that are out of state.
“A report from The Times last fall really discovered this major underground market. -State Puppy Mills,” Berman said.
Invoices by Congressman Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) include a PET purchase agreement involving a California buyer if the broker requires a non-refundable deposit or does not provide the breeder’s name prior to payment. Disable. Sellers must return the payment within 30 days under AB 506, and the bill allows the California Attorney General to enforce that provision. Bennett said the measure would ensure that consumers have the information they need before purchasing family pets.
“The bottom line means that the contract is invalid if you don’t accurately identify the source,” he said.
Some pet sellers do not advertise the breeders of the dogs they use. Instead, we provide general guarantees to future buyers working with trusted partner breeders. The Times discovered that some brokers using such languages actually buy large quantities from mass breeding facilities.
Others who sell dogs on social media, online marketplaces, or on their websites claim to be small local breeders, but the Times sold dog microchips to out-of-state puppy factories I tracked the number.
In California, all dogs brought to the state for sale have a list of federally certified veterinarians that the animal came, its destination and verification issued by the health of travelling. A book is required.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture has mistakenly received these health certificates from other states for a long time – records are to go to the county’s public health department – and in recent years they will quickly destroy them It has become a practice. The dog importers who were to file records with the county rarely did that.
The Times survey analyzed more than 71,000 dogs have moved to California since 2019, when the pet retail ban was enacted. The travel certificate showed how a network of resellers, including former Conn’s and Schemers, replaced pet stores as middlemen. Dogs taken from out of state are often rebranded as California products, and in some cases pet owners may be heartbroken when a new puppy gets sick or dies, or on veterinary bills. I was facing a thousand dollars.
Reporters have identified dozens of people (some use fake names and addresses) listed as importing more than 80 dogs into the state each years after the retail ban. Some were listed on travel certificates as destinations for over 500 puppies.
After the Times report, lawmakers and animal advocates will halt “destruction of evidence” to the state Agriculture Department and maintain travel certificates that will help establish which dogs are illegally imported into the state. I asked for it. The department then began to keep records, but released them to the Times with extensive editing.
Sen. Tom Amberg, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the records were moving to make them public. Under his bill, SB 312, pet sellers must share travel certificates with the state farming agency. The bill also ensures that records will not be edited and remain open to the public beyond that.
Travel records list the names and addresses of buyers and sellers when their dogs are coming to California from another state. While buyers’ personal information disclosure is likely to raise privacy concerns, Umberg hopes that lawmakers will conclude social interests that ensure animals and consumers are protected from bad actors. He said there was. In many cases, the dog’s microchip number is listed in the document. This helps pet owners determine where their dog is from.
“This transparency provides a level of accountability that doesn’t exist in California at the moment,” Amberg said.
Juliana Tetrow, senior director of government relations at the San Diego Humane Society, said it was a time when the state was using pet travel certificates as an essential transparency tool.
“The problem we’re really trying to get now is that people think they have locally sourced or locally bred puppies, so they unintentionally support the puppy factory industry from the Midwest. That’s what it is,” Tetrow said. “Major goals for this [legislative package] It’s about preventing that deception. ”
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