Last night a law that was under consideration this week by San Francisco's Commission of Animal Control and Welfare to ban the sale of companion pets was tabled. A companion pet includes everything but fish. The goal of this law was to address the issue of people taking on pets before they are ready and as a result placing them in shelters. It was also aimed to stop the support of puppy and kitten mills. If this law were to go through it would be the first of its kind in the nation and would mean all San Francisco residents who want a pet would have to purchase them in another city, from a shelter or rescue group, or through a classified ad.
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. On the one had I support the idea of minimizing the number of animals that are turned into shelters, and doing away with puppy and kitten mills all together, but I don't know about banning the sale of animals. If the problem is that people have misconceptions about animals before they buy them than maybe there needs to be a responsibility on the pet store to ensure that the purchaser is aware of the animals' habits and capable of caring for it in the way that shelters do. Or what about placing a ban on pet stores being able to purchase their animals from pet mills? It will be interesting to see where this all goes.
Have a great weekend everybody!
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