PHOENIX — Saying it’s the best deal animal rights advocates will get, a Senate panel voted to bar cities, including Tucson, from keeping pet stores from selling commercially bred dogs and cats.
The 5-3 vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday came after Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, added what he said are some teeth to the proposal to ensure that pet stores are acquiring their animals only from reputable breeders who comply with all U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations. That includes a $1,000 fine for a first violation — and a ban on selling anything but rescue and shelter animals for a third violation within five years.
And Kavanagh promised to add new provisions when HB 2163 goes to the full Senate. That includes a requirement that pet shops provide the name of the breeder to prospective buyers, allowing them to investigate for themselves the conditions in which the animal was bred.
The changes were enough to convince the Humane Society of the United States, which had opposed earlier versions of the measure, to withdraw its objections. Ditto for former state lawmaker Nancy Young Wright, who had been working to get Tucson to outlaw the sale of commercially bred animals and had testified against an earlier version of the legislation.
But none of that satisfied Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson.
“The USDA standards that we are now enshrining in law and enforcing in law are laughable if they weren’t so sad,” he said.
“They do not protect these animals,” Farley continued, citing provisions that allow animals to be kept in cages day and night that are only 6 inches higher and longer than the animal itself, “a wire cage with a wire bottom, stacked on top, that only have to be cleaned once every two weeks.”
“We get the drift,” Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, said of Farley’s concerns. “You have somewhat of a valid point.”
Shooter said there is nothing the state can do to alter the USDA standards.
Kavanagh conceded the deal pleases both the breeding industry and the pet stores that sell their animals.
