The Common Council, during the 04/07/2021 Council meeting, was going to vote on the Resolution banning the sale of cats and dogs by pet stores; however, Alderperson Michael Smith (District 10) asked for the item to be referred back to committee for reasons recapped below. Two members of the public did speak on the item during the public comment period.
Hannah Herzog wanted to show her support for the ordinance. She has been an Appleton resident for most of her life. Over the last year, her knowledge of puppy mills has grown tremendously, and she doesn’t want that inhumane industry in our community. One way to prevent that is to pass this ordinance. Most puppy-selling pet stores do sell puppy mill dogs. Our community is fortunate to have great pet stores that only provide services to help dogs and cats get adopted from shelters in the areas. In the early 2000s a well known puppy-selling pet store did open in the Fox Cities area but it did not last long as the community was against what they did. She was not about business owners losing their businesses or responsible breeders not being allowed to breed dogs. But, she was against breeding dogs or cats in mass quantities, keeping them in wire cases, transporting them all over the country, and keeping them stored in pet stores with little to no vet care. That is what she has a problem with and wants to prevent coming into our growing community. She was not speaking just on behalf of those wrongly-treated animals but also to prevent buyers who get drawn in by the doggy in the window and have no idea what they’re in for. Our community has great rescues and shelters that have loads of animals looking for homes. We also have a strong, caring community that does it’s best to help those in need including pets. The thanked the Common Council for their consideration on this ordinance and for protecting cats and dogs as well as Appleton consumers.
Christin Schubert is one of the Wisconsin team leads for the organization Bailing Out Benji. Bailing out Benji is a non profit dedicated to education and raising awareness of puppy mills and their connection to pet stores. They do this by collecting thousands of certificates of veterinary inspection also called CVIs. They obtain these records directly from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture. Since commercially bred puppies are regulated, they cannot be transported across Wisconsin state lines without a CVI. The CVIs provide documentation on where the puppies are coming from and where they are going. Their research shows that Wisconsin pet stores are obtaining puppies from 8 different states beside Wisconsin, two of which, Missouri and Iowa, are home to some of the worst puppy mills in the nation. Per Christin, a puppy mill is a commercial dog breeding operation where the breeder puts profit over the welfare of the parent dogs. In puppy mills dogs live in small cages with wire bottom flooring and are bred repeatedly. These dogs rarely, if ever receive veterinary care or proper nutrition. In 2019 alone, Wisconsin pet stores imported almost 2,000 puppies from out of state puppy mills, many of which house hundreds of adult breeding dogs and have violations. One of the Wisconsin Petland locations purchased hundreds of puppies from the Indiana broker who was at the root of a campylobacter outbreak.
Not only will implementing this ordinance stop the puppy mill to pet store pipeline, but it will also protect Appleton consumers. Besides sourcing dogs from inhumane mills, pet stores also offer financing for the puppies. She was recently in a pet store holding a cavapoo puppy that had a price of $3,200. When she was told the price, the pet store owner immediately saw her eyes widen and they grabbed information on financing options or applying for an in-store credit card. She soon realized that pet stores are charging upwards of 188% interest on these loans, leases, and credit cards.
Consumers generally aren’t aware of the conditions that a puppy or kitten was born in. Because dogs at puppy mills generally do not receive ideal levels of socialization or veterinary care, unsuspecting consumers often obtain puppy mill puppies and then face an array of veterinary or behavioral problems on top of the initial high sticker price of the puppy. These problems can be a financial and emotional burden for the dog’s family.
Christin stated that she has personal experience with this hardship when she adopted her dog. She came from a puppy mill in northern Wisconsin. When she was rescued, all of her teeth had to be removed. She had extensive ear surgery due to polyps forming from untreated ear infections. And she had mammary tumors and suffered a skin condition. She had little to no veterinary care in almost 7 years of living in that mill. Since her adoption Christin has been battling behavioral issues, and unfortunately the dog has had surgeries due to recurring tumors. When asked, the vet told Christin that the tumors were genetic, so Christin can’t imagine the financial hardship that the owners of her dog’s puppies are facing if her genetic condition was passed on to them.
Per Christin, passing this ordinance will not only send a message that Appleton doesn’t support this cruel industry, but it will also protect its residents from predatory lending and the financial and emotional hardships that come with purchasing a pet store puppy.
The Common Council did not take the matter up during the meeting because Alderperson Smith referred it back to committee. He couldn’t remember if he was allowed to speak on that or not, and the mayor initially said he could not; however, Alderperson Kyle Lobner (District 13) brought up a point of order and pointed out that a refer back does require a reason.
Alderperson Smith said he listened to the Safety and Licensing Committee’s discussion on this matter and felt that there really wasn’t much discussion. He wanted to know how sincere of a problem this issue is, and said that they have received emails from the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council’s Deputy Director of Government Affairs about how this would harm the industry. If he was going to take a vote on something like this he wanted to have a clear conscience that they’ve done their due diligence to investigate that this is definitely a serious problem that they need to address. Or is this something that they’re just looking at doing because they think it’s the right thing to do. He wanted to make sure they’re doing it for the right reasons.
[I think Alderperson Smith makes a good point. The proposed ordinance does seem overly broad to me. While puppy mills are bad, a blanket ban of all pet stores selling any dogs or cats regardless of whether or not those dogs and cats came from puppy mills seems like a needlessly excessive response and would prevent stores from offering even ethically sourced animals. And, is it even necessary given that no Appleton pet stores sell dogs and cats and, as Hannah Herzog mentioned the one pet store in the area within the last 2 decades that sold cats and dogs failed because the community did not approve of their practices?
I’m also curious if this ban is not just to protect animals but also, as Christin Schubert argued, to offer consumer protection for pet buyers, is Safety and Licensing the only committee that it should come in front of? Certainly the Safety and Licensing committee did not discuss the value of this ordinance as it relates to consumer protection.]
At any rate, we will see how the discussion progresses at the next Safety and Licensing committee meeting.
View the full Common Council meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=851822&GUID=EDFB6A15-8566-46DC-911D-4643CD7A5D33&Options=info|&Search=
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