DENVER (KDVR) — The city and county of Denver is officially the latest city in Colorado to have a ban on pet sales after Mayor Mike Johnston signed the ordinance on Thursday.
Denver City Council passed the ordinance earlier this week; however, since Denver pet stores are not actively selling pets at the moment, some are wondering why the city needed to make it law.
“Denver was voted the second most dog-friendly city in the United States,” said Roland Halpern, a member of the Metro Denver Animal Welfare Alliance.
Colorado residents, including those located in Denver, love animals, but some cities in the state already have ordinances in place regarding pet sales.
“Denver became number six of cities and townships throughout Colorado that are now prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats and rabbits, only some of the other address rabbits. We felt that was important too,” Halpern said.
Halpern said the goal of bans like the new one in Denver is to deter big-box pet retailers from coming into metro cities.
“If you are a large retail operation, you’re not going to want to open up in a small city that only has a population of a thousand or two thousand it’s just not going to be profitable for you. So the idea is that we can pass these prohibitions in the largest cities and townships is going to basically block these industrial, for lack of a better term, puppy and kitten manufacturers,” he said.
Sandy Moore with the Pet Advocacy Network opposed the legislation. She told FOX31 she believes bans like these are bad for consumers.
“We can all agree nobody wants to see an animal abused or raised in an inhumane manner. The pet industry has done quite a lot to improve the breeding standards across the country for dogs and cats and every other category of animals,” Moore said. “It creates lack of consumer protection, honestly. Lack of availability of well-bred dogs, there is no transparency in the supply chain. So you don’t really know where the animals are coming from. There’s less and less chance that they are going to be able to find an animal that suits their individual needs.”
Under the ordinance, local breeders will still be able to sell animals directly to customers and can still hold adoption events.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
