Animal shelters nationwide are facing an overwhelming influx of animals, stretching their capacity to the limit. It's crucial to address this urgent situation, which can only be described as an epidemic. To tackle the root cause and create a meaningful impact, it is critical to put an end to backyard breeding and puppy mills.
Unfortunately, the public's preference for obtaining animals from breeders, backyard breeders, and puppy mills instead of adopting from animal shelters and rescue groups has led to an alarming surplus of intact animals. This surplus has made it nearly impossible for spay/neuter initiatives to keep up.
The issue of overpopulation stems from intact animals originating from breeders and irresponsible owners, who heavily market these animals to the public through advertisements, primarily in classifieds.
Eliminating or significantly reducing advertising would disrupt the breeding practices that flood the country with intact animals and take away the profits that drive these practices.
The key? Take the profits out of breeding.
A proposed regulation requires transparent registration and corresponding sales tax numbers prior to the acceptance of "pets for sale" advertisements. This regulation aims to hold backyard breeders, scammers, and enabling websites and publications accountable.
By restricting pets for sale advertisements, no ads can be legally ACCEPTED or PUBLISHED prior to compliance, with penalties for the acceptance of non-compliant ads.
It is evident that scammers or backyard breeders would be unwilling to complete comprehensive registration, providing identification, animal location, vaccinations, and veterinary health certificates. This tactic is intended to disrupt their operations, as no registration and sales tax number means no ad, no ads mean no sales, and no sales mean no profits.
Furthermore, imposing large civil penalties for ACCEPTING ads from those failing to register will discourage websites and publications and assure compliance. Eliminating or significantly restricting advertising from the illicit pet marketplace will yield substantial increases in shelter pet adoptions and reductions in animal intake and euthanasia.
Join the campaign to stop pet overpopulation and make a difference in the lives of animals in need.