Our Kind of (Dog) Town, Richmond Is
Richmond, British Columbia, a Vancouver suburb, has become the first city in Canada to pass a ban on the sale of puppies in pet stores. The Richmond City Council will now write the bylaw detailing the specifics of the ban. The bylaw will then undergo a series of public consultations. If all goes as planned, Richmond pet stores will be puppy-free by April 2011.
Richmond’s ban comes on the heels of bans in South Lake Tahoe and West Hollywood on the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores.
The laws are intended to encourage shelter adoptions, reduce the numbers of impulsively purchased puppies who end up being turned over to animal shelters, and crack down on puppy mills, which are the leading suppliers of puppies to pet shops.
That rumbling you hear is the sound of thousands of shelter dogs’ tails thumping the floor in a canine version of the wave.
Written by Alisa Mullins
