The Orange County government has directed staff to research the possibilities of a county-wide ban on retail pet sales, according to a County spokeswoman.
The County held a work session on Tuesday, July 5 to entertain a move to restrict sales of cats and dogs in the region but nothing formal has been adopted at this time. According to the County workshop material, there are currently 80 jurisdictions that ban retail pet sales, including Palm Beach and Hillsborough Counties, and most recently Lake and Seminole. The remaining 76 are all municipalities.
Bans like this are meant to encourage prospective pet owners to adopt homeless animals from shelters and local rescue groups rather than from breeders and brokers.
According to the presentation shared at the County work session, embedded below, there are currently over 1,900 facilities in the County that are licensed to breed dogs for sale, with over 165,000 dogs being kept for breeding in those same facilities; resulting in over two million puppies sold each year from commercial breeding facilities. These high-volume breeders are referred to as “puppy mills.”
See the presentation shared at the workshop below.
