Camden County Bans Sale of Animals Bred in Puppy Mills

The Camden County Freeholder Board passed legislation aimed at prohibiting the sale of animals bred in puppy mills at pet stores in Camden County Thursday night during a meeting that saw strong opinions from all sides and featured cheers, boos and standing ovations from the crowd that gathered at the Voorhees Town Center.

The new legislation, known as Norman’s Law, passed with a unanimous 6-0 vote. Freeholder Michelle Gentek-Mayer wasn’t in attendance because she was giving a speech on sustainability in Connecticut.

Officially, the resolution bans the sale of dogs and cats at pet shops, and encourages the county’s 37 municipalities to adopt similar ordinances, to be enforced by the Department of Public Health.

It is named after Camden County Freeholder Jeff Nash’s dog, Norman, who Nash rescued from a local shelter.

Pet shops are required to provide information on where they get their pets, but advocates of the legislation say pet shop owners often lie don’t provide that information, lie or are misinformed as to where the animals come from.

Pet shop owners who oppose the ordinance say they do provide the proper certification, and that this legislation will put them out of business.

Advocates say the legislation isn’t designed to put anyone out of business, and The Humane Society said it will help pet stores convert to adoption-only animal shelters.

There are 30 pet stores in the state. The Humane Society worked with the county to draft the legislation.

Nash sponsored the legislation after he saw groups of protesters gathered outside a recently opened pet store. He connected with Cherry Hill resident Alan Braslow, a member of the group, on social media.

Nash’s wife is a volunteer with the Humane Society, but he said it wasn’t until he researched the issue himself that he truly understood what was happening.

“Anyone who looked at this issue objectively would be equally horrified,” Nash said.

Puppy mill dogs and cats spend much of their lives in small cages and female dogs are bred as frequently as possible, county officials said.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, any high-volume commercial breeder that sells dogs for profit without providing public access to the breeding site, and breeds female dogs every time they come into heat, which is stressful to the animal’s system is a puppy mill.

Braslow said a group of between five and 50 protesters are out there protesting the store four days a week because he says the owner doesn’t disclose information about where his pets come from.

Patch isn’t naming the pet store because the owner wasn’t in attendance during Thursday night’s meeting. His attorney Chris DiFrancia, of DiFrancia and Price Law Firm out of Tuckerton, did attend the meeting and asked the freeholder board to consider postponing the vote to allow more discussion of the issue.

“My client wasn’t asked for his input,” DiFrancia said.

He said his client’s store does comply with state regulations, and claims that this legislation will push the sale of animals to unlicensed, unregulated breeders. He questioned why animal shelters and rescues aren’t regulated.

“Why not regulate them all?” DiFrancia asked. “Would you want to eat at a restaurant that was unregulated or take your kids to a daycare that was unregulated? No they all need a license. More people need to be at the table. Do you want to rush it or do you want to do this right?”

Nash said he hadn’t spoken with the owner of the store in question, but added that this legislation wasn’t about a particular store or business.

“This is about helping these poor animals that don’t have a voice of their own,” Nash said.

Amy Jesse of The Humane Society pointed to the case of Pets Plus Natural, which recently converted eight of its 10 stores into adoption-only centers. She said after the meeting that The Humane Society would be willing to work with any pet store owner who wished to convert his or her store.

There was a pet store owner who did come out Thursday night. She said that attacks on pet stores “defy logic and common sense” and show a lack of understanding of who pet store owners are.

“Owners care about their puppies and where they come from,” she said, adding that she provides information on where all her animals come from. “We want to match animals with the right owners.”

Jeff Morton, a licensed Animal Control Officer, argued that the best place to purchase an animal is a pet store in New Jersey because they are so heavily regulated.

“There’s no regulations to say where a shelter can get its animals from,” Morton argued.

However, their voices were among the minority during Thursday night’s meeting. Many more applauded the passing of the ordinance, including professional animal breeder Stephen J. Ware and his wife, Judi.

“I think this is one of the best pieces of legislation I’ve seen on this issue yet,” Stephen Ware said.

The final passage of the resolution received a round of applause.

The Camden County Health Department’s Division of Environmental Health regularly inspects all pet stores within Camden County. Their review will also include determining the origin of the pets for sale.

“When our Camden County Health Inspectors perform their routine visits of pet stores, they will require the shop owners to provide information on the animals being sold to the public,” Camden County Freeholder Carmen Rodriguez, liaison to the Camden County Health Department, said. “When they find any violations, they will report their findings to local authorities for prosecution.”

“More than 80 localities nationwide, including seven in New Jersey, have restricted the sale of puppy mill dogs in pet stores,” Kathleen Schatzmann, New Jersey state director for The Humane Society of the United States, said. “This ordinance will crack down on cruelty in puppy mills, but would also give homeless cats and dogs in Camden County a greater chance of finding a home.”

According to Nash, there are only four other similar pieces of legislation like the one passed Thursday night that exist in the entire country. He expects more to come, and said he’s received questions from other counties about this legislation.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if every county in the state had legislation like this soon,” Nash said.