The city of Bloomington, Indiana, has now banned the retail sale of cats and dogs.
Many animal rights extremists want to end the practice of humans having pets at all, and bills like this help pave the way.
The American Kennel Club has spoke out against the ordinance, warning that shutting down sales at reputable pet shops leads people to search for animals online — where scams and lack of regulations run rampant.
“[Online] is where there are a lot of scams, that is where we are seeing a lot of sick puppies sold and it’s this huge unregulated market that is unfortunately giving money to the very people that we want to stop,” Jennifer Clark, the AKC Director of Legislative Outreach, told local station WRTV.
The AKC promotes rescue and adoption, but are more realistic than animal rights organizations like the Humane Society, references to which were littered throughout the bill. They contend that poorly run puppy mills can be stopped in other ways, such as education and passing consumer protections laws.
Delilah’s Pet Shop, which has operated in Bloomington for over 40 years, expects the new law to cut into their revenue by 20-30 percent.
“You can’t damn a whole group of people because a few are bad, ” Leslie Henderson-Miller, who inherited Delilah’s Pet Shop from her parents, told the station.
Henderson-Miller explained that her shop only works with local breeders who usually only have one litter.
“The stigma behind pet shops, I get that. There is bad, there is bad at everything, but there is also good,” Henderson-Miller said. “We have their best interest. We want the best for them.”
Delilah’s Pet Shop still has puppies at the shop, and Henderson-Miller says she is still going to keep them until she sells them to good homes — despite a $500 fine that went into effect on New Year’s Day — because she does not want them to end up at animal shelters.
“We here at Delilah’s want to thank everyone who has supported us thru the years and have bought an animal or two (or more) from us. Thank you to all the I U students and all else who have come in thru the years just to play with our fur-babies. As most of you know we aren’t allowed to sell animals anymore due to a city ordnance that was passed. 
. The few pups in our store now are the last we can sell,” Henderson-Miller wrote on Facebook.
Henderson-Miller remains hopeful that her shop will be able to stay open.
