Bill Text: NJ ACR136 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Encourages municipalities to require that pet shops only sell cats or dogs obtained from shelters, pounds, or animal rescue organizations, and counties to enforce requirement wherever adopted.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-02-08 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee [ACR136 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-ACR136-Introduced.html
ASSEMBLY CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 136
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
217th LEGISLATURE
INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 8, 2016
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman PAMELA R. LAMPITT
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
SYNOPSIS
Encourages municipalities to require that pet shops only sell cats or dogs obtained from shelters, pounds, or animal rescue organizations, and counties to enforce requirement wherever adopted.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
A Concurrent Resolution encouraging municipalities to require that pet shops only sell cats or dogs obtained from shelters, pounds, or animal rescue organizations, and counties to enforce the requirement wherever adopted.
Whereas, For more than two decades, the media has reported that large-scale, commercial breeding facilities often engage in poor breeding practices and provide inadequate living conditions for their cats or dogs; and
Whereas, These facilities, commonly referred to as "kitten mills" and "puppy mills," often produce cats and dogs that have serious illnesses or congenital defects, which lead to an early death for the cat or dog or thousands of dollars of veterinary expenses for the consumer who purchased the cat or dog; and
Whereas, According to the Humane Society of the United States, an estimated 10,000 puppy mills produce more than 2,400,000 puppies each year in the United States, and hundreds of thousands of these puppies are sold to pet shops for resale to would-be pet owners; and
Whereas, The "Pet Purchase Protection Act," P.L.1999, c.336 (C.56:8-92 et seq.), was enacted by the Legislature to attack this problem in New Jersey, but has not yet resulted in eliminating pet shops in the State dealing in cats and dogs from kitten mills and puppy mills; and
Whereas, Shelters, pounds, and animal rescue organizations in the State are often in desperate need of finding homes for the cats and dogs in their care when they can no longer sufficiently fund proper housing and feeding of those animals; and
Whereas, An estimated 21,000 cats and dogs are euthanized in New Jersey annually, many of which could be spared if an owner could be found for the animal; and
Whereas, The Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders proposed in September 2015 that pet shops only sell cats and dogs obtained from shelters, pounds, or animal rescue organizations; and
Whereas, Such a requirement seems prudent in the face of the amount of suffering imposed on both pet owners and their pets by these poor breeding practices and attendant living conditions, but each municipality has been granted by State law the authority to license pet shops; and
Whereas, In lieu of being required to do so by the State, each municipality should be allowed to determine whether such a requirement should be imposed in the municipality; and
Whereas, It also seems efficacious and reasonable for a county to help a municipality enforce this requirement, if established in any municipality within the county; and
Whereas, It is all together fitting and proper for the Legislature to encourage, but not require, each municipality in the State to establish the requirement, by adoption of a resolution or ordinance, as appropriate, that the pet shops within its jurisdiction only sell cats or dogs obtained from shelters, pounds, or animal rescue organizations, and the county within which any such municipality is located to help enforce any such resolution or ordinance.
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey (the Senate concurring):
1. Each municipality in the State is encouraged to establish the requirement, by adoption of a resolution or ordinance, as appropriate, that pet shops within its jurisdiction only sell cats or dogs obtained from shelters, pounds, or animal rescue organizations. Each municipality is also encouraged to establish this requirement as a condition for licensing a pet shop.
2. Each county is encouraged to help enforce any such resolution or ordinance adopted by a municipality within the county's jurisdiction, and each county is encouraged to accept and implement this enforcing authority.
3. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly or the Secretary of the Senate to the Governor, the Commissioner of Health, the New Jersey League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Association of Counties, and the governing body of each municipality and county in the State.
STATEMENT
This concurrent resolution encourages each municipality in the State to establish the requirement that pet shops within its jurisdiction only sell cats or dogs obtained from shelters, pounds, or animal rescue organizations. The municipality would accomplish this by adopting a resolution or ordinance, as appropriate. The concurrent resolution also encourages each municipality, where such a requirement is established, to allow for the county in which the municipality is located to help enforce the resolution or ordinance, and each such county to accept and implement this enforcing authority.
