MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — The Manatee Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to ban pet stores from selling dogs and cats in the county.
After hours of comment from animal activists and pet store advocates, the ordinance was passed in a 4-3 vote.
This means Manatee County is joining the likes more than 80 cities and counties in Florida, including Hillsborough, Pinellas and Sarasota counties, that have already voted to ban animal sales.
It's an issue that has garnered support for years from animal activists nationwide who are looking to shut down what they call the "puppy mill pipeline," which is the system of breeding and importing hundreds of puppies, often in cramped and cruel conditions, to be sold to customers in pet stores.
"For every cute puppy in a local pet store display case, there is a mother dog who knows nothing but life in a small, rusty cage and is treated as nothing more than a breeding machine," said John Goodwin, the senior director of the Humane Society of the United States’ Stop Puppy Mills campaign in a statement to 10 Tampa Bay.
"This cycle of cruelty needs to stop."
Several self-identified animal rights activists echoed this sentiment during Tuesday's meeting, one adding "I don’t need to quote people who have bought puppy mill dogs from pet stores, telling about the health problems the dogs have and the enormous vet bills they’ve incurred. If you’ve done any research on this, you know that.”
Currently, Manatee County is home to three puppy-selling pet stores, including Petland Bradenton, Petland Sarasota and Nino’s Puppy Boutique. And the Humane Society says these stores alone were responsible for importing hundreds of puppies into the county between 2019 to 2021.
Neil Benecke spoke at the meeting to represent the interests of Petland stores in the area.
“There is no doubt that this pet ban will shut down our business," he said, arguing that this is a nuanced issue that cannot be solved with a simple ban.
Petland Bradenton responded to 10 Tampa Bay upon request for comment:
"While activists publicly claim to support animal welfare, there is no evidence that pet sale bans have eliminated a single puppy mill or improved animal welfare. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Bans are pushing families to buy their pets over the internet or in the dark corners of the unregulated pet trade. A space without any oversight. A space that lacks transparency, animal welfare standards, consumer protection and consumer choice. This does not promote animal welfare.
"Furthermore, this type of ordinance will lead to unemployment for more than 50 people and will shut down businesses that have been operating legally and responsibly in the area for more than 37 years. Businesses that were deemed 'essential' during the pandemic and will now be forced to close."
Nino's Puppy Boutique's posted a statement on its website, which reads, "The belief that all pet stores are fed by puppy mills is false; there are many types of breeders, there are very bad but also there are very good certified and reputable ones."
The Sarasota-based store adds that all of its puppies come from top quality breeders and that it supports "taking into account the adoption process first."
Julio Lopez, one of the owners of Nino's Puppy Boutique, did tell 10 Tampa Bay that the store only gets puppies from certified breeders, but that they often come with health problems including parvo, distemper, and bordetella which cost the store money in treatments, clinical procedure, and veterinary visits.
Once the ordinance takes effect, people looking to become pet owners in Manatee County will have to turn to adoption services from organizations responsible for rescuing and rehoming animals.
Although it's unclear when exactly this will happen, the ordinance says the ban will go into effect as soon as it is filed with the Florida Department of State.
