The city of Jacksonville Beach has banned the sale of cats and dogs that come from so-called puppy mills.
Jacksonville Beach is the 37th city in Florida to pass similar ordinances.
Jax Beach is the second city in Northeast Florida, behind Fernandina Beach, to regulate pet shops’ sale of dogs and cats. But don't call it a ban, says Jacksonville Beach City Manager George Forbes.
“You can still sell dogs and cats in pet stores,” Forbes said. “It just requires that if you’re going to sell dogs and cats from pet stores, that they’ve got to be ones that are from a shelter or animal rescue organization.”
Forbes says there were some concerns about infringing on commerce rights, but most reactions have been positive since the Jacksonville Beach City’s Council’s vote on Monday.
Nicole Brose, with First Coast No More Homeless Pets, says, aside from helping shut down puppy mills, the new regulation helps incentivize shelter adoption.
“It’s going to definitely benefit animal welfare as a whole. It’s going to get people really checking out these shelters and finding their next pet that way,” Brose said. “So then we can truly eliminate all the killing of dogs and cats in shelters.”
But the Council’s move may not have much of an effect. Brose says one Jax Beach pet store was selling animals that weren't from shelters, but it closed within the past year.
