At Monday’s marathon 13-hour Planning & Development Committee hearing, in addition to Work Live Ride HB 6831, there was testimony on HB 6832 concerning pet shops in Connecticut.
The act reads: “To authorize municipalities to adopt ordinances to prohibit the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet shops.”
Recently New York banned pet shops, but in Connecticut the law has been confusing.
The proposed legislation does not ban pet shops, but would clarify that municipalities could do so.
In Greenwich, the P&Z commission discussed this topic at their Dec 22, 2024 meeting and agreed that the town’s definition of retail use already excluded the sale of puppies, kittens and rabbits.
At Monday’s long hearing, among those who spoke in favor of the bill was a representative from the Humane Society of US, a board member from Lucky Dog Refuge in Stamford, and state legislators including State Rep Jason Doucette (D-13) for Manchester and Glastonbury, who is one of the bill’s sponsors, and former State Rep David Michel.
Among those opposed were, pet shop owners like Sheila Soteriou, from Puppy Palace in Glastonbury, who said, “We live in America. I think everyone should have a choice, and when people say puppy mill puppies are all in pet stores, it is not true….We feel like it’s everyone’s right to choose. Not everyone likes rescues.”
Stacey Ober, a representative from the American Kennel Club, also opposed the bill.
P&D chair Rep Kavros-DeGraw asked Ms Ober, “There is speculation you’re fighting against bills like this because AKC accepts money?”
Ms Ober said there was a fee for registration to the AKC for dogs sold at pet shops, but she said it was “very small.”
Ober warned, “When the public decides they want a pet, maybe they have their hearts set on a puppy, if they can’t go in person and find the pet they’re looking for, families don’t want to wait, and they’ll go online.”
“It would be harmful to push people to underground networks,” she said.
State Rep Doug Dubitsky (R-47) who represents eight rural towns in the northeast part of Connecticut, was skeptical.
He asked Ms Ober, “Why are people trying to shut down the sale at the heavily regulated pet stores and not shut down these ‘supposed’ rescues that don’t seem to be as regulated?”
Ober said “There is a spectrum of philosophy about whether every dog is appropriate to be re-homed. Some organizations have a philosophy that every dog should be saved. That’s their mission.”
Ober said rescues that import dogs for re-homing are required to have a license from the Dept of Agriculture and it requires licensed animal importers to report how many and from where.
Puppy Mill Pipeline
Amy Jesse, Puppy Mills Public Policy Director for the Humane Society of the US.
She said the legislation was important to clarify municipal powers because there is confusion about whether current statewide regulations prevent “local control” on this issue.
“The confusion was largely driven by Petland, a controversial, multi-national corporation that goes by the name “Safari Stan’s” in Connecticut, and Connecticut Dept of Agriculture who argued that because the agency regulates pet shops, cities are pre-empted from doing so,” she said. “This confusion has had a chilling effect, stopping local officials from cracking down on puppy stores, even when major issues have been uncovered.”
As for puppy mills, she said the data did not lie.
“Public records show that Connecticut puppy stores import puppies from awful mid west puppy mills that no customer would ever knowingly support,” Ms Jesse said.
Second, she talked about deception.
“Puppy stores tell consumers what they want to hear, rather than the truth to convince them to buy a puppy, often for thousands of dollars.”
Third, she cited the issue of sick puppies.
“From the puppy mill to the transport, the in-store condition, these poor, weeks-old puppies have the health deck stacked against them, and their new families often suffer a grave emotional and financial toll.”
Fourth, she said was the issue of sick people.
“The AMA and the CDC have warned people of an ongoing antibiotic resistance infection outbreak from contact with pet shop puppies, and have sounded the alarm on the reckless antibiotic use in this industry.”
Ms Jesse said few can afford a pet shop puppy outright, so pet stores push puppy loans to third party lenders that often lead to more financial devastation.
“This pipeline is so problematic that 8 states and nearly 500 localities have banned the sale of puppies altogether,” she added.
Given that New York no longer allows dogs, cats or rabbits to be sold in pet shops, Ms Jesse noted the bill urgently needed to pass, because while it doesn’t go as far as New York’s ban, she said, “Connecticut has already seen 3 transplants from new York – all puppy stores with terrible animal welfare and consumer protection records.”
State Representative Jason Doucette (D-13) for Manchester and Glastonbury said ideally he’d like to see the end of the commercial sales of pets from commercial breeders that have inhumane breeding practices.
He said the issue dated back to a 2014 task force and law passed in Connecticut that created a framework to try to stop importation of dogs from puppy mills.
He said the task force created a law where the Dept of Agriculture, which is tasked with regulating of pet shops, would examine ‘certificates of origin’ of the animals that are imported to Connecticut pet shops to determine whether or not any of those animals have been imported from a commercial breeder that has violations as cited by the USDA.
“The Dept of Agriculture was supposed to investigate the origin of those animals and determine whether any of those breeders had any violations. What I learned within the last few days is that there have been several violations cited in some of the stores that have testified today – that have been cited in violation of the existing law,” Doucette said, adding that it was only because the ASPCA had filed complaints and produced documentation showing these out-of-state breeders – “puppy mills” – had been cited by the US Dept of Agriculture for violations, and therefore that the pet shops that imported the animals from these breeders were in violation of this existing law.
He said the goal of HB 6832 was not to adopt the New York statewide ban, but adopt New Jersey’s rule, which is a municipal option for towns to ban the sale, and “not to regulate” the sale in any other way for dogs, cats and rabbits that come from commercial breeders out-of-state.
Doucette said he defined a puppy mill as any commercial mass breeder of dogs.
“By that definition, most of our pet shops, and I believe there are only 12 or 14 located in the state. One is in Manchester, and one in Glastonbury, within my district. Those shops import dogs from out-of-state, from what I would consider to be puppy mills. Again, Dept of Agriculture has cited a few of these pet shops.”
“Nothing against the fact that they are trying to take care of the animals when they arrive in their stores, but the concept we’re talking about is the importation of animals to these pet shops, which is a for-profit industry, selling these animals for thousands of dollars as opposed to rescues – which, yes are importing animals into Connecticut,” Doucette said. “However, they’re only getting a couple hundred bucks to cover the transport, and the shots these animals get.”
Senator Ryan Fazio (R-36) asked Doucette to clarify that the bill would result in a “a municipal option” to impose a prohibition of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet shops, whether they source them in-state or out-of-state.
“The law already exists,” Doucette replied. “But I would question whether or not it is being adequately enforced.”
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Former 146th district State Representative David Michel who had co-chaired the CT Animal Advocacy Caucus, recalled, in 2019 the caucus tried to pass a full state ban. That same year he said Stamford’s Board of Representatives started discussions to try to pass an ordinance banning pet shops, but were discouraged by their corporate counsel.
“A lobbyist for the Stamford pet shops called a former fellow lobbyist who had just become Commissioner of CT Dept of Agriculture warning the commissioner that if such an attempt were to pass, the pet shops would have to close, which is inaccurate.”
Also, Mr. Michel slammed the AKC saying, “They do receive registration fees from USDA registered facilities, aka ‘puppy mills.'”
“And the AKC has been highly criticized for lobbying against animal welfare improvement laws, both state and federal level,” he said. “They do point their finger at others to dismiss the issues with their clients. Three of the pet stores speaking today – CT Breeder, Puppy Palace and The Dog House – are doing business with puppy mills with state welfare violations.”
“Codifying it is necessary right now to stop feeding that pipeline of cruelty,” he urged. “This bill is very simple and offers the ability for a city to ban pet shops from selling dogs and cats.
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Anupama Mohan said after finding paperwork for one rescue’s adoption “challenging,” she was scammed for $300 by an “unregulated breeder” where “the dog didn’t exist.”
She then turned to Safari Stan’s.
Mohan said most rescue organizations did not have small dogs available.
“The staff (at Safari Stan’s) gave me all the information I needed about his health, his parents, the care, and the most importantly they offered warrantee-guarantees,” she said, adding that she believed existing regulations meant the animal was healthy and well cared for.
“Without regulated pet stores, people will be pushed toward unregulated breeders in search of their perfect match,” she said. “Taking away this option will only open the doors for more such scams, fraud or mistreatment of animals.”
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Alyssa Fisher, 16, who took the day off from school to testify about her foray into cat rescue, said last summer she was involved in rescuing 57 cats from a hoarding situation.
“None were spayed or neutered, never seen a vet, or ever felt a loving hand,” she said. “Unfortunately some couldn’t be saved. Multiple excuses were given to about how these cats couldn’t be helped.”
“I didn’t take no for an answer, and that’s how my career as a 16-year-old animal rescuer started. Thankfully people from the town supported me with monetary donations and funding for much needed supplies because there are no funds offered from state of Connecticut. My rescue was run entirely by hard work, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I’m on call day and night.”
Alyssa said eventually she was able to have all of the cats vetted and adopted to loving families.
However, she continued, “Once I found homes for those cats, many more were in need of help. It didn’t stop. Compassion fatigue took over as I am also a full time student and I had to take a few months off. We reopened the doors 3 days ago and have already taken in 14 cats – 13 of those being owner surrenders. We also had to say no to about 30 others because we just didn’t have the space.”
“Whether you are a 501(c)3, state rescue or private rescues, we are all drowning with animals and animals are dying on the streets because none of us have room, and the crisis that has been ongoing for years in Connecticut.”
Alyssa said the state vouchers for spay and neutering that shelters rely on have decreased even while shelters and rescuers rely on them.
Meanwhile she said it was hard to reconcile that pet stores sell animals while so many animals are homeless and dying.
“Do you know how many shelters and low income families need those vouchers?” she asked. “We need the government to address the problems of out-of-state breeders raising animals in such cruel conditions, resulting in both suffering mothers and sick offspring that end up adopting through pet stores, then abandoned on the streets daily across Connecticut for people like me to clean up, with absolutely no funds from the state to support our rescues and shelters.”
“We also know that pet stores that sell commercially bred dogs, cats and rabbits through an outdated and very unacceptable business model are outliers in their own industry,” she added. “The overwhelming majority of Connecticut pet shops including the largest and most successful chains –PetSmart and Petco – and thriving mom and pop shops, do not sell dogs, cats and rabbits, but instead partner with animal rescues and shelters for adoption events.”
She added that responsible breeders never sell to pet shops, where, she said, sales associates say whatever they have to in order to sell the pets.
Often, she said, the animals are sick when they arrive in the home of their purchaser, and the families are left to handle the debt to try to save their new “fur family member.”
“Most can’t afford the vet service to get their pet well, and so the vicious cycle of abandonment starts once again for people like myself,” she said.
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Gary Nudelman, owner of CT Breeder in Norwalk said his investment into the business was over $1,000,000 and the store employs over 15 people. Nudelman said it was not possible to change his business model and work with rescues because customers seek small dogs that do not shed.
“There’s no guarantee they can find that from a rescue,” he said. “And you can’t protect them from an unregulated internet source, and you lose the sales tax. They’re flying in puppies from out of the country and buying them from auctions. These are not Connecticut dogs that they have.”
Like Ms Soteriou, Mr. Nudelman also talked about consumer “choice.”
“There is a place for rescues and shelters and we support them, but your constituents deserve the choice.”
As for the suggestion that businesses closed in New York were coming to Connecticut was simply not true.
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Edmond Foucault, owner of All Pets Club with four locations including Wallingford, Branford, Southington and North Windham said he employs 85 people and had been in business for 36 years.
He said his business had strict and high standards.
“Animal welfare is our number one priority,” Foucault said. “This bill will allow cities and towns to regulate stores like mine above and beyond state law and Dept of Agriculture oversight.”
He said both CT Dept of Agriculture and USDA conduct unannounced annual inspections to make sure all animals are healthy and properly housed.
“They also inspect our state log books, animal permits, signage, breeder records and USDA inspection reports to make sure they are all in order, up to date and posted correctly.”
Foucault said that when a complaint is made the Dept of Agriculture makes unannounced visits and address the complaint and does another inspection the same day.
He said he feared four different sets of regulations for each of his four locations.
Also, a representative from Pet Advocacy Network, a trade association associated with pet retailers, Alyssa Miller-Hurley, also said she worried that different towns would have different regulations as a result of the bill.
Rep Joe Zullo (R-99) East Haven said, “I’ve heard multiple times today about towns being able to regulate.”
There is nothing in this bill that mentions that,” he added.
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Rescue volunteer Holly Fontaine, said Connecticut had been in crisis of homeless pets for years.
“It’s getting worse by the day, the boots on the ground caring for these animals have compassion fatigue: emotionally and physically. There are no funds in Connecticut for these people.”
Fontaine said volunteers hold constant fundraisers and GoFundMe’s to help abandoned animals in multiple towns across the state.
“Some towns are even overrun by cats,” she said. “It’s endless, overwhelming and exhausting.”
Fontaine said she had worked as a nurse in a Bridgeport ER dealing with victims of gun violence.
“I was shocked,” she said. “But at least I had resources and skills and tools at my fingertips to save lives. Today I put more into trying to find resources for these animals – endless calls and text messages from people begging for help.”
“We use our own time, funding and vetting,” she said of rescues, while pet shop puppies are “sold at an astronomical prices, have no emotional support, and the mothers on these puppy mill farms are bred until they are useless, producing babies with multiple health issues, then shipped up like baggage.”
Fontaine said Connecticut should go further than the proposal and ban pet shops like New York and other states have.
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Still, Rep Dubitsky (R-47) asked Ms Jesse from the Humane Society several questions.
“Does the American Human Society sell puppies for pets?” he asked.
“No, we don’t adopt them out either,” she said, adding that rescues pull from over-capacity local shelters and take owner surrenders. They also take dogs from southern states where the animal overpopulation is serious problem.
Dubitsky asked why pet shops sourcing puppies from midwestern states was different from local rescues sourcing dogs from southern states.
Ms Jesse explained that rescue groups try to help out overwhelmed shelters in the south and operate on a non-profit basis.
“Pet stores are making a problem worse, putting money into the puppy mill industry, which is different from the rescues that are helping a problem they did not create,” Ms Jesse said. “It’s a very different situation than paying a puppy mill broker in a whole pipeline based on profit.”
Dubitsky asked if rescues charged fees for pets.
“Yes,” she said. “To cover the costs to care for them.”
Rescue group fees typically cover transportation, vetting, and spay/neuter.
Do you know of any consumer product that a town in Connecticut has the authority to ban from a retail store?” Dubitsky asked.
“I would hesitate to call puppies ‘products,'” Ms Jesse said.
“You’re aware they’re considered personal property?” Dubitsky asked.
“A vast majority of people consider them family members,” Ms Jesse replied.
Board member from Stamford’s Lucky Dog Refuge, Kristen Roeckle, said the HSUS estimated that 2.6 million dogs are sold by pet stores each year and the majority originate from puppy mills. She said they prioritized profit over welfare, which results in the dogs suffering.
Ms Roeckle said the HSUS estimated that 2.6 million dogs are sold by pet stores each year and the majority originate from puppy mills. She said they prioritized profit over welfare, which results in the dogs suffering.
“Rescues like Lucky Dog see first hand the fallout from pet store dogs,” she said.
She shared the story of a woman who made a quick decision to buy a puppy from Smart Puppies for Stamford, and when she went back to return the dog, was refused.
“In a desperate attempt she tried to sell him on the streets of Stamford,” Roeckle said. “Every opponent today profits from the sale of dogs. The AKC, pet store owners – they all make money off of animals. Rescues on the other hand, operate in a non-profit model and spend more money on vet care and helping animals recover, and recover a minor bit of that from fees. Every dollar goes to saving animals.”
“Why should we care about pet stores making money from selling animals,” Rep Dubitsky asked. “I’d rather that than someone who doesn’t make money, but neglects them.”
“Pet stores serve great roles,” Roeckle said. “Petco and Petsmart, and local chains like Pet Pantry and Choice Pet have great programs where they promote adoption while still making money on services, pet food products, baths and education.”
Rescued puppies from southern states at an adoption event at Petco in Stratford. File photo
“What is a puppy mill?” Dutibsky asked Roeckle.
“A commercial breeder where animals are housed in cages purely for breeding. The emphasis is not on their wellness. It is on their reproductive system and what they can provide in terms of volume of litters.”
“That’s bad?” Dubitsky asked.
“I have two dogs,” Roeckle said. “I’d hate to see my dog in a 4×4 cage their whole life. The bad thing is the inhumane treatment of animals.”
“You’re not saying the pet stores are treating the animals badly?” he asked.
“No, the existence of pet stores are perpetuating the puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline. It’s a sad and challenging situation to work through economics and animal welfare.”
See also:
Fighting “The Puppy Mill Pipeline,” New York Bans Pet Stores from Selling Cats and Dogs Dec 15, 2025
After New York Outlaws Sales of Puppies in Retail Stores, Greenwich P&Z Comfortable Town Regs Do Likewise Jan 23, 2025
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