OP-ED: House Bill 1011 would push more buyers to the black market where puppy mills thrive

Ed Sayres, former CEO of the ASCPA and former president of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, warns that proposed legislation in Colorado that aims to ban pet store sales would hurt licensed, inspected breeders rather than the unregulated black markets where most puppy mills operate. Sayres argues that the policy could push consumers toward online sellers and underground networks—ultimately reducing protections for both animals and buyers.

“If we want to target puppy mills, we shouldn’t focus on licensed and inspected professional dog breeders…Puppy mills, by contrast, operate entirely outside this system — and the only way to shut them down is through targeted enforcement and investigations into the black markets where they thrive,” Sayres writes.

Read the full op-ed in The Denver Post here.