HomeMy WebLinkAboutAshly Dale 12.15.21 AttachmentThank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. For the record, my name is Ashly Dale and I am
the Director of Operations with Bailing Out Benji. Our organization and many of your Renton
residents were grateful to see that a humane pet store ordinance is now being considered.
Thank you for all of your hard work on this issue.
While we know the language of the ordinance has not yet been drafted, I just wanted to offer
some perspective based on the agenda. The agenda states that staff are also reviewing a
potential exception for sales of dogs from rescues, shelters, and/or hobby breeders in
consideration of public comments.
First I would like to note that, upon review of all comments submitted from August-current, 63 of
your Renton residents emailed in support of a humane ordinance and there was no mention of
wanting hobby breeders to sell to pet stores. Only 14 people have emailed in opposition and
none of them were Renton residents and are all part of the pet industry. We hope the public
comments will be received and that ordinance language will be drafted based on what your
constituents are asking for and what will truly cut off the puppy mill pipeline to Renton.
The model ordinance language that we provided and can resend, does still allow for stores to
'offer space' for shelters and/or to showcase adoptable pets. We hesitate to use any language
regarding “sales” when talking about dogs that come from rescues & shelters. State law states
that retail sales are different then adoption fees, which means rescues and shelters cannot
charge sales tax. In a case where a store still wants to showcase animals from a local,
Washington based rescue, the adoption process would still be the responsibility of the rescue
organization and not the store. This is to help ensure that there are no loopholes that would
allow for sham rescue organizations who source directly from puppy mills, to do business in
Renton. We saw this happen when JAKS puppies, Puppyland's only supplier, created the
nation's first two sham rescues which were ultimately investigated, sued and shut down by the
Iowa Attorney General after they sold more than 3,600 puppies to pet stores in areas that had
laws prohibiting them from doing so.
Regarding the consideration of 'Hobby Breeders' to sell through Renton pet stores, we wanted
to pose the question: Who at the city would be in charge of going through each sale record to
determine that the breeders being used are actually hobby breeders? This would be a very
time-consuming job and would also require that there be fines and repercussions if the stores
were found to be in violation. In Washington state, the dog breeding industry is very loosely
monitored and defined, often falling on each individual county for licensing and enforcement.
Renton's enforcement agency would have to have a definition of hobby breeder and they would
be in charge of investigating countless breeders in our state and elsewhere to determine their
eligibility. Since most of these facilities would be out of Renton's jurisdiction, this would be very
hard to enforce.
I hope to see an ordinance move forward, using the legally sound language that has been used
in other cities and I would be happy to answer any questions along the way. Thank you all once
again for your work on this issue.