Senate Bill 157 establishes some guidelines for selling dogs and cats in Kentucky. It requires retail pet stores to only sell to buyers who are at least 18 years old, and prohibits them from selling puppies and kittens less than eight weeks old.
It also mandates that stores can only get the dogs and cats they sell from animal shelters and “qualified breeders,” and prevents local governments from enacting tighter regulations on the businesses. Shop owners would be fined $500 for each pet offered for sale tied to any of the new violations outlined in the bill.
SB 157 now heads to the full Senate, where it could get a vote. If it becomes law, it would undo current regulations in Elizabethtown and Radcliff that ban retail pet stores from getting dogs and cats from breeders. Those ordinances are meant to stop stores from selling pets that come from puppy and kitten mills. Animal welfare activists accuse mills of mistreating animals and providing sick pets to stores.
The bill would also halt a similar ban in Louisville set to take effect in September. None of the local bans prevent stores from partnering with adoption agencies and shelters to offer dogs and cats on their premises.