3 Proposed CA Laws To Crackdown On Underground Puppy Crime

CALIFORNIA — Legislators in California introduced three bills Tuesday that would crack down on out-of-state puppy mills, according to a news release.

The bills are a direct response to last year's investigation into the underground puppy market in California by the Los Angeles Times, officials said.

Bill authors Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Anaheim) and assemblymembers Steve Bennett (D-Oxnard) and Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) aim to crack down on consumer fraud and animal abuse in California.

"I am appalled by what the Los Angeles Times has uncovered in its investigation into, and exposure of, extensive fraud and suffering in the puppy trade," Umberg said in a statement. "Like many, I have been under the impression that advocacy and awareness of this issue had largely reduced or eliminated the puppy mill business in California."

In 2019, California became the first state to ban pet stores from selling dogs, cats and rabbits purchased from commercial breeders. But The Times investigation showed broadly how a network of resellers, which included schemers and ex-cons, replaced stores as middlemen.

Often, puppies brought in from out of state were fraudulently marked as California-bred. In some cases, pet owners faced exorbitant veterinary bills when their new puppies got sick or died, the Times reported.

What's more, the investigation found that truckloads of dogs from profit-driven mass breeders were entering the Golden State every year from the Midwest. Dogs were then resold by people claiming to be small, local home breeders.

Expensive breeds such as doodles and French bulldogs were among those being trucked into the state.

Lawmakers now say those brokers used misleading marketing tactics, predatory behaviors and a loophole in state regulations to take advantage of prospective people looking for a new furry companion.

"Unfortunately, puppy mills shut out from the retail market still ship puppies into California using deceptive websites and middlemen,” said Brittany Benesi, senior legislative director for the ASPCA, Western division.

The news comes as shelters across the state are overflowing with adoptable puppies, kittens, dogs and cats, according to ASPCA.

Here's what the three bills propose:

SB 312 (Umberg) mandates that dog importers submit health and travel certificates electronically to the state within 10 days of shipment. Those documents would then be made available to the public.

Previously, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which had been receiving those certificates from other states by mistake, made it a practice to destroy the documents. And dog importers who were supposed to submit records failed to comply. After the Times investigation, lawmakers called on the department to halt his practice and preserve the certificates.

AB 506 (Bennett) voids contracts between California buyers and online pet brokers that require a nonrefundable deposit or fail to disclose the original breeding place of a dog or cat before the deposit is paid. The bill also requires that sellers return money to the buyers within 30 days if the contract is voided.

"Families are entitled to know where their new dog/cat comes from, and the conditions in which their pet grew up," Bennett said.

AB 519 (Berman) ends pet brokering in the state by defining "brokers" as any person or business that makes a profit by selling animals bred and raised by another. It prohibits such brokers from selling or "adopting out" pets for a profit.

“I was shocked to learn that bad actors are getting around California's ban on puppy mills by claiming to be local breeders, when in reality they're buying abused and neglected puppies from cruel out-of-state breeding operations and selling them to unsuspecting pet parents," Berman said.