Letter To Editor - The NY State Pet Dealer Bill Is Law

The NY State Pet Dealer Bill is law!

Thank you Governor Cuomo. Today the Governor signed what is known as the Pet Dealer Bill, a bill that gives local municipalities the right to enact stricter legislation protecting animals in our communities.  In the United States there are seven puppies or kittens born for every human born.  There will never be enough homes for all those animals, so a good percentage of them are destined to be disposed of via euthanasia.  When someone can go out shopping for clothes, and come home with a puppy they passed in a pet shop in the mall, you know that even the “lucky” puppies that make it to a home often don’t last there very long.  

The surplus of animals is wrong for the animals who are cruelly treated, wrong for taxpayers who foot the cost of managing the welfare of surplus animals, and just plain wrong for society.  

This is just a first step to solving the pet overpopulation problem.  In other states where similar laws have already passed, pet shops, now without the endless supply of puppies, have begun working with shelters.  The pet shops are now providing adoptable shelter animals to the public.  Laws should now be passed at the county level, and even right here in Smithtown, banning of the sale of puppies and kittens raised in cruel and unhealthy puppy mills.  The Smithtown Town Board now has the right and the responsibility to adopt ethical and tough new laws to crack down on puppy mills and bad breeders who place profit above the health and safety of animals.  It’s the right thing to do.

Sandy Trehy

Adopt A Boxer Rescue

Kings Park NY