Retail Pet Sales Ban Bills (Massachusetts)

The Animal Legal Defense Fund supports these bill.

Sponsors:

S. 650: Sen Patrick O’Connor (R-First Plymouth and Norfolk)

S. 618: Sen Jason Lewis (D-Fifth Middlesex)

Introduction Date: Introduced in the 2025-26 legislative session

An Act Banning the Retail Sale of Dogs, Cats, and Rabbits in Pet Shops (S. 650) would prohibit the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet shops. An Act Banning the Retail sale of Dogs, Cats, Rabbits, and Guinea Pigs in Pet Shops (S. 618) would additionally prohibit the sale of guinea pigs in pet shops. Pet stores would still be able to make these animals available in store by partnering with shelters or rescues to host adoption events.

Selling commercially raised animals in pet stores raises serious animal welfare and consumer protection issues. By prohibiting pet stores from selling dogs, cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs, while encouraging them to transition to a companion animal products and services model, lawmakers can protect animals and consumers and promote a humane business model.

Pet stores that sell puppies are an outlier in their own industry. Most pet stores profit from companion animal products and services rather than mill-bred puppies, and some host adoption events with local shelters or rescues to make puppies available in-store.

Pet shops typically acquire animals from commercial breeding facilities known as “puppy mills” or other animal mills. These mills are known for their inhumane treatment of animals, often keeping them confined in filthy, cramped conditions without proper care. Pet shops are a primary sales outlet for these mills because the cruelty is hidden from unsuspecting consumers.

Similar laws have already been enacted in eight states: California, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. On the local level, nearly 500 localities across 32 different states have passed ordinances prohibiting the sale of commercially bred dogs and cats in pet shops, including Massachusetts communities of Arlington, Attleboro, Beverly, Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Holliston, Lenox, Lexington, Marshfield, North Adams, North Andover, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Springfield, and Stoneham. Local laws in Arlington, Brookline, and Cambridge protect even more animals, such as all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and/or arachnids.

Notably, in 2023, Boston passed an ordinance expanding the city’s existing ban on the pet store sale of commercially bred dogs, cats, and rabbits to additionally include guinea pigs. Between 2020 and 2023 there was a sharp increase in the number of guinea pigs surrendered to the MSPCA’s Boston adoption center. Approximately 60% of the surrenders were guinea pigs purchased at pet shops.

Why is this legislation important?

Retail pet stores that sell puppies pose numerous issues for animals and consumers, including:

• Puppy mill cruelty: Public records show that Massachusetts pet stores source puppies from large-scale, inhumane commercial breeders and brokers, many of whom have terrible records on the welfare of the animals. Mother dogs suffer immensely and are treated as mere breeding machines.
• Grueling transport: Puppies sold in pet stores are taken from their mothers and littermates, crammed into cages with other stressed and/or sick puppies, and trucked across the county in urine- and feces-filled cages. These living, feeling animals are treated as mere products.
• Misleading sales tactics: Pet stores sell puppies for thousands of dollars with false promises of “humane” regulated breeders and healthy, socialized puppies when this is rarely true.
• Sick puppies: Far too many Massachusetts consumers have unknowingly purchased ailing puppies from pet stores, leading to unexpectedly high veterinary bills and sometimes the heartache of their new puppy dying.
• Guinea pigs: According to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA), there has been a 64% increase in the intake of guinea pigs at its facilities over the past decade. The MSPCA has also reported that a majority of recently surrendered guinea pigs were originally purchased at pet stores. Unfortunately, guinea pigs take nearly twice as long to adopt out of the MSPCA’s shelters as dogs or cats, according to the organization.

For more information about animal protection legislation in Massachusetts and opportunities to take action for animals, visit aldf.org/massachusetts.