New York State Pet Stores May Soon Sell Only Rescue Animals

Interviewer 2: 1-800-LAW-1010. 1-800-LAW-1010.com. Paul Harding on the phone, Martin, Harding, and Mazzotti. Hey, Paul?

Paul: Hey. Good morning, guys.

Interviewer 1: So the story is this, New York pet stores may soon be required to carry only rescue animals. Lawmakers recently introduced a bill. I think they passed it. This went into effect January 1, I think, in California. You wanna enlighten us a bit, Paul?

Interviewer 2: Ban the sale of for-profit pets.

Paul: Yeah. So California and Maryland have since passed this, and it looks like New York is, potentially, on its way and what it says is basically this, the classic pet store, where you kinda walk by, and you say, “Wow. Look at…,” you know, and you get motivated that day to buy that pet, and then you get home and you say, “Oh-uh, did I make the right decision?” Soon, might be over. Like, literally, they’re saying, “No more pet stores. They are going to allow some of that space to be for rescue animals. So it’s sort of an end of an era if it happens.

Interviewer 1: So you…

Interviewer 2: Cool.

Interviewer 1: So you eliminate puppy mills, and I’ve seen this work in, like, for instance, I hate to keep talking about it, but where we got our dog on one of the Virgin Islands, there’s so many animals that are shipped over to the mainland because puppies are in demand and they have them there, and they need to be rescued. My question is, like, can you…? You’re gonna force people out of business, can the government do that?

Paul: You know, so now you’ve got this industry and I tried to look up the numbers this morning. You know, it was in the hundreds of millions. I couldn’t get a clear number, but, yeah. So you’ve got several leaders in the country that have these businesses, and through legislation, they could be wiped out. The answer is, yeah, they can. They can say that there are reasons for the public good to limit this. But one thing that hasn’t happened yet, the governor has not signed this into law. It hasn’t gotten there. The bill is just been proposed, and there’s about, just about $800 million in tax revenue, so we’re not talking about a small amount that the State would lose out on, so possibly, you know, we may not see this pass this year. We may not see it…

Interviewer 2: Yeah. I paid $4 grand for my dog. There was some tax on the end of that. Yeah. Absolutely. That’s big money.

Interviewer 1: Right. And you would still… You wouldn’t pay forwardly [SP]. You’d pay $4 grand. You would still purchase your animals, the rescue animals. There would be a fee.

Interviewer 2: Right. But the tax wouldn’t be as much. Yeah. So people prefer that [crosstalk 00:02:12] about that…

Paul: If we’re…the list…

Interviewer 1: But listen, I mean, all you gotta do is look around. There’s too many dogs and cats in this world.

Interviewer 2: Well, aside from the, you know, being nice and kind to creatures, what about the…? Eventually, won’t we lose the, you know, the breeds and they’ll just kind of, like, turn into the “WALL-E” movie you talk about?

Paul: Right. No. So what they’re not excluding is breeders, so you can still buy a purebred. You can buy a puppy, you know, and, you know, you see them at the airport also when they get flown in from Wyoming, and then people are waiting for their animal. And so that’s still gonna exist. What they’re talking about it, what they’ve really focused on is what they call the puppy mills. Now it’s kind of a buzzword that they use because, you know, that they’re…where they’re just producing. But, I mean, the difference between that and the breeders is an argument, right? Certain breeders are super responsible. Other breeders probably are less so. So that’s still gonna exist.

Interviewer 2: Honestly, I’ve never met a really responsible breeder.

Interviewer 1: I was gonna say, I bet breeders who are doing it right welcome this law.

Interviewer 2: Oh, yeah. Sure. Right.

Interviewer 1: It eliminates some puppy mill competition, but…

Interviewer 2: And you get the bad guys out of the business.

Interviewer 1: But bad news, Paul, that breeders are still gonna be…

Paul: It’s gonna be a boom for them. Yeah.

Interviewer 1: …allowed to do their thing is wonderful news to Queens Blueblood over there so he can tune in every year with his family and watch the Westminster Dog Show. Oh, jolly.

Interviewer 2: I mean, come on. I get doing it with people, but dogs?

Interviewer 1: Dogs?

Interviewer 2: Come on.

Paul: Oh, God.

Interviewer 2: Well, I mean, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t even wanna give an opinion give an…

Paul: No. I see.

Interviewer 2: …Paul, but I like this. I like this potential law.

Interviewer 1: Here’s the thing. See, it is the right thing to do. What I do is wrong, when I do it by going and paying a ridiculous amount when there little creatures out there that could use a good home. It’s just wrong, and I know it, but we gotta… Half the house has one of those, and then the other half is an entitled little pain in my ass.

Paul: You know, I tend to keep the opinions to myself but in this case, you know, I’ve probably just seen too much, watched too much, what does happen in these, what they call these puppy mills as they’re producing these animals. So, yeah, I support it. But by the same token, I wanna be fair is that, you know, we gotta make sure that these rescue missions are regulated also. I think they could use a little regulation. Some of the ones that we know in the area are fine, but some of the ones that kinda spring up in sometimes the rural areas, aren’t a whole lot better and so I…

Interviewer 2: I will say this…

Paul: …I guess…

Interviewer 2: …the purebred that we have is completely psychotic. It doesn’t listen to me. It doesn’t do anything. You know, would eat until she dies. I mean, completely out of control and the other one is the smartest thing I’ve ever met.

Interviewer 1: The Mutt, is this…? Is that…?

Interviewer 2: Yeah.

Interviewer 1: Right. Exactly.

Interviewer 2: It’s from Kentucky or something.

Interviewer 1: Here is the silver lining, maybe we’ll get that commercial with the Sarah McLachlan song taken off the TV.

Interviewer 2: Please.

Interviewer 1: It’s so depressing.

Paul: Upside. Absolutely upside.

[crosstalk 00:04:56]

Interviewer 1: I just can’t see that anymore.

Interviewer 2: Thanks, Paul.

Interviewer 1: Thanks so much, Paul.

Paul: Okay, guys.

Interviewer 2: It’s Paul Harding from Martin, Harding, and Mazzotti. 1-800-LAW-1010, 1-800-LAW-1010.com.