LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas City Council will consider an ordinance to totally ban the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores, but it won't take effect for three years.
WATCH | The prolonged debate to ban dog and cat sales in Las Vegas pet stores
The council was set to consider an ordinance that increased regulations on pet-store sales on Wednesday, but is expected to delay that measure until Nov. 5, when the amended law will take effect.
Pet store regulations have been on the council's agenda repeatedly in recent months, but the ordinance has been delayed several times. That comes after advocates lobbied for a bill at the 2025 Legislature that would have banned pet sales in stores statewide, but the measure failed to pass.
Rebecca Goff, state director for the group Humane World for Animals, said her group has been working to ban pet sales in stores at the state and local level, because she says the animals are bred in Midwest "puppy mills" and are often mistreated or sick in stores.
"There's no humane way to keep that type of puppy selling pet store functional, and it's important that we match our local jurisdictions," Goff said. "Clark County already has a total ban. North Las Vegas already has a total ban. Mesquite does as well. So, dogs and cats, they don't know jurisdictions."
In Henderson, new pet stores are not allowed to sell pets in stores, but existing pet stores are allowed to do so. Las Vegas's original ordinance — set for adoption on Wednesday — would have enacted similar language.
Alyssa Miller, vice president of government affairs for the Pet Advocacy Network, says her group opposes the amended ordinance and will work to defeat it at the Nov. 5 meeting.
Miller said she fully supported the increased regulation of pet stores, but that her members — especially smaller businesses — could not survive if pet sales were taken away from them.
She said after California banned pet store sales, most of its stores closed. In the last year, five states including Nevada have seen statewide bans introduced, but none have become law.
But Goff said pet stores have survived even in jurisdictions where they are banned, "So there is concern always about closing businesses, and that's definitely not our intent," she said. "The pet store supply and service industry is a $143 billion industry. It is thriving. I know that I treat my pets like family and I spoil them as much as I possibly can, and I think that's pretty true for most people whenever possible."
Miller maintains that all breeders used by pet stores are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and so are the drivers who transport the pets. She said a ban on sales in stores would ironically increase the number of illegal puppy breeders rather than cut down on them.
She said she suspects the council has been influenced by a TV ad placed on Southern Nevada screens — including here at Channel 13 — by Humane World that tells the story of Cindy Lou, a mistreated dog who died.
Miller contends some of the photos used to advocate for a ban are old, and that she toured breeders this summer and saw very different conditions when she did.
But Goff says undercover video shows pets are mistreated.
"There's a reason why these puppy mills are kept away from the public eye," she said. "There's a reason why stores often mislead their customers and say they [pets] came from somewhere local, because nobody would willingly buy a puppy knowing the condition that the mother was kept in at that puppy mill."
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