LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Animal advocates and pet store owners argued Tuesday over a bill that would ban the sale of dogs and cats in Nevada, just days before a key legislative deadline.
WATCH | Lawmakers, advocates argue over ban to sell cats and dogs in retail stores
Assembly Bill 487 was already approved in the state Assembly on April 21, with a bipartisan vote of 32-9. It must now pass out of the Senate Natural Resources Committee before Friday, or it will be considered dead for the rest of the session.
Sales of dogs and cats at retail pet stores have been banned in Clark County since 2023, and are illegal in North Las Vegas, Reno and Mesquite, too.
Las Vegas banned retail pet stores in 2016, but repealed the ban before it could go into effect. The city does limit the number of pets that may be sold to a single household in a given year, however.
And Henderson has banned sales at new stores, but allows sales at existing locations.
Rebecca Goff, the state director for Humane World for Animals — formerly the Humane Society — told senators Tuesday that dogs used for breeding puppies sold in stores are kept in cruel conditions.
"Under [U.S. Dept. of Agriculture] standards, they can be kept stacked in cages that are only 6 inches longer than their bodies for their entire lives," Goff said at a hearing on the bill Tuesday. "They can be bred repeatedly until their bodies wear out and then they can be killed."
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And former Republican Nevada state Sen. Warren Hardy, now a lobbyist for Humane World, said he's worked on the issue for 12 years and saw no other solution to the problem than a ban on sales.
"This is a last ditch effort," said Hardy, who noted his own small-government voting record. "I wish there were another way. ... I can't think of one."
But industry advocates and pet store owners testified against the bill, saying it would not stop puppy mills, would force unregulated breeding underground and would force small pet businesses in Las Vegas and Henderson to close.
Alyssa Miller, a lobbyist for the industry-backed Pet Advocacy Network, said big chain stores could easily switch business models if sales of dogs and cats are banned, but smaller businesses cannot. Bans in New York and California forced most smaller shops to close, she said.
She said stores work with organizations that monitor breeding to ensure they are treating animals well, and said the implication that all pet store-sold animals come from unsavory puppy mills is ridiculous.
She and some pet store owners called for stricter regulations that fall short of a total ban.
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