We’re celebrating the new year and marking NewmarketToday’s four-month anniversary by counting down your top 10 favourite stories. These are the stories that have been most shared by you among your network, on your social media accounts, and by email. These are the stories that struck a chord, inspired, shocked, dismayed, and amused you. Thank you for following us, and for helping to grow our influence and reach since our Sept. 4 launch.
No. 7
Animal advocate urges town to ban pet shop puppy sales
Shared 494 times | Oct. 16, 2018
Emiley Sheppard was both outraged and heartbroken when she found out it's perfectly legal to sell puppies in pet stores in Newmarket.
And she is determined to change that, with your help.
You shared this story, helping to add signatures to Sheppard's online petition on change.org demanding that the Town of Newmarket change its bylaws.
More than 3,100 people have signed the petition to date.
The Town, which does not have a bylaw regulating the sale of animals at pet stores, has committed to review the situation in February.
It was Sheppard's husband, Chad, who first saw the puppies and dogs for sale, two to five each in “glass cages”, in a store at Yonge Street and Mulock Drive.
The Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) forbids member breeders to sell dogs to pet stores, so the Sheppards, who operate Sheppard’s Dog Daycare in Queensville, said the animals had to be coming from unregistered breeders, backyard breeders and puppy mills.
Puppy mills, also known as puppy farms, are a multi-million dollar business in Canada that finds commercial breeders mass-producing puppies in substandard conditions for sale to pet stores, at flea markets, and online. Humane Canada says that puppy mills are "horrendous places that churn out as many puppies as possible, in the shortest amount of time and at the lowest expense. That means terrible, filthy, crowded housing, minimal human contact, no veterinary care and unspeakable suffering."
Councillor Kelly Broome, who made the request that pet store regulations be added to the upcoming regulatory review, said last fall, “I am hopeful to work with the new council to come up with a recommendation for a bylaw that will help chip away at the problem of pet overpopulation, puppy mills and breeders who raise and sell animals in unethical, unhealthy conditions by restricting stores rules and the source of their animals.”
One of the solutions offered up by animal rights advocates is the ‘adopt, don’t shop’ philosophy of encouraging pet ownership through adoption from shelters and rescues, instead of buying them at pet stores.
You can sign the petition here.
