Backyard Sellers, Irresponsible Owners and Puppy Mills.
Every year, shelters are overwhelmed with unaltered (not spayed or neutered) pets—an estimated 80% of incoming animals. This constant influx of intact pets leads to more litters, more strays, and more euthanasia.
We Can’t Solve This Crisis by Turning Pets Away.
Refusing surrenders, ignoring strays, or abandoning TNR (trap-neuter-return) programs is not the answer.
Instead, we must reduce intake at the source: stop the flood of unaltered pets and unregulated online pet sales.
But Here’s the Problem:
Few, if any, of the laws targeting backyard pet sellers are enforceable. Inspections fail. Penalties are rare. Compliance is almost nonexistent.
The Solution? Cut Off the Pipeline of Online Pet Sales.
Backyard sellers and puppy mills rely on online platforms to market puppies and kittens.
No ads = no sales. No sales = no profit.
We propose a statewide registry and ad verification system requiring anyone advertising pets for sale to provide:
- A valid sales tax number
- Matching government-issued identification
- A veterinary health certificate for each animal offered for sale
What Makes This Different? It’s Enforceable.
The penalties don’t fall on backyard sellers directly.
They fall on platforms—Craigslist, Facebook, YouTube, etc.—for publishing ads that don’t meet the legal requirements.
These platforms would be required to verify breeder registration, tax ID, ID match, and veterinary certification before allowing any pet sale listings.
Here’s Why It Works:
- Most backyard sellers won’t meet the requirements.
- Without proper documentation, they can’t advertise.
- Without ads, there are no online pet sales.
- No sales means no profit, removing the financial incentive to keep selling.
Less online pet sales = fewer intact, unhealthy, or untraceable animals entering shelters = more adoptions.
In this case, noncompliance is the goal.
If they won’t register and comply, they can’t advertise. And if they can’t advertise, they can’t profit.
That’s how we protect animals, shelters, and the public—before the damage is done.
Have you sent this plan to the LA County Board of Directors? Or pitched it in person? Email the Gavin Newsom Govenor of CA? What about all the state reps and Shelter managers across the state?
Thanks Gail!
We recently presented to LA City and we are presenting to Chatsworth to get the attention of Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo. We have meetings with the LA County Bar Association Animal Law Committee and several others. We are slowly making progress, do you have any contacts that might be able to assist? This is a long process!
John