ENCINITAS — The Encinitas City Council is set to vote Wednesday on an ordinance that would ban the sale of pets produced by commercial breeders — or what critics call “puppy mills.”
If the measure is approved, the city would join Oceanside, San Diego, Chula Vista and nearly 80 other municipalities nationwide that have adopted similar laws.
There are no shops in Encinitas that sell commercially bred pets, but supporters of the ordinance say they want to make sure such stores don’t open in the future.
“We want to take a proactive approach,” said Laurie Michaels, an Encinitas resident who asked the council to adopt the measure.
The proposed ordinance is modeled after San Diego’s law and would apply only to dogs and cats. It would prohibit pet stores from displaying or selling cats and dogs unless they are obtained from an animal shelter or nonprofit humane society.
Encinitas city officials are recommending the council hold off adopting the ordinance until lawsuits filed by pet store owners against other cities are settled. They specifically cited a federal lawsuit in Arizona, where Phoenix has been sued by a pet store called Puppies ’N Love over that city’s ban on the sale of commercially bred pets.
Last year, Judge David Campbell granted the store a temporary restraining order that prohibits Phoenix from enforcing its ordinance until the case is resolved. A decision in that case could be binding in Encinitas because the Ninth District Court includes California in its jurisdiction.
Michaels said the city should adopt the ordinance because it can be changed later if the pet store owner wins the suit.
“I think they (city staff) are being overly cautious,” she said.
The Oceanside City Council approved its ordinance in January after a pet store opened in 2014. The store’s owner, David Salinas, moved his business to Oceanside after San Diego adopted its ordinance in 2013.
The Encinitas City Council meets Wednesday, 6 p.m., at City Hall, 505 South Vulcan Avenue.
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