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Office Of Attorneys Matters 05114/2019 <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY <br />ATTORNEY <br />Dylan Reingold, County Attorney <br />William K. DeBraal, Deputy County Attorney <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Board of County Commissioners <br />FROM: William K. DeBraal, Deputy County Attorney <br />DATE: May 7, 2019 <br />SUBJECT: Request for Permission to Advertise: Retail Sale of Dogs and Cats <br />In October 2018, under Public Discussion Items, the Board of County Commissioners heard a <br />presentation from Nicole Capobiaco seeking to ban the retail sale of puppies at pet stores that were <br />born in "puppy mills". The Board also heard from Doherty, Inc. who spoke in opposition of the ban <br />of the sale of puppy mill puppies. Doherty, Inc. is the operator of Pets Around the World II, located <br />at the corner of US Highway 1 and 8th Street (former Cindi's Pet Store location). Pets Around the <br />World II offered puppies and kittens for sale at retail. Since the time of the discussion, significant <br />changes have taken place on a state and local level. <br />First, Pets Around the World II has stopped selling puppies and kittens at retail. Signs posted on <br />their door at the Vero location and posting to their Facebook page indicate that puppies and kittens <br />can be obtained for interested individuals but not via the retail store. Staff knows of no other pet <br />store offering puppies and kittens at retail, except puppies and kittens from local shelters. Second, <br />there was a failed attempt this legislative session at state regulation of puppies and kittens at retail. <br />One bill would have provided for Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services <br />regulation of the sale of puppies at retail. Another bill would have provided for state regulation of the <br />sale of puppies at retail while pre-empting local governments from enacting ordinances banning retail <br />sales and striking down existing ordinances that banned the sale of puppies at retail. Neither bill <br />was successful. <br />Staff has communicated with several outside sources on this issue including the US Humane <br />Society, Sarasota County and Brevard County. Staff has also reviewed the various lawsuits that <br />were filed in Florida and nationally, attempting to strike down ordinances that banned the retail sale <br />of puppies at retail. The lawsuits were filed by owners of pet stores that actively sold puppies at their <br />retail stores, challenging the validity of newly enacted ordinances that either banned the sale of <br />puppies at retail immediately or the ban on retail sales was phased in over time. The lawsuits in <br />Florida have focused on three main issues: <br />• The ordinance is unconstitutional because it violated the Commerce Clause. The Commerce <br />Clause prohibits a state or local government from enacting laws which would unfairly burden <br />goods or products produced in another state. An example of this would be that Florida could <br />not prohibit the sale of or place a tariff on citrus grown in California. The retail pet stores <br />claim in their law suits that a county or city wide ban on retail sale of puppies unfairly burdens <br />an out of state breeder and thus violates the commerce clause. <br />125 <br />