Introduction of an Ordinance Amending the Pasco County Code of Ordinances Chapter 14, Section 14-27, Definitions, and Section 14-108, Location of Sale of Dogs and Cats - No Funding Required

31:38On R three.

31:41Mr. Schmey?

31:46Code of ordinance is chapter 14, section 14-27, definitions and section 14-108, location and sale of dogs and cats. Today is an introduction. So no funding is required. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

31:59Members of the board, Madam Clerk, Mike Shumate, Director of Pasco County Animal Services. Um So we are looking at uh introducing an ordinance amendment for section 1427, which is definitions. And then also section 14108 is the primary change, uh location of sale of dogs. uh and cats, which we're gonna be renaming uh the retail sale of dogs and cats for that section. So this amendment is primarily

32:30focused um to restrict the sale, retail sale of dogs and cats or puppies and kittens from pet stores. uh especially those uh intentionally selling. from large commercial breeders, out-of-state breeders, puppy mills primarily. So if I get over the first slide, which is up there. So the restrictions on the sale of dogs and cats, of course, is in um in pet stores is consistent with our mission to

33:00protect people and pets in our community. And as you already know, we had section 108, which we had to uh establish a few years back when we had sale of puppies and kittens at um roadsides, flea markets, and things like that. So we've we've come in to alter that. Um ordinance. A significant number of these puppies and kittens sold at pet stores come from large-scale breeding facilities, typically out of state, where the health and welfare of animals

33:31are not adequately provided. There's documented abuses endemic to the puppy and kitten mills, including overbreeding, inbreeding. minimal to non-existent veterinary care. Lack of nutritious food, water and shelter, Lack of socialization, adequate space, and exercise. Next slide, please.

33:57The inhumane conditions in puppy mills and kitten mills often lead to health and behavioral issues. Consumers are often unaware of these issues when purchasing their animals from pet stores. We do have a f a law in Florida. Statute 828-29 that puts restrictions and requirements on those that are importing animals from out of state. And also it's basically been referred to as Florida's pet limit law, which gives

34:27some recourse to pet owners. But again, many of these health and behavioral issues may develop later, once they're outside the scope of the protection of the Florida statute, to impose financial hardship and emotional costs on consumers. So prohibiting this the retail sale of puppies and kittens is likely and hopefully to decrease the demand for puppies and kittens bred and puppy And kitten milk. and increase the demand for animals from animal shelters, rescue

34:57organizations, and registered local breeders. Most pet stores operate profitably with a business model focused on the sale of pet services and supplies and not on the sale of dogs and cats. A lot of your big box pet stores such as Petco, Pet Smart, Pet Supermarket, Pet Supplies Plus throughout our county operate very profitable businesses. And they do not offer for sale dogs, cats, puppies, or kittens. What they do is they partner.

35:28with local rescue organizations and shelters such as ours to adopt those animals out. That's what we're calling the adoption-based business model in the ordinance. It promotes collaboration with animal shelters, rescue organizations for showcasing adoptable homeless pets at pet stores. And I can certainly attest we have quite a few homeless pets throughout Pasco. The ordinance amendment does not affect a consumer's ability to obtain a dog or cat directly

35:58from a shelter, a rescue organization, or a breeder. I'm sure if you're looking for any breed of dog. Uh you can find it very quickly. They're in Pasco County. or surrounding counties or certainly within our own state. Uh passing this uh amendment will also Um be joining the county will be joining in about 50 other municipalities and eight other counties in Florida that have passed similar ordinances already.

36:29So what we're amending is the definitions. Uh we're adding the adoption-based business model definition. Animal rescue organizations being redefined. Broker. certificate of source, pet dealer, pet seller, pet store, and retail sale. We're renaming the section, as I mentioned already, to retail sale of dogs and cats. We've added a legislative intent focused on protection of people, consumers, and pets. We're requiring the adoption based business

36:59model for the retail sale of dogs and cats for any existing pet stores or new pet stores. We are allowing an exemption though for current registered pet stores in our county. We're doing this because quite frankly, we only have one. And uh we've had that pet store registered with our county for a number of years and we do have inspection uh opportunities go in there. And as we do have complaints, um or issues, we can very quickly go in and help to

37:29resolve those for the consumer, the customer, or look at the conditions to protect the pets. Um there also a section for penalty. Um with all that said, um We are recommending that you accept the proposed amendment changes. um or the amendments to the code of uh 1427-14108. And direct board records to advertise the proposed amendment for public hearing. before the board

37:59on September eighth of this year, right here at Dade City.

38:04Mm-hmm.

38:06Any questions? Commissioner Weightman.

38:08Thank you, Chairman. Um, Mike, so the breeders like local breeders in Pasco County will still be able to sell dogs. And and and just so the board knows, you know, Mike and I met with the owners of, I don't remember the name of the business down in Penellas in Hillsborough County, the young ladies own. Do you remember what the name of that?

38:24All about pets.

38:25All about pets and you know, nice young ladies. They they did a great job of, you know, most of their pets are out of state, like he he said, and they did a good job of showing, I think. I think overall the pets were being taken care of, the breeders were nice. But I still agree. I think we try to keep it local and and uh, you know, uh we we've talked about it and extensively. So and and we hate to hurt business. I know they had talked about trying to move up here to Pasco County, but but I do support this. It's um It's a shame that a couple bad apples hurt. Everybody,

38:56if you will.

38:57Yeah, they very quickly once Hillsbrook ordinance uh to to take away the grandfather clause that they had, they knew that they had to relocate. Uh they did call up, talk to me, talk to some of the commissioners, I believe. They wanted to find out if Pasco was going to be open for their their type of business. And we we kind of frankly told them no. Um They had done so much to try to comply with whatever Hillsboro wanted because they've been in business for years and years as a family organization, but they were

39:27still sourcing from puppy mills out of state. Yeah. although they um They tried to uh tell us that uh, you know, they were very good, they respected themselves, things like that. Um These puppy mills, inspection once a year isn't going to cut it for most of them. You know, as soon as they walk away, or as soon as the USDA, which does very frequent inspections on these places and very minimal standards. It's back to business as normal. You can have multiple animals

39:57in cages, terrible conditions. Um, and I think uh the Humane Society of the United States and the ASPCA and other organizations have documented a lot of this. So Um that's why we want to. uh have this amendment approved to to move it forward.

40:14And this this one, yeah, I don't I don't know where they are at, but I know you said there has been some complaints, nothing. extraordinary that that would make you think that they don't need to be grandfathered in i'm assuming or you wouldn't grandfather them in

40:27so i think I think anybody that is gonna buy from someone who um mass breeds animals. you you've got to be cautious. I think local breeders do a much better job at their um their homes or facilities where they're not um mass breeding animal. They have maybe selected uh breeding couples and and and things like that where they regulate a little bit more. We have inspections,

40:57opportunities to get in, look at them. They register with us so that we do have that in the future and we know who they are and where they are. So it's not like they just pop up somewhere. This particular reader has been doing it for a long time in the county. When we do have a complaint, we can go up very quickly and try to correct everything. We have rarely issued citations, a few warnings, a few on the spot corrections, things like that.

41:28And obviously we'd like people to adopt. I mean, that's mainly. And you got your team's done a great job. I'm sure the numbers are still high. Social media presence has been unbelievable. Um thank you. You got some great dogs and cats out there. So thank you. And so does Humane Society. And

41:41yep,

41:41you know. So thank you. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. That's all Jack.

41:44Questions? Other questions? Commissioner Oakley, Commissioner Mariano. Commissioner Mariano's guys. Good job. Can I actually Commissioner Mariano has his hand up then?

41:56Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um Mike, I want to say your team has done an absolute phenomenal job. Um, you know, just recently we just had another Dog that was like featured on Facebook where this dog was gonna be euthanized coming up and if we didn't get adopted within two days and one of my Facebook friends saw that, shared that, gave it to me, I shared it. Uh and we ended up saving that uh dog and went to an awesome family. The uh the child was just like thrilled beyond belief. And I tell you, while I was there, I got to take the tour as well as the dogs that were in there are absolutely phenomenal. So

42:26any anybody out there watching this to to go and see the dogs down there. It's a great group of dogs you've got. Uh the second building which has been renovated now so it can take more. I don't think you're ever gonna fill it. I don't think you're ever gonna use it with your team doing such a great job. So that and that's okay. I'm okay with that. You guys are doing a phenomenal job, but thank you for the great work you're doing.

42:46Thank you, Commissioner. Appreciate it. Yeah. I listen and I'm I'm on board too for sure. Um Some of you may be aware that, you know, my family's Lat this year and last year, um uh adopted um Two dogs from rescues and both special needs dogs. Both of them have um deformities. Um one of them literally has no leg in his front leg is totally gone. He was born that way. And our other dog has part of a leg and

43:16front feet are both deformed. But they're great animals, they're great pets. And unfortunately. You know, I won't get it really to the weeds too much, but um They did both come from readers that unfortunately not sure what they were doing, if they did anything wrong or not. One was tossed and was rescued by somebody. And thankfully the other one actually was turned in. He was actually turned into, I think he was turned into Pasco County Animal Services, the an Animal Lover's Dream.

43:45Yeah,

43:45animal lovers, Dream Rescue, I think pulled him from you guys and then we ended up adopting him. So he's a great little guy. Yeah. Um, but there's so many great dogs out there that can be adopted. Um, like Commissioner Mariano and Wells both stated, um, tons out there, whether it be from Animal Service, Humane Society, the number of rescues, private rescues that are in the area, um Pascoal County and in the vicinity. So There's there's gr really, really good opportunities. And if I'm not correct, Mike, one

44:15of the things that This will also help, hopefully in the future, potentially is to help the amount of animals that you're having to care for and possibly help your capacity. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely.

44:32a bit of breeding of of pets in Pasco already. We have no want for animals coming into our shelter every day. So we know that the population is still high. We have cats, you know, galore in the county that we're And Desperately working on to get sterilized as quickly as possible with some of our programs and funding from some of our partners and grants from PETCO and at Spark Charities and things like that. So Yep, Commissioner Oakley.

44:59Yeah. Mike, your you and your team have done a great job since since I've been elected here in the last three or four years. I mean, it's a total reversal of what it was when I first came.

45:10Yeah.

45:10I've done a great job turning that around and Moving to a better time for pets and animals here in Pasco County. I I certainly appreciate everything y'all do.

45:19Well thank you. Thank you. And I and I do want to point out that Uh you do have a great team working out there. Those folks are rescue uh folks that have pulled rescues from all over the state and out of state, uh local rescues to help us uh maintain what right now is about a 93% save rate for all the animals out there. Um COVID has certainly taught us a lot about uh how we can Operate the shelter and manage time flow and productivity

45:50and things with scheduling of all of our services. We've had a big demand to open our vaccine clinic a little bit more. So we've been able to offer more to the public as far as uh low cost vaccines and things like that. So

46:04uh

46:04they're doing a

46:05great job out there. We're very proud of. Yeah, that's great. I can test to that. I've actually taken one of mine and another one's about to come over and get more vaccines from your shop. So

46:13mm-hmm.

46:14I mean I I encourage the you know, citizens of Pasco County to utilize those those services that we do offer because they are low cost.

46:21And you know the other thing about what we do out there is um You know, this board's been very generous to us and we appreciate that with budgeting. We've been able to expand our medical capacity out there so that we can help those rescue organizations with their animals and to be able to give them fully vetted animals to adopt to the public. It's been a great resource to help keep us where we are as far as the live release rate goes. So I want to thank them and thank you as well. Excellent.

46:48So thank you. I will need a motion for this to move forward.

46:52I move. I

46:53have a motion by Commissioner Oakley. Second. Second by Commissioner Weightman? Actually, let's go ahead and do a roll call vote.

47:29That was my

47:36Because we can't hear the clerk on this side.

47:41Sorry about that.

47:43Okay, can we go ahead? Let's go ahead and just start our roll call over one more time.

47:46Thank you. I appreciate that. District one, Commissioner Oakley.

47:49Aye.

47:50District three, Commissioner Starkey.

47:55District three, Commissioner Starkey.

47:59Okay. Commissioner

48:00Starkey you are mute?

48:04Okay, we're just gonna have to move on, please.

48:06Okay, District Four, Commissioner Weightman District Five, Commissioner Mariano.

48:13Okay, there was an eye.

48:14Okay, we have your eye. Thank you. District two Chairman Mariano.

48:17Aye, motion passes five zero. Thank you so much, Mike. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Take care. Well that's it for the regular agenda this morning, folks. We're gonna move on to