Two more Colorado puppy stores go belly up! Just Pets in Lone Tree closed their doors for good in March, 2024. They were followed by Pet City – Citadel in Colorado Springs which went out-of-business in July, 2024.
Just a few years ago, there were 14 retail stores selling puppies and kittens in Colorado. With the latest store closings, Colorado is down to ONLY EIGHT!
Why is this happening? Consumers are getting savvy to the fact that 100% of stores selling puppies in Colorado get their out-of-state puppies from puppy mills or brokers. Consumers who know how sad the life in a puppy mill is for the breeder dogs will not even set foot in a puppy-selling store.
The tide has turned. More and more consumers are getting the message and making a decision to NOT support the puppy mill industry.
We are also seeing progress state by state. The first state to pass a state-wide ban on the retail sales of puppies and kittens was California. Vermont makes state number eight passing a state-wide ban in 2024.
City by city progress is also happening. As of August, 2024, almost 500 cities across the United States have passed a ban on the retail sale of puppies and kittens.
There are all kinds of campaign updates and progress. Ten days before Christmas 2022, New York state passed a law that bans pet stores from selling some of the most popular pets in the country: dogs, cats, and rabbits. Just a week prior, Clark County, Nevada — which encompasses the city of Las Vegas — passed a similar law (which also forbids selling potbellied pigs), and then, Washington, DC, did the same, covering almost every pet except fish.
Learn more about these legislative efforts by reading this Vox article.
