Final signature count: 28,752

28,752 signatures toward our 30,000 goal

Every time someone buys a puppy or kitten from a pet store, there's a high chance that animal came from a large-scale commercial breeding operation—a puppy or kitten mill. These facilities treat animals like products, not living beings. Breeding dogs and cats are locked in filthy cages, denied proper care, and forced to produce litter after litter until their bodies give out¹.

Pet stores don't just overlook this cruelty—they fund it. Nearly all puppies and kittens sold in retail stores come from these commercial mills². Marketing terms like “USDA-licensed” or “family-raised” are meant to comfort buyers, but they obscure a system built on lifelong confinement, suffering, and disposability.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees licensed commercial breeders, has failed to act. In 2024 alone, despite hundreds of documented violations—including denying animals food, water, and medical attention—only two dealers lost their licenses. Not a single dog was removed from an abusive facility³.

Why Retail Sales Must End

Retail pet sales are the retail front of the puppy mill industry. Without pet stores, commercial breeders would lose a primary source of profit. That’s why more than 400 cities and multiple states have already passed bans on retail pet sales—and why a federal law is the next essential step⁴.

These policies work. When pet stores are required to partner with shelters and rescues instead of mills, it saves lives, reduces shelter overcrowding, and ends the suffering upstream. Families still find loving animals to bring home—but without fueling cruelty behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, thousands of animals in shelters wait for homes. Many of them were surrendered after being purchased from pet stores, sick or traumatized, and more than their new families could manage⁵. Ending retail pet sales isn’t about limiting choice. It’s about doing right by the animals we claim to love.

This Industry Will Not Change Without Action

Petland remains the last major national chain still selling puppies—and it’s linked to dozens of facilities exposed in the Horrible Hundred reports for repeated neglect, disease outbreaks, and even animal deaths⁶. They won’t stop unless forced to.

At the federal level, the USDA has failed to enforce even its own minimal standards. And without congressional action, retail stores will continue to sell animals bred in cruelty while consumers are left in the dark³.

We must demand better. No store should profit off abuse. No dog or cat should be born into misery just to sit behind a glass wall.

Stand Up for Dogs and Cats

Join the call for a nationwide ban on the retail sale of commercially bred dogs and cats. Urge the Secretary of Agriculture and members of Congress to take immediate action and require pet stores to partner with animal shelters and rescues instead.

Let’s stop cruelty where it starts. Sign the petition today.