RED BANK – Borough Council members have withdrawn an ordinance that would have, if adopted, prohibited the sale of dogs and cats by pet shops that acquire their animals from commercial breeders.
Municipal officials said that with the action taken on July 18, Bark Avenue Puppies, the only business in Red Bank that would have been affected by the ordinance if it had become law, can remain open for business.
When the ordinance was introduced, the proposed law as written would have forced Bark Avenue Puppies to close because the store obtains the dogs it sells from commercial breeders.
The ordinance was revised and municipal officials said the revised proposal would have permitted Bark Avenue Puppies to remain in business, specifically by grandfathering Gary Hager as the sole owner of Bark Avenue Puppies and permitting him to remain in business.
The revised ordinance stipulated that the business could only remain in Red Bank for as long as Hager continued to operate it.
Hager said if the revised ordinance was adopted, it would make his business “worthless.”
The revised ordinance was scheduled for a public hearing and possible vote for adoption on July 18. The ordinance would have permitted pet shops to sell dogs and cats they acquired from animal shelters and rescue organizations.
Violators of the law would have faced fines ranging from $500 to $2000 for each unauthorized animal.
As the council meeting got underway, Mayor Pasquale Menna announced that he would entertain a motion by the council to withdraw the ordinance from consideration.
A motion to withdraw the ordinance was made and Council President Edward Zipprich, Councilwoman Kathleen Horgan, Councilman Mark Taylor, Councilman Michael Ballard and Councilman Michael Whelan voted “yes.” Councilman Erik Yngstrom was absent.
With that vote by the council, the ordinance died.
Menna said the ordinance could not “muster up sufficient support” prior to its scheduled adoption date and therefore would not be acted on.
Red Bank’s so-called “puppy mill” ordinance had its origins during a June 2017 council meeting when officials noted that other municipalities had adopted a ban on the sale by pet shops of animals that had been acquired from commercial breeders, which some people refer to as “puppy mills” or “kitten mills.”
“This ordinance was originally drafted with extraordinary public interest,” Menna said before asking for the motion to withdraw the ordinance. “The reality is that there is insufficient support for acting on the ordinance in one fashion or another.”
In an interview with Hager on July 18, prior to the evening’s council meeting, Hager said he would pursue legal action if the revised ordinance was adopted. Hager described the revised proposal as an “underhanded way to please everybody.”
Hager, who said Bark Avenue Puppies has been in business for a decade, said he has lost business due to the negative media attention that has publicized the issues surrounding his pet shop, which is on West Front Street.
“We are friendly with five other pet stores in New Jersey,” Hager said. “We discuss sales, how things are going, issues and problems. In relationship to their sales going up and our sales going down, this is an obvious result. The only thing we can put it on, because we know our puppies are very special, we can only feel we have had a taint put on us by the borough.
“We are literally square in the middle of town. Only recently did animal rights activists target us. We think it is inappropriate that the borough would use a police-state approach to try and close us down … We are a small operation. The (puppies) live in wonderful conditions and we do our best to acquire them from the most reputable of commercial breeders. If we discover there is a problem with any breeder, we rectify the problem or replace them,” he said.
Hager and other members of the public who were awaiting action on the ordinance left the meeting room when the council voted to end consideration of the matter.