A lawsuit has been filed claiming the Puppy Mill Pipeline Act set to go into effect across New York State on December 15 is unconstitutional. The Act bans the commercial selling of dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet shops.
The lawsuit asks for an injunction to stop the law from going into effect. Besides claims of the law being unconstitutional, opponents say it also does nothing to stop puppy mills. Reputable dealers will be punished and driven out of business while puppy mills will still exist under the radar and not be hampered one bit.
One thing all sides have in common is wanting the best conditions for the animals. Those opposed to the law want sensible regulations that also don’t kick the legs out from under small businesses.
The lawsuit, filed by Jonathan Gill of Creedon & Gill P.C. out of Northport represents four pet stores, and one store owner claims the law violates the constitution because it is not a “rational means” to achieve a “legitimate legislative purpose. The plaintiffs are from Suffolk, Nassau, Kings, and Bronx counties.
Violations of the NY and US Constitution Due Process and Equal Protection clauses are at issue as well as violations of the US Constitution under the Dormant Commerce Clause which involves interstate commerce. Many breeders that sell to NY are out of state.
Joe Burns, partner at Holtzman Vogel, weighed in saying, “The plaintiffs make some interesting arguments, but it’s always an uphill battle when you’re trying to have a statute held to be unconstitutional. Animal lovers around the nation will undoubtedly keep an eye on this case.”
Gill said, “The argument for due process and equal protection is that you are, you're taking away basic economic liberty from someone without any rational basis to do so. Everyone wants to eradicate puppy mills. Instead of going after the puppy mills, instead of ramping up enforcement through the state and federal departments of agriculture, which already inspect and regulate and license and keep a really tight leash on these breeders, these out-of-state breeders, instead of just ramping up your enforcement efforts, you're going to go to the next level and outlaw a totally legitimate retail industry that that's already one of the most heavily regulated industries in the state.”
It is not just the businesses that close and the employees that lose their income and health benefits. The State loses valuable tax revenue and the community loses what are often generational brick-and-mortar businesses that participate in the local festivals, and sponsorships of youth activities.
Gill said, “This is a legitimate industry. The state shouldn't tell someone who has been in business for decades that they should just pivot and sell something else when it's wrongfully being taken away from them.”
All kinds of things are banned and for the most part, bans do not eradicate the banned activity. They drive it underground. Heroin, fentanyl, child pornography, and dog fighting, are all banned and they also all thrive in an underground market. Though puppy mills are a different level of criminality, a ban will have the same result – plenty of puppy mill-type operations will still operate.
“It just drives a black market. Puppy mills will still exist only they'll be driven further underground and consumers won't, will have less of a choice of a legitimate healthy pet,” says Gill.
New York has a natural experiment to look at with regard to bans like this and yet they seem to have done no research at all on what the effects would be.
Gill pointed to California which “passed the almost identical law two years ago. We have an opportunity to look at what happened in California over two years, fast forward two years. The consequences of that law were that 95% of the pet stores went out of business within a very short period of time.”
There was a “350% increase in puppy mill abuse because you take a legitimate retail industry like pet stores and puppy sales, and you take away their ability to do what they have been doing for a long time without any problems. Shelters can only provide four or five percent of the purebreds that people want in this country,” said Gill.
Not only does it make no sense at all to take away the choices of people to have the pet that they want in a safe and humane way, but the law does nothing to eliminate dodgy breeders.
“With the 2025 state legislative session beginning in only a few weeks, it’s certainly possible that state lawmakers amend the existing law to address some of the concerns raised by pet store owners,” added Burns.
This all-or-nothing approach is typical of New York legislators who routinely make law without thinking about whether the law will accomplish the intended goal and who will get hurt in the process.