Special Report: Is El Paso’s Pet Ordinance Having An Effect On Unlicensed Breeders?

Last January, a major revision to Title 7, El Paso’s Animal Control ordinance, took effect. Mayor John Cook and other supporters said they wanted to decrease the number of pets euthanized in El Paso.

Do a quick Internet search. You’ll find hundreds of puppies and kittens for sale in El Paso. Some people hawk pets right out of their cars.

But the revised ordinance says anyone selling a pet must possess a permit, whether your dog gave birth by accident, or if you’re a professional breeder.

“You get a permit, you let us know when the pets are born and you can advertise them for sale,” explained Cook.

Animal services reports just 45 litter permits and only two breeder permits were issued in 2011.

“The reality is that very few people have breeders permits,” said Cook.”Evidently pets are still being bred.”

ABC7 responded to several classified on the Web and met with people selling their pets from cars in parking lots all over the city.

Our crews discovered a litter of pit puppies in a shopping-mall parking lot, a woman was willing to sell any of the three 5-week-old pit bulls for $200.

There was also a 7-week-old shih tzu for $360 for sale behind a fast food joint, and a 6 week-old poodle for sale for $160 outside a gas station.

“Were supposed to have people going through the classified ads and finding them, and saying, ‘You just advertised this pet for sale. Where’s your breeders permit?'”

The ordinance also says puppies and kittens can’t be sold be sold until they’re 8 weeks old, nor on a road, walkway, commercial parking lot, flea market or festival.

There are price limits, too: $150 with proof of spaying or neutering, and just $50 without. Those violations run $95 a pop.

Failing to have a permit is the big one: a $557 fine, if you get caught. But hardly anyone does.

The city issued just 42 citations last year for unlicensed litters, and only one for un-lawful breeding.

“It’s been totally uneffective and it’s because there’s very little opportunity for enforcement,” said Cook. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve put the proper emphasis on it.

Some said it was ill-advised from the start.

“It punishes responsible breeders,” said American Kennel Club spokeswoman Lisa Peterson.

After reaching out to more than 20 registered breeders, we found they were too frightened to speak, scared they’d be penalized for violating codes they didn’t even know they were breaking.

Some said they moved out of the city limits or would only sell animals online to escape the ordinance.

“Responsible breeders have been targeted by this ordinance, are leaving town, and leaving the public in El Paso with less options to find responsibly bred dogs, then I’d say this law is not achieving what it’s intended to,” said Peterson. Perhaps encouraging more people to purchase pets from backyard breeders.

The executive director of the El Paso Humane Society, Betty Hoover, said the ordinance has done nothing to keep pets out of shelters.

“We’re taking in as many animals as we had before,” said Hoover.

More than 24,000 El Paso pets were euthanized after the revised ordinance took effect in 2011, a 15 percent increase from 2010.

Cook said he’s working to make the ordinance more effective and he issued the same appeal we heard before it took effect.

“Adults have to become responsible,” said Cook. If people are looking at pets as being a disposable commodity, which evidently they are, there’ll never be an end to the animals that are euthanized,”

Cook said he’s not satisfied. Seeking better results, the city has shifted enforcement from the Health and Human Services department to Environmental Services.

The city is, yet again, in the early process of developing revisions to Title 7.