San Francisco Considering Banning the Sale of Pets

If you sell a bird or a snake in San Francisco, you could wind up in jail.

The city’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare will consider an ordinance tonight that would make it a crime to sell pets – including dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats — everything except for fish.

If the ordinance is passed, San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to ban the sale of all pets.

“People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don’t know what they’re getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized,” Chairwoman Sally Stephens told the San Francisco Chronicle. “That’s what we’d like to stop.”

Pet store owners are fighting mad.

“It’s terrible,” pet store manager John Chan told the newspaper. “A pet store that can’t sell pets? It’s ridiculous.”

The Board of Supervisors would have final say on the issue.

(image:SeeMidTN.com)