New Jersey Senate Bill 63, which seeks to limit consumer choice and remove consumer protections for New Jersey dog purchasers, was recently amended and approved by the Senate Economic Growth Committee by a 3-2 vote. The bill has been referred to a second committee, the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, for further consideration.
Click here to view AKC’s February 29 alert on SB 63.
Click here to view AKC’s February 3 alert on SB 63.
Despite amendments adopted by the Senate Economic Growth Committee, the American Kennel Club still considers SB 63 as a radical effort aimed limiting the responsible breeding and sales of dogs in favor the animal shelter and rescue distribution channels. The American Kennel Club (AKC) believes that a better solution than imposing restrictions on the production and distribution of animals and eliminating consumer protection law is to ensure that consumers are educated, understand the demands of responsible ownership, have access to a variety of pets so that they can make an educated selection for life-long success, and can avail themselves of consumer protections should they need to.
- Repeals New Jerseys’ Pet Purchase Protection Act.
- Requires sales of all dogs to be face-to-face. A new exception is provided for transfers of dogs between breeders done exclusively for the preservation of the bloodline of the dog, provided that a breeder does not make more than five such transfers each year. The bill further requires records of such exempted sales to be submitted to the Department of Health prior to a sale.
- Continues to limit pet shops to selling dogs sourced only from animal shelters and rescues.
- Does not require shelters and rescues to supply pet shops with animals.
- Continues to include over two pages of misleading legislative “findings” that impugn dog breeders with out-of-date information, questionable statistics, and discredited conjecture.
AKC will provide future updates on SB 63 as developments warrant. For more information on status of and problems with SB 63, please contact AKC’s Government Relations Department at (919) 816-3720, or email doglaw@akc.org.
New Jersey Senate Bill 63, which seeks to limit consumer choice and remove consumer protections for New Jersey dog purchasers, was recently amended and approved by the Senate Economic Growth Committee by a 3-2 vote.