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Movement afoot to ban retail sales of pets in Iowa, beyond

By Eric Forrest on October 10, 2017

There are all kinds of little sayings that could be applied here. “Every journey begins with one step.” Or how about the idea of a butterfly’s wings flapping here and triggering a weather event on the other side of the world? The point is, something small happened in Fraser, Iowa today, and the hope is that it’s the first domino in a series of others tumbling across our country.

Bailing Out Benji, an Ames, Iowa non-profit rooted in animal advocacy and education, recently reached out to animal lover and Fraser city council member Amy Laube about enacting an ordinance that would ban retail sales of animals in the town. And during the last few weeks, its founder, Mindi Callison, has been working on an official proposal for the town with hopes that Fraser would be the first place in Iowa to have a retail ban. Tonight, the town’s council unanimously passed the proposition.

Fraser is a city in Dodge Township, Boone County, Iowa. The population of Fraser was 102 at the 2010 census, so it’s hard to imagine what sort of impact any legislation passed in this hamlet could have on the rest of the country, let alone the state of Iowa. There isn’t a Petland in Fraser. Nor is there an independently-owned pet store that sells puppies from mills. No pet stores selling puppy mills pups will be shut down in there. That’s not the point. The point here is that one small community made a decision to take a stance against any kind of business that is bad for commercially-bred dogs and cats. In Fraser, and hopefully in other places that ban the sale of pets, no one will be contributing to the proliferation of puppies bred in mills because it’s illegal to buy and sell them in retail spaces.

Fraser and its people hope to be the germ that starts a movement of small communities (large ones can participate also!) that decide to make a difference in the lives of commercially-bred animals meant to be profit centers for bad breeders. If it’s just Fraser participating, though, no good will come of this. We must all advocate for retail bans in our communities to make a dent in the 10,000 mills in the U.S. Together, we can take a huge bite out of the awful industry.

Contact your local representatives. Your city council member is just a phone call away. Get her or him up to speed on the practices that produce puppies in the store and on the web for sale. If he or she acts, others will likely follow. And then, your community could join Fraser in the fight against puppy mills.

You could be a small cog in the anti-puppy mill machine, but you’ve got to act.