As a concerned citizen, I urge South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and South Dakota State Representatives to act immediately to ban the sale of puppy mill puppies, cats, and other small animals in pet stores. This does not include the adoption of animals procured from a registered shelter or rescue. 

HISTORY 

Six states have laws prohibiting the sale of puppy mill puppies in pet stores - California, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, New York, and Washington. Along with this, hundreds of cities have implemented their own bans. 

Per research from Bailing Out Benji

https://bailingoutbenji.com/puppy-mill-maps/cvi-data/southdakota/south-dakota-puppy-mill-problem/

A puppy mill is a breeding facility in which the profit is more important than the welfare of the animals. In order to make the female dogs more profitable, they are bred every heat until their bodies give out. Puppies are quickly separated from their mothers so they can be sold to pet stores. Females dogs that can no longer reproduce babies are often killed or abandoned. Dogs are caged and given very limited space and lack of veterinary care with their feces and urine piled up, causing a list of serious health problems. 

South Dakota has over 50 puppy mills with approximately 2,000 adult dogs trapped in those breeding facilities. Since 2013, South Dakota has appeared on the “Horrible Hundred Puppy Mill List” 9 times and several of those puppy mills are selling to pet stores across the country. 

If the sale of animals from puppy mills is banned in South Dakota, it would be a HUGE step toward animal rights and would ensure families are adopting healthy pets!