Thank you all for signing! I wanted to post an update and say I have been getting traction by emailing city and county council members. My thought is that as more cities and counties enact ordinances, it will push the state representatives to enact something statewide. I have heard back from numbers city council members, a county council members, and a city governor.
I want to share what I’ve been doing and encourage everyone that has signed to do the same. Thank you all so much!

Look up your city and find the council members. Simply email them asking for action. Also look up your county and find those council members and email them as well.

I’m providing a template for you to use! Just copy and paste and fill in the blanks with your city or county. If you do have a pet store, change that line to state which pet store in your area sells dogs or cats.

Stop retail sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in _____. (Insert local cities or counties that have an ordinance or use the state of New York) have recently acted to ban the sale of animals in retail stores and I’m asking for next steps to follow through for _____ to do the same. Currently there are no small businesses to my knowledge selling these animals in _____ so no current business would be impacted by a city ordinance banning sales of dogs, cats, and rabbits. It would simply prevent one from opening. Pet stores are documented to frequently source animals from puppy mills. The nonprofit organization Bailing Out Benji currently has the largest puppy mill data base for substantiation of this claim if you would like to find supporting documentation. Please consider being a part of actions taken to cripple the puppy mill industry and ban the retail sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in ______.

Additional action could be a city ordinance directed at puppy mills to 

-ban the sale of dogs and cats at auction houses or flea markets

-limit the number of unaltered dogs and cats on a property

-consider enacting a “lemon law” to protect all buyers who purchase a dog or cat from any breeder in the event that their animal becomes sick or dies shortly after purchase.

Another resource for support is bestfriends.org

Thank you for your care and consideration