Every year, Ohio families walk into pet stores and fall in love with a puppy in a window, not knowing that dog may have come from a large-scale commercial breeding facility, often called a puppy mill, where animals are bred for profit with little regard for their health or wellbeing.

Two bills now before the Ohio legislature could change that.

House Bill 620 would ban pet stores from financing the purchase of dogs and cats — a practice that has trapped Ohio families in predatory loans with high interest rates, sometimes totaling thousands of dollars, even when the animal turns out to be sick.

House Bill 621 would restore the right of Ohio cities and towns to decide for themselves whether to allow the sale of commercially bred pets in stores.

Ohio stripped that local authority away in 2016, invalidating ordinances already passed in Toledo and Grove City. Since then, the state has offered little protection for animals or the people who buy them. As Mark Finneran, Ohio director of Humane World for Animals, put it: "The state has not put any significant regulations on pet stores in place that are adequately protecting dogs, cats or consumers."

More than 500 cities across 31 states have already banned the sale of commercially bred puppies in pet shops. Washington, Illinois, and California have all taken steps to restrict pet financing. Ohio is falling behind, and animals and families are paying the price.

Sign this petition to urge the Ohio House Agriculture Committee to give HB 620 and HB 621 a fair hearing — and to pass both bills into law.