Push for pet store ban resurrected in Joliet

The city is taking another look at banning pet store sales of dogs and cats.

An effort in 2017 to ban such sales of dogs failed amid objections from the Furry Babies pet store, which was located in the Louis Joliet Mall.

That store has closed, and pet advocates want Joliet to impose the ban before another store comes to town.

“We’re just delaying the inevitable here, and, unfortunately, we’re opening the door,” pet advocate Peg Grandahl told a Joliet City Council committee Wednesday when it tabled a vote on the proposed restrictions.

Grandahl, a member of Safe Pets for Joliet, said stores that sold pets from breeders moved from Naperville when it passed a similar law and opened in Aurora. She said others could come to Joliet to escape restrictions once they are imposed in other towns.

“The businesses that don’t want to change their business model are going from town to town to set up shop,” she said.

The Land Use and Legislative Committee voted, 2-1, to table a proposed ordinance that would ban pet store sales of dogs and cats while allowing retailers to collaborate with animal care facilities and rescue agencies to showcase pets for adoption. The pets for adoption method is used by the PetSmart store in Joliet.

Council member Jan Quillman objected to tabling the vote, saying the closing of Furry Babies offered an opportunity to restrict pet store sales.

“Why would we want to be a city that gives courtesy to stores that sell puppy-mill puppies?” Quillman said. “I don’t want to be a part of that.”

Quillman was the lone no vote in 2017, when the council passed an ordinance that allowed the retail sale of dogs and cats from breeders but required that they be licensed.

On Wednesday, she blamed the 2017 vote on campaign contributions from Furry Babies.

Committee Chairman Terry Morris called the reference to campaign contributions “a cheap shot” and questioned the restriction allowing stores to display pets available only through animal care agencies.

“It’s ludicrous for me to own a business, and in order for me to do business I have to give space at no charge,” he said.

Morris said more people should “get an opportunity to speak on this” before a vote on the proposed ordinance.