Help Protect Pets in Illinois

Illinois legislators are considering how to best protect pets. Please make your voice heard!

Pet welfare advocates are pushing legislation to add more standards for dog breeders on top of existing state and federal regulations. The goal is to make sure pets sold or adopted in Illinois are treated humanely.

However, some overzealous activists instead want the state to shut down pet stores. They want to ban Illinoisans from getting a pet from anywhere other than a shelter or rescue.

Doesn’t it make more sense to protect all pets–whether they are at a store or a rescue?

Consider: Animal rescues accidentally brought dog flu from Asia to Chicago in 2015, according to Cornell University. This sickened over 1,000 dogs in the Chicagoland area, killing several.

Banning pet stores from selling animals might sound good. But it creates a black market for animal trafficking. The CDC reports it is incredibly easy to bring in purebred dogs, claim they are “personal” animals, and then sell them for a profit. The USDA reports that over 1,000,000 dogs are imported every year into the US. There’s little oversight, and they can easily come from foreign puppy mills. This is called “retail rescue.”

Adoption is great; we have a campaign to raise funds for shelters. But there’s also nothing wrong with getting a puppy from a reputable, regulated local business.

Sign the petition below if you want Illinois to keep pets safe and legal.