New York

What’s Hot in Legislation New York Legislators Target Hobby Breeders Again in Proposed Pet Dealer Legislation

 

July 28, 2025

Kelly Crouch, CFA Legislative Information Liaison

In May 2025, two New York legislators introduced animal bills that would require virtually every breeder to become a licensed pet dealer or stop breeding. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (District 67) and Senator Michael Gianaris (District 12) introduced bills, AB 8653 and SB 8252. These bills would amend the definition of pet dealer, remove the exemption for hobby breeders, and add a definition for brokers that resell animals bred by others. The current definition of a pet dealer is:

“any person who engages in the sale or offering for sale of more than nine animals per year for profit to the public. Such definition shall include breeders who sell or offer to sell animals; provided that it shall not include the following:

(a) Any breeder who sells or offers to sell directly to the consumer fewer than twenty-five animals per year that are born and raised on the breeder’s residential premises”. Subsection (b), not included here, refers to municipal pounds or shelters.

However, as of December 15, 2024, the New York Puppy Mill Pipeline Act, also sponsored by Rosenthal and Gianaris, no longer allows pet stores or brokers to be licensed as pet dealers and prohibits them from selling dogs, cats, and rabbits, reducing in-state options for pet seekers. It also renders the business aspect of the pet dealer definition unnecessary for those selling pets to the public. Assembly Bill 8653 and SB 8252 would remove the commercial aspect of the pet dealer definition, but they would also remove the exception applying to small breeders, further reducing pet seeker options. Originally identical, these bills redefined a pet dealer as follows:

“any person who breeds animals and sells or offers to sell more than nine animals that are born and raised on such a person’s residential premises directly to a consumer, provided that it shall not include” specified municipal or private animal welfare organizations.

The proposed threshold of nine animals in a person’s lifetime places an undue burden on both breeders and the state. Senate Bill 8252 has since been amended to reinstate the “per year” qualification for the nine-animal threshold; however, this amendment does not significantly reduce the burden for breeders or the government.

A breeder, or a good Samaritan taking in a pregnant animal off the street, could exceed either threshold for licensing in a single litter! It would be virtually impossible for a breeder to maintain a breeding program that emphasizes genetic diversity and animal health while staying under the licensing threshold. They would have to meet the care and other requirements that were designed for pet dealers and commercial breeders. The state would have to enforce the law in the private home of nearly every hobby breeder in the state. Furthermore, municipalities that currently regulate exempt breeders may need to amend their local ordinances.

The 2025 part of the two-year session is over, but legislative rules allow the automatic reintroduction of many bills during the second year of the session. New York fanciers need to be prepared to fight these bills in 2026, accept the state’s intrusion into their homes, or choose to give up breeding should either of these bills be enacted as written. Assembly Bill 8653 remains in the Assembly Agriculture Committee unchanged. Senate Bill 8252 has been amended, discharged by the Senate Agriculture Committee, and committed to Rules.



You are the eyes and ears of the cat fancy! Is detrimental legislation happening in your area? Please let us know. Contact the CFA Legislative Group at legislation@cfa.org

CFALegislativeNews: https://www.facebook.com/CFALegislativeNews

CFA Legislative Group Blog: https://legislative.cfa.org/

Legislation – What’s Hot……………No Writ of Habeas Corpus for Animals Says New York High Court

 

Sharon Coleman, CFA Legislative Legal Analyst

July 2022

Starting in 2000, the CFA Legislative Group began tackling legislative proposals to substitute the word “guardian” for owner of animals. Animal activists seeking to “shift the paradigm” of animals in society hoped that use of “guardian” would be helpful in “elevating the status” of animals and inspire higher standards of their treatment while not directly changing their legal classification as property. There were small numbers of successes, mainly with local ordinances, until organizations involved in animal ownership and care allied in efforts to maintain the legal status of animals unambiguously as property with a consistent body of law to protect animals and those involved with them including cat fanciers who need the rights and obligations of owning cats to protect and enjoy them. (https://cfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/guardian-vs-owner.pdf) Activists have regrouped with new strategies and legal theories. Recently in the news for their “Happy the Elephant” writ of habeas corpus case in New York is The Nonhuman Animal Project. The “writ of habeas corpus” is a historic and deceptively complex legal right – literally meaning “show the body” – of detained individuals to obtain court determination of whether their confinement (from arrest through post-sentencing imprisonment) is legal. The writ of habeas corpus originated in England before the Magna Carta and is now part of international human rights, so its extension to confined animals had seemed promising to NhRP. This organization builds on the lifetime work of its president, Steven Wise arguing that highly intelligent, captive animals should have access to courts as “persons” to address conditions of their captivity, including appropriate release, and care through litigation, legislation, and education. Their most recent New York habeas corpus case affirmed the lower courts’ dismissal of their legal theories in a June decision. To learn more about this and their previous habeas corpus cases see the blog posts of John M. Simpson, partner in the Duane Morris law firm’s Animal Law Practice. https://blogs.duanemorris.com/animallawdevelopments/2022/06/14/new-yorks-highest-court-declares-that-elephants-are-not-legal-persons/

Recent CFA Legislative Group Blog Posts:
What’s Hot………… Unaltered Cat Licenses, Breeder Permits, and More Changes Adopted by Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Legislation – What’s Hot . . . . . . 2022 Ushers in the New and Out the Old: States in Session this Year and a Recap of 2021 Bills (CO, CT, HI, IL, MA, NH, NY, OK, TN, and UT)

 

Kelly Crouch, CFA Legislative Information Liaison
Sharon Coleman, CFA Legislative Legal Analyst

January 2022

Recap of 2021 Bills

Ringing in 2022, you may wonder what happened with the 2021 legislation we monitored. Before reviewing the updates, let’s look at the new year to help put those “end-results” in perspective. Unlike odd-numbered years, only 46 states will have regular sessions. Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, and Texas skip the even-numbered years. For the other states, many sessions will begin this month. Several states allow bills to carry over from 2021 to 2022. But not all legislation will have the momentum to leap across sessions. And for other bills the authors may still find it advantageous to file it under a new number instead. Thus, bills may not always die at the end of the session and appear unresolved. Click here to see an updated chart of 2021 legislation not previously updated. It includes legislation from Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah.

Where to find CFA’s Legislative News
In addition to the monthly What’s Hot pieces conveniently published in the CFA Newsletter, the CFA Legislative Group also has a Facebook news page and a WordPress blog site with useful features. The CFALegislativeNews Facebook page posts describe and link to information about new legislation, publications, and developments. You may always forward these to your own friends to expand our reach, and please send us news from your area to legislation@cfa.org. On the CFA Legislative Group Blog, we post chronologically the monthly What’s Hot pieces as blog entries. These are always available for reference and are handy and searchable as issues develop over time. There are also occasional topical discussions of developing issues that only appear on the blog, as well as additional pages on the site. These include the APHIS Exemptions Flow Charts in addition to a Resources page with articles authored by the CFA Legislative Group that have been published elsewhere, generally Cat Talk Magazine.

Recent CFA Legislative Group Blog Posts: Legislation – What’s Hot . . . . . . Federal and State Legislature Sites, Part 2, Nebraska – Wyoming

Legislation –What’s Hot . . . . 2021’s Early Bill Issues Range from Breeders to Microchips in these States: CT, HI, NH, NY, OK,and TX

 

February 2021

Kelly Crouch, CFA Legislative Information Liaison
Sharon Coleman, CFA Legislative Legal Analyst

Legislators are introducing legislation as state sessions are getting started. A few of these bills, discussed below, involve pet breeders, dealers, mandatory microchipping, and pet store source restrictions. Even this early in the year, the CFA Legislative Group is tracking more state bills than we can report on in What’s Hot, the CFALegislativeNews Facebook page, or the CFA Legislative Group blog. Some of these bills are dog only bills–at the moment. Others involve topics like animal abuse, taxation, and non-economic damages. We watch this legislation, because changes during the session could make them significant to cat fanciers. The bills summarized below come from Connecticut, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The bills of note this month include:

CT S.B. 458: This bill would establish a companion animal breeder license. The fee would be set on a per animal basis and used by the Department of Agriculture for spaying and neutering programs.

HI H.B. 1287: The proposed House Bill 1287 includes a new section requiring mandatory microchipping of dogs and cats, registration, and registration information maintenance. It also amends the state licensing requirement to include “or has been implanted with a microchip” if counties “by ordinance, dispense with or modify” the state licensing requirements. The amendment also adds cats to this section. The companion bill is S.B. 1387.

NH H.B. 250: This bill would increase the licensing threshold for a pet vendor to to 35 dogs and 50 cats sold. There was another unsuccessful attempt to raise them in 2020. The thresholds were reduced in the budget bill of 2019.

NY A.B. 2601: If enacted, this bill would require anyone who breeds three or more cats or dogs for sale for profit to obtain an annual breeder license. Such breeders would be subject to the inspection, facilities, care, and record-keeping mandates included in the bill. Current law defines pet dealers as any person who engages in the sale or offers to sell more than nine (9) dogs and/or cats per year to the public or any person who engages in the sale of more than twenty-five (25) dogs and/or cats, (born and raised on their premise) per year to the public.

OK H.B. 1581: House Bill 1581 would restrict the sources of cats and dogs sold by a pet store. Unlike some other bills of this type, it would not limit sources to so-called “humane sources” only. The sale of cats and dogs from shelters and rescues would be allowed, as are cats and dogs from specified wholesalers and qualified breeders.

TXS.B. 323: In the July 2020 issue of What’s Hot, we reported that the Texas Sunset Commission recommended eliminating the Licensed Breeders Program. Since then, the Commission rejected the recommendation. Now Senator Royce West (D-23) has authored Senate Bill 323 that would, if enacted, reduce the threshold to require licensing to five breeding females and eliminating the cats or dogs sold threshold altogether.

Lawmakers will add more bills of interest to fanciers as the sessions continue. Though only a few state legislatures meet year-round, local lawmakers do meet all year. Keeping track of fifty states is one thing, but add in all the local governments, and there are over 30,000 jurisdictions in the U.S.to monitor. The CFA Legislative group needs your help in this endeavor. We call you the eyes and ears of the cat fancy for a reason. If you discover concerning legislation affecting this hobby -at any level –please contact us at legislation@cfa.org

Recent CFA Legislative Group Blog Posts:

Legislation –What’s Hot, January 2021 – PIJAC’s Letter on Essential Businesses, Legislative Sessions, and an Update on Burke County, North Carolina

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