A way to target the impulse shopper. 

Update June 23, 2008: A web site has been set up with information about this bill and how you can help pass it. Click here for more information.

Original report: New South Wales in Australia may ban sales of cats and dogs from pet stores. It wouldn't be the first place to do so. Both Belgium and Croatia recently banned such sales.

Clover Moore, the parliamentarian advocating the proposal, explained it as a way to crack down on impulse buying of cats and dogs. It is the impulse shoppers who when they buy animals, actually support the puppy and cat mills that are churning out animals like factories.   

Under the proposal called the Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill, dogs, cats and other "mammals" could only be purchased from registered breeders, animal pounds and shelters or vets. The bill requires these animals to be microchipped and the seller must provide information to the buyer about the animal's special needs and requirements. Children would be restricted from buying mammals. Advertising of the sale of mammals would be regulated.

It is reported that more than 60,000 pets are euthanized each year in NSW; it is believed many of the dogs and cats that are abandoned or surrendered to public shelters are purchased on impulse from pet stores, meaning they came originally from puppy or cat mills. Most dogs and cats sold in pet stores are from puppy or cat mills.

Predictably, the pet industry especially breeders are opposed to the proposed regulation.