February 14th, 2025
Paws Up! To Governor Gavin Newsom for signing AB 519 into law, pumping the breaks on animal brokers across the state of California.
Commercial animal breeding facilities, dubbed “puppy mills” by popular culture, have been increasingly criticized by the public over the years as knowledge has spread around their horrifying practices. We at NHES strongly agree with these critiques; the profits of a company should never be valued above the lives of affection, freedom, and care that every animal deserves to live. And in a world where we are facing a crisis of shelter overpopulation, the idea of producing as many domestic animals as possible for sale seems even more unfair. The state of California has taken steps to combat these injustices with the passage of AB 519.
Authored by Assemblyman Marc Berman, this new piece of legislation bans brokers from selling dogs, cats, and rabbits under the age of one year across the state of California. According to Assemblyman Berman’s press release, the language defines brokers as “any person or business that makes a profit by selling animals bred and raised by another, and prohibits said people from selling or “adopting out” pets for a profit”. AB 519 creates provisions for nonprofit animal rescues and public animal shelters to operate within the confines of the law, along with the transfer of ownership of service animals. In addition, the rehoming of family pets from owner to owner is accounted for, with the caveat that owners cannot sell or rehome a pet on more than three occasions per year. This guideline may provide a means to catch brokers and puppy mill partnerships who may be posing as families or small family breeders seeking to rehome their pets.
California’s track record of fighting against the puppy mill pipeline is strong; the state was the first to ban the retail sale of commercially bred dogs and cats, back in 2017. By 2025 Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Washington and Vermont had followed suit and banned this harmful practice from pet stores across each of their jurisdictions. With the ratification of this law, one of the many loopholes this cruel industry has used will be on its way to being closed, deterring commercial animal breeders further. It is our hope that legislation such as AB 519 will not only protect animals in the state of California, but raise awareness about the many forms the puppy mill industry can take and encourage other states to file similar laws in the near future.