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Las Vegas limits pet store sales, hikes fines for animal abandonment

Updated January 17, 2025 - 3:07 pm

The city of Las Vegas is limiting how many animals pet stores and licensed breeders can sell to individual households to one a year. It’s also increasing fines for people proven to have abandoned their pets up to $1,000.

The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve both proposals, which go into effect on Sunday.

The primary intent of the bill is to help prevent animal abuse and neglect that sometimes occurs in connection with animal hoarding or other circumstances where too many animals are in the care or control of one person or household,” the city wrote about the first ordinance.

Proposed committee

A separate bill introduced Wednesday would establish an “Animal Advisory Committee.”

“The purpose of the Committee is to serve as an advisory body to the City Council with respect to animal-related issues, policies, and practices,” the city said.

Each council member would nominate a volunteer committee member. The board also would seat a non-voting city staffer.

That proposal will be voted on at a later date.

“I don’t come up with these ordinances because they’re feel-good bills,” said Councilwoman Victoria Seaman about issues related to shelter overcrowding and animal hoarding.

“I am grateful that we have pet stores because we get to regulate them,” she said, adding that the problem lies with illegal breeding.

New ordinances

Individual businesses currently are able to sell six dogs, a half-dozen cats, four ferrets, four rabbits and two guinea pigs, to a single household in a calendar year.

The merchants keep a database with buyers’ information, which it shares with the city on a quarterly basis.

The city can issue noncompliance notices that if not remedied can elevate to “criminal or civil proceedings and penalties, including potential disciplinary action against a business license,” according to the amended ordinances.

First-time convictions for animal abandonment, a misdemeanor, will increase maximum fines from $200 to $1,000.

Those cases are difficult to prosecute, according to the Las Vegas Department of Public Safety administrator.

“I wouldn’t see an increase in our case load because it’s one of the most difficult ones to address, because you just don’t know who the owner is,” even if the animal is chipped, Rudy Tovar told the City Council.

Eight people were cited last year, he said.

‘Not going to tolerate people who are abandoning animals’

Tovar said he hopes to see increased community education around the issue to deter the behavior.

“I’m not certain whether $1,000 is going to make someone not abandon their pet,” he said.

Las Vegas has passed laws in recent years that address microchipping, backyard breeding and placed limits on how many pets can live in a home.

Community advocates showed up to Wednesday’s meeting to support the proposals. They lamented that a $1,000 fine is not punitive enough.

City Attorney Jeff Dorocak said that’s the maximum penalty allowed under state law and changes would have to occur through the Nevada Legislature.

“We need to send a message to the citizens of Las Vegas that the city is not going to tolerate people who are abandoning animals,” said Bryce Henderson with the “No Kill Las Vegas” advocacy group.

While Henderson said he wanted to see costlier fines, “just the fact that the city passes this will send a strong message to deter people from doing that.”

The crowd cheered with the passage of each ordinance.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.

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