Poorly socialized animals in pet stores
It's a sad record: France is the European champion in the number of dog and cat abandonments, with more than 100,000 abandonments each year according to the Société Protectrice des Animaux. Among the reasons identified for these too many abandonments are too early weaning and poor socialization of animals sold in pet stores. They would be the cause of the appearance of disorders or behavioral problems in these animals which would encourage their owners to abandon them more. Pet stores would also be more conducive to purchases “on the spur of the moment”, which all too often result in abandonment.
Sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores prohibited
It is therefore in an attempt to limit this excessive number of abandonments and that the deputies adopted a new amendment which plans to ban the sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores from 2024. This vote is intervened Wednesday, January 27, 2021 as part of the examination of a bill against animal abuse by the National Assembly. This ban, which is already in force with our British neighbours, is for Loïc Dombreval, LREM MP for the Alpes-Maritimes and veterinarian, "a victory that concretizes a movement initiated by many brands" .
The best framed online sale?
The online pet sales ads will still be allowed but reserved for breeders and animal protection associations and therefore prohibited for individuals. It should be noted, however, that this was already the case on online classifieds platforms because any individual wishing to sell a dog or a cat there had to register as a breeder with the chamber of agriculture of his department in order to to be able to include his SIREN number on his classified ad.
On the other hand, the amendment voted last Wednesday provides that individuals will be able to continue to publish advertisements if they wish to donate their animal without additional formality which, according to several deputies, would not be sufficient to fight against the animal trafficking that these online platforms facilitate.
The government has also agreed on a sales framework charter with Leboncoin, which undertakes to specify the animal's identification number, age, race and vaccination status on the published classifieds. On the other hand, other platforms like Facebook Marketplace, where ads are just as numerous, will not be affected.