Pet store draws code enforcement warning

An Oceanside pet store at the center of the city’s new ordinance prohibiting the sale of commercially bred dogs and cats received a warning earlier this week for not fully complying with the measure, but its owner said a follow-up visit will show his shop has made all the necessary changes.

Animal rights activists urged the city to pass the law earlier this year after businessman David Salinas opened his Oceanside Puppy store on Oceanside Boulevard in 2014. At the time, the store was selling dogs and cats obtained from Missouri-based Hunte Corp., which animal rights activists have called a commercial “puppy mill.”

The new Oceanside law bans the retail sale dogs or cats unless they come from an animal shelter or rescue organization. It exempts the sale of pets by breeders who sell less than 20 animals a year and whose animals are sold in the same place they are born.

When the city passed the ordinance officials gave Salinas’ store — the only one affected by the law — a six-month grace period that expired on Tuesday.

City Attorney John Mullen said code enforcement officers visited the store Wednesday and found it wasn’t complying with a requirement to display the source of the animals.

“The owner was given an administrative warning for violation of OCC section 4.6.5(f),” Mullen said. “That section requires the store to display a certificate of source indicating the dog was obtained from an animal rescue organization, humane society or noncommercial breeder as defined in the code.”

Salinas said his store will comply with all the requirements when a follow-up inspection is conducted next week and that he now obtains all its animals from noncommercial breeders.

“As the ordinance requires, we are now working with hobby breeders or noncommercial breeding establishments only,” Salinas said Wednesday.

Leslie Davies, one of the activists who lobbied the city to adopt the ordinance, said that exemption should not have been included in the law because it will be difficult to determine which breeders treat their animals humanely and which don’t.

“I think it’s going to be impossible to regulate,” Davies said.

Davies and other activists plan to protest in front of the Oceanside store on Saturday, she said. Groups have held numerous protests in front of other stores that sell commercially bred pets, including several businesses owned by Salinas.

Earlier this year, a confrontation drew misdemeanor vandalism and battery charges for a 48-year-old woman on vacation from Canada. Her attorney said she entered Salinas’ San Marcos shop and slapped an “Adopt, don’t shop” sticker on the window. Her jury trial is slated for Oct. 6.

The woman’s attorney, Bryan Pease, said Thursday that his client, an animal rescuer, was unaware that Salinas’ shops had been the target of protests, but rather had happened upon the store, Mini Toy Puppies, and “just reacted,” retrieving the sticker from her car.

Local animal rights activists have approached several other cities around the county asking them to adopt anti-puppy mill ordinances.

Rules restricting pet store sales are already in place in Encinitas, Chula Vista, San Diego, and San Marcos. A proposed ordinance is Vista is on hold still pending further review.