Arjun’s Law: Backyard breeding of companion animals illegal

Animals are paying the price for the animal cruelty that so often accompanies uncontrolled backyard breeding.”

In 2018, I had my first encounter with backyard breeding when I rescued three rabbits from a backyard breeder who posted on Craigslist that she was sending them to the butcher that day if no one wanted to buy them from her.

When I got to her house and saw her breeding setup, I did not understand that what I was seeing was animal cruelty: rabbits crowded in tiny, wire-bottomed cages stacked in her garage without food, water, or a comfortable place to lie down. I took Arjun, Raj, and Stormy Tiger to safety, leaving the rest to either be eaten or, in the case of their mother, likely be continuously bred until she died from medical complications.

When Arjun unexpectedly died in 2022, I decided to take action in his honor. I looked to the Edmonds municipal code to see how backyard breeding is regulated in our city, only to find that it effectively wasn’t. Hoping to find model legislation I could bring to my fellow councilmembers, I was surprised and dismayed to find that few places in the country regulate backyard breeding at all.

This is unfortunate, because of the tsunami of unwanted companion animals burdening the animal rescue and shelter network nationwide. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (APSCA), approximately 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year.

Last year, approximately 920,000 shelter animals were euthanized in the United States. The reasons why range from medically necessary euthanasia to euthanasia of healthy animals due to inadequate space and financial resources among shelters to house and care for this high volume of unwanted companion animals.

Animals are paying the price for the animal cruelty that so often accompanies uncontrolled backyard breeding. And taxpayers and civil society are responsible for impounding, spaying/neutering, providing veterinary care, and trying to adopt out the millions of unwanted companion animals in shelters and rescues.

Too often, perfectly healthy animals are euthanized due to lack of space. The top three species of companion animals most commonly surrendered to shelters in the United States are dogs, cats, and rabbits.

I decided the best way to tackle this crisis was to try to address the surplus supply of companion animals and prevent many of these animals from being bred in the first place. After consultation with local animal welfare organizations like the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), I decided to propose a backyard breeding ban.

This ban imposes a civil fine of $1000 per litter on the deliberate breeding of companion animals in the city of Edmonds while empowering our animal control officers to waive the fine if the violators agree to get their animals spayed and neutered and cease breeding activity on the property.

Similarly, there is a civil penalty of $250 per day for the sale of deliberately bred dogs, cats, and rabbits, with an exception for retail pet stores that facilitate the adoption of companion animals from reputable nonprofit rescues and shelters.

It is important to note that the backyard breeding ban is only targeted at the commercial aspects of backyard breeding and would not impact people who have accidental litters or are rehoming their pets and charging a rehoming fee to ensure that their animals go to a safe environment.

I have seen alarmist rhetoric online saying that these regulations would lead to the “end of pet dogs,” etc. Dogs were first domesticated over 30,000 years ago, according to the archeological record, cats over 10,000 years ago, and rabbits over 2000 years ago.

None of these species of domesticated companions are going to “disappear” if humanity simply starts to show a modicum of compassion towards how these animals are bred, raised, and kept as companions. It’s time for our animal welfare laws to catch up to our understanding of how to treat our four-legged friends humanely in the 21^st century.

I would like to thank my colleagues on Edmonds City Council for passing Arjun’s Law, one of the first backyard breeding bans in the country. I hope that our jurisdiction can lead the way in the compassionate treatment of animals with this common sense set of regulations.