A Letter to Our Customers

Over the last few months we have been overwhelmed by the amount of support from clients, partners in our industry and people who have followed our push to improve animal welfare in the state of Illinois. The gratitude we feel for each of you is immeasurable.

For years we worked on legislation at both the city and state levels to ensure consumers had a trustworthy and transparent source to purchase their puppy. We worked on legislation to protect consumers, to enhance requirements on sourcing standards and to provide the consumer with transparency that’s necessary to make an educated decision when it comes to purchasing a dog.

When HB1711 took effect on February 23, 2022 all of the hard work to protect our dogs, implement common sense legislation, provide consumer protection, ensure consumer choice and defend ethical small businesses was destroyed. Worst of all, HB1711 failed to close one single puppy mill in the process.

Furry Babies never stopped fighting for what is right for our dogs and the families that wish to decide what kind of dog they want to bring into their home. We are happy to share that we have obtained a Dog Dealer license with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and can go back to providing well-bred puppies with known health histories and backgrounds from the reputable and ethical breeders we have worked with for years!

While we believe there is a place for rescue and support the mission, we also strongly believe that with 520 animal shelters and rescues licensed in the state of Illinois that consumers should have access to a well-bred puppy of their choosing.

We look forward to not only being that source for Illinois families who want a puppy from a reputable breeder, but also continuing to work on animal welfare legislation that actually impacts puppy mills. When a ban is implemented as to where consumers can purchase a dog, you only further harm our dogs, promote puppy mills, increase illegal importation and encourage the black market. By implementing breeder standards that address all areas of a dog’s care and further regulate businesses that source dogs from breeders, we eliminate puppy mills.

Each entity that sells or adopts dogs should be held to the same standard of care and ethical practices. Under HB1711 just 2% of businesses licensed to sell or adopt dogs were affected. All of the regulation should not solely fall upon one license, but rather should be tailored to protecting dogs and consumers from wherever they choose to purchase their dog.

HB1711 is deeply flawed legislation targeted at closing small businesses. Closing puppy mills by only effecting 2% of the licenses is not how you achieve the goal. Follow Protect Our Pets Illinois to learn more about our fight against puppy mills and improving animal welfare!