Ordinance Number 10-836
February 2010
Following a CAPS undercover investigation of West Hollywood pet shops and a nearly six month protest of Elite Animals, the West Hollywood City Council passed an ordinance in February 2010 prohibiting the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops, with an exemption for the adoption of shelter and rescue animals.
Media coverage of CAPS and the West Hollywood ordinance included The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, ABC, NBC and CBS in Los Angeles, About.com. In fact, media throughout the U.S. and the world (even New Zealand) covered this compelling story.
A CAPS investigation of Elite Animals revealed that the store was selling puppy mill dogs and defrauding customers. Undercover footage shot by a CAPS investigator showed employees telling the investigator that the puppies came from “good private breeders.” Elite Animals was also selling dogs from puppy mills in Russia and violating a federal law prohibiting the import of dogs under the age of six months for resale.
The main suppliers to Elite Animals were Gerry and Angie Wensmann, USDA licensed brokers in Minnesota, who sell to pet shops all over the country. Elite Animals proudly displayed a photograph of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, to whom the pet shop sold a Wensmann puppy in 2000. CAPS investigations of the Wensmann puppy mill documented sick and injured animals in need of veterinary care, substandard housing with badly stained flooring, broken wood and jagged rusty wires that posed a danger to the dogs, green algae water, rusting, filthy feeders with soggy food, fecal and urine accumulation, and dogs whose feet were slipping through wire flooring. The Wensmanns also breed cats in buildings that CAPS has been unable to access. A 2008 USDA inspection stated that kittens were panting in 95 degree heat in a trailer house. Yet despite CAPS investigation evidence presented to USDA and USDA reports with serious violations, USDA has not taken action. We are very encouraged, though, that evidence from CAPS investigations led to the ordinance.
