SANTEE — Nearly two dozen animal activists told the Santee City Council earlier this week that they don’t want local pet stores to sell puppies from unscrupulous breeders, and they want the city to ban the practice.Several Santee residents and a spokeswoman from a national group that advocates for the end of so-called puppy mills voiced their concern to the council on Wednesday. They asked the council to consider enacting an ordinance that would ban the sales of puppies bought from puppy mills.“No one could possibly be for animals that come from puppy mills, nobody,” said Rosemary Hutzley, who has lived in Santee since 1978. “If you look at the Southern California coastline, most cities have passed ordinances against the selling of puppy mill puppies. I ask all of you to look at this and become more enlightened.”Sydney Cicourel, West Coast director for The Puppy Mill Project, told the council that she had gathered more than 3,000 signatures from Santee residents and people who shop in Santee.

She told the council that the puppies they are concerned about “come from facilities that house hundreds of dogs (and) have been cited for licensing violations due to animals with untreated injuries and visible health problems, as well as unsanitary and unsafe living conditions.”Laws restricting pet store sales are already in place in Chula Vista, San Diego, Oceanside and San Marcos. The Encinitas City Council is considering a bill for its city. Seventy-two cities and counties in the United States, including 20 in California, and nearly a dozen more in Canada, have pet store ordinances about humane animal selling, according to Best Friends Animal Society, which advocates for such laws.Santee has one pet store, Pups & Pets on Town Center Parkway. The owners say they don’t sell puppy mill puppies, although the animal-rights activists have their doubts.The store has been in Santee since 2011, after several years at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon. Store owners Al and Sharon Franco previously ran a pet store in Alpine.The Francos did not attend the meeting.

Council members did not comment on the request from advocates, but on Thursday afternoon each member gave The San Diego Union-Tribune reasons for being hesitant to support a law restricting sales.“We will need to look into it further,” said Councilman Ronn Hall. “If we’re going to do this, it needs to be tailored for Santee. I don’t want to put somebody out of business. I want to make sure we’re doing it right. One size doesn’t fit all in Santee. I kind of want to work on a compromise but it’s not the Santee store that is the problem, it’s the puppy mill.”Councilman Jack Dale said he couldn’t see Santee spending money or staff time on an issue that goes well beyond its borders.Councilman Rob McNelis said years ago, he bought a puppy on his own through what he called “a reputable breeder.” The dog, he said, had diabetes and eventually went blind.“I know five other people who bought from the same breeder and their dogs were fine; stuff happens,” McNelis said.

“Dogs have issues just like people have issues.”Mayor Randy Voepel and Councilman John Minto said they had both visited the Francos’ store and found no evidence of wrongdoing, and were impressed with the care of the dogs. Minto said he was OK with the store as long as it was in compliance in Santee.“Welsh Corgi Puppies For Sale In Charlotte NcHuman beings have been breeding dogs for 20,000 something years,” Voepel said. Pink Poodle Paris Bedding“This is a licensed business, here for five or six years with no pending lawsuits, no code compliance issues. Weight Loss Center In Carrollton GaMost of the people are upset about puppy mills in the Midwest. But what it’s got to do with Santee has me puzzled. I don’t see an issue here.

I would not want to put any extra regulations on any business.”Cicourel said federal laws regarding puppy mills are weak and not enforced, and that the only things that work are ordinances at the local level. By cutting out the demand of retail sales of companion animals at local levels, the impact will be felt at commercial breeding facilities.Store co-owner Sharon Franco, who did not attend the meeting, said the store has been picketed since 2011 by protesters asking them to stop selling animals. She also said she was planning to visit some of the breeders where her store buys puppies from this summer to check out their facilities, and that she was certain they were reputable and regulated by federal law.“I know there are a lot of bad breeders out there,” Franco said. “But there are a lot of good ones, too. We have been dealing with our breeders for a lot of years and we know they have amazing programs. When you buy from a backyard breeder, those are where you have the problems.

Anybody selling off craigslist where they’re not inspected, not regulated, not held accountable.”Franco said that she knows that this issue of pet store sales is a hard one because of “emotions involved” but that she hoped Santee would not pass a law stopping their sales.“We love our store, we love our animals, we love our customers,” she said. “We are committed to them, we are up front and center about what we do. We have been selling dogs in San Diego County since 1987 and we follow every state and local law. Our business is good. People should have a choice about where they want to buy a dog.”Cicourel, with The Puppy Mill Project, said the local ordinances are effective because they eliminate the primary sales outlet for unethical breeders. She said that her group is not trying to close down pet stores.“These ordinances do not affect responsible breeders,” she said. “We are not removing anyone’s freedom in the marketplace to purchase a puppy. This is not an anti-business ordinance;