05/11/2025
Upon further research, it appears that the substance of the ordinance being voted on at Wednesday night's Board of Representatives meeting - which bans the sale of cats and dogs in Stamford's retail pet shops - had already been presented to Stamford's Corporation Counsel (city lawyers) back in 2019 for an opinion on its legality; at that time, the Corporation Counsel's opinion unequivocally stated that such an ordinance was not legal as a municipality's laws could not directly contradict what is allowed under state law. During this past legislation session, state lawmakers, including members of the Stamford delegation, recognizing the importance of such a ban, sponsored a law that WOULD allow municipalities such as Stamford to ban the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits; unfortunately, the bill didn't make it out of the legislative session. So we are between a rock and a hard place. While SASA strongly wants to see this ban enacted, it is inadvisable to simply ignore the opinion of the city's lawyers. It is our hope that our local elected officials will put their efforts into advocacy at the state level to get the state bill taken up again in the next session instead of voting on an ordinance that has been determined to be unlawful. On a positive note, last year, the Stamford Zoning Board did approve changes to the zoning regulations for pet shops, restricting the location where any new retail pet stores can operate to less desirable areas and instituting permit requirements so there has been some steps in the right direction to curb the retail sale of dogs and cats. We are hopeful that the state will ultimately pave the way for this ban to be enacted not just in Stamford, but across the state, as has been done in many states across the country.
