Committee backs bill to add advertising rules for commercial pet breeders

The Senate Agriculture Committee voted to give House Bill 33 91 a do-pass recommendation after the bill’s sponsor told members the measure would add advertising requirements to the statutory reasons a commercial pet-breeder license could be revoked and would explicitly include modern forms of advertising, such as digital and social media.

“Advertisement includes audio, visual, printed materials, digital, electronic,” the sponsor said, noting many commercial breeders conduct business through social media and the bill would require license information to appear on those advertisements.

Senators asked for clarity on the statutory definition of a commercial pet breeder (the sponsor said the existing statute defines it by an annual threshold and recalled the threshold as either 10 or 20 animals) and whether the law applies to all species or only certain pet species. The sponsor said the statute contains the definitional language but could not recall the exact numeric threshold during questioning.

After brief discussion, the clerk recorded a roll-call tally of 9 ayes and 4 nays on the committee recommendation.

The bill’s text as presented covers advertising and license-display requirements; the statutory definition of "commercial pet breeder" and precise numeric thresholds were discussed but not resolved in committee.

The committee advanced the bill to the next stage with questions about scope and species left to clarify in subsequent drafting or hearings.