Adopt, Don’t Shop! West Hollywood Makes History with Broad Ban on Animal Sales, PETA Celebrates
For Immediate Release:
September 15, 2025
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Following input from PETA and local animal advocates, the West Hollywood City Council voted today to adopt the most comprehensive ban of animal sales in retail stores nationwide—bolstering its longstanding ban on the retail sale of cats and dogs to spare countless birds, reptiles, arachnids, fish, hermit crabs, and other animals from the entrenched neglect and cruelty of the pet trade.
The groundbreaking ordinance—which also follows the city’s bans on cat declawing, glue traps, and fur sales, as well as a statewide ban on selling rabbits in pet stores—marks a significant win, especially for birds, who are often captured in nature by animal dealers and smuggled into the U.S. more than any other animal. Before being shipped, birds are often force-fed, their wings are clipped, their beaks are taped shut, and they are stuffed into everything from spare tires to luggage. Captive-bred birds fare no better—a PETA investigation into one breeding facility revealed parakeets crammed by the dozens into small, dark cages, while severely stressed birds plucked their offspring’s feathers out, leaving bloody patches.
“West Hollywood has taken a stand against an abusive industry that sees thinking, feeling beings as nothing more than commodities and condemns them to a lifetime of misery,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is celebrating the compassionate decision by Mayor Chelsea Byers and the entire City Council to enact this lifesaving law and is urging other cities to follow their lead.”
Every PETA investigation of the pet trade has exposed systemic animal suffering—including hamsters crammed into waste-filled bins; dead and dying betta fish floating in cups of contaminated water on store shelves; and thousands of bearded dragons warehoused in filthy, barren plastic tubs. An undercover PETA investigation into a supplier of hermit crabs—who do not readily breed in captivity and thus are routinely torn from their coastal habitats to be sold in pet stores—documented severe crowding, mass death, and workers cracking open the protective shells of live hermit crabs to force them into painted shells, which can be toxic to crabs.
Across the country, animal shelters and adoption groups for birds, small mammals, reptiles, and other animals are bursting at the seams with discarded and unwanted animals in need of homes.PETA is calling on Petco to stop fueling this deadly cycle by ending its live animal sales—and until then, urging everyone to stay out of the chain’s stores.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
