West Hollywood Becomes First City to Ban Animal Sales: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
August 21, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA President Tracy Reiman regarding the news that, after testimony from PETA and other animal advocates at Monday’s city council meeting, the West Hollywood City Council unanimously voted to make the city—the first in the U.S. to ban glue traps, the sale of fur, and declawing—the first U.S. city to ban the sale of animals:

West Hollywood has done it again, with Mayor Chelsea Byers and the entire City Council agreeing with PETA that it’s time to stop greedy retailers from selling animals to people who aren’t prepared to provide them with the complex care they need. This historic ban will spare parrots from dismal lives in a cage, snakes from confinement in tanks so small they can’t stretch out, and fish from swimming endless circles in filthy bowls, and it sets a precedent that PETA urges all other cities to follow.

Every PETA investigation of the “pet” trade has uncovered systemic animal suffering, from the breeding mills that pack hamsters into bins full of their own waste to the store shelves filled with dead and dying betta fish.

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 Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.