Councillor Brock McGregor is hoping to get support in preventing retail stores within the municipality from selling non-rescue animals.
The Chatham councillor will bring forward a motion Monday night, to make an amendment to the Responsible Animal Ownership by-law.
"It's something that's been done in some other jurisdictions in North America," says McGregor. "It's really about the humane treatment of animals... I think that we can take some steps in following other communities to promote more humane treatment of animals raised to be pets."
He adds this comes as a strategy discussed between animal rescue workers to reduce certain breeding practices, like puppy mills for example.
"One of those strategies is to not have puppy mill type puppies or kittens in pet stores so that they're not available for those impulse-type purchases," he says. "People [can] go through some of the other avenues if they want to become pet owners and that may lead to more responsible pet ownership."
As for how local retailers may take this possible change, McGregor says it hasn't been a major issue in other communities so he doesn't expect it to be a problem in Chatham-Kent.
"There's already stores that don't sell those types of animals right now," he says. "There's already stores that have made that choice on their own, which I think is the responsible thing to do -- this [amendment would] just be making that mandatory."
The motion will be presented to council for approval during Monday night's council meeting at 6pm.
