'Puppy Nightmare': Dallas Advocates Push for State Bill Banning Pet Store Puppy Sales

When Simon Zubras and his wife decided to give their daughter a puppy for Christmas in 2023, they had to drive to Carrollton to find a store selling one.

A year before, the Zubras family’s hometown of Dallas had passed an ordinance banning the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores. Advocates for the city ordinance said it would help staunch the puppy mill pipeline, encourage adoptions from local shelters and rescues and prevent customers from being stuck with sickly pets. Council member Omar Narvaez, one of 11 council members who voted to approve the local legislation, called it the ​​“right thing to do on behalf of our four-legged friends.”

Dallas’ ordinance resulted in the closure of a branch of the puppy-selling mecca PetLand, but stores touting top-of-the-line, pure-bred puppies still proliferate across the rest of North Texas. And that’s a problem, Zubras, a local electrical contractor, told state senators on the Business and Commerce Committee Thursday morning.

“[My wife] purchased a puppy from the store My Puppy Dreams, and this is when our puppy nightmare began,” Zubras said. “I spent $20,000 to save this dog’s life.”

Zubras told the Senate committee that in the two and a half months after he brought his puppy home, the pet was diagnosed with 14 different illnesses. At one point, liver surgery was required. According to Zubras, when he contacted the pet store about his sickly puppy, he was offered the chance to exchange it for a new one.

My Puppy Dreams has eight locations across North Texas, but a bill proposed by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) could shut the business, and others like it, down for good. Senate Bill 1652 would follow Dallas’ lead, outlawing the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores across the state. A House committee has already passed a companion bill by Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco).

Zaffirini emphasized the health complications generally linked to puppies sourced from puppy mills, and added that the banning of pet store sales could help encourage Texans to turn to an overburdened shelter system when looking for pets. Several pet store owners testified against the bill, arguing that the regulations proposed will harm only “good actors” working with reputable breeders.

“This bill fails to address real issues in the pet industry while harming ethical businesses, working families and the Texas economy,” said Marty Delgado, the owner of the Plano-based pet store Pettito. “If this bill passes, it will eliminate businesses like ours and encourage scams and backyard sales.”

Delgado assured the committee that Pettito provides health checks, guarantees and transparency on which breeders their dogs come from before a customer purchases a pup. Several other pet store owners voiced similar assurances.

Still, testimony like Zubras’ proved pivotal when the Dallas City Council considered a ban on puppy sales. At the time, the Dallas Morning News wrote about Alison Roche, who told the council she “fell in love with a sick puppy from Petland” and was forced to spend thousands on bringing her dachshund Winston back to health.

Similar horror stories were shared with the Senate committee Thursday morning. (Tales of puppy death and extreme illness, it wasn't for the faint of heart.) Shelby Bobosky, a Dallas-based attorney and animal advocate who serves on the city’s Animal Advisory Commission, told the committee she has rescued multiple puppies that were abandoned after being purchased from puppy stores like Pettito and Petland.

“I currently have a puppy from a puppy store in North Texas that was dumped at The Colony animal shelter,” Bobosky said. “It is a 3-month-old Shiba Inu that someone paid $6,000 for, and now it is my issue.”

If the bill is passed, it will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2026. After that date, pet stores that fail to comply could be hit by a civil penalty of $500 per day per dog and cat offered for purchase at the location.

SB 1652 was left pending in committee, but it could be voted on in the coming weeks. Zubras urged the committee to move the bill forward.

“We gave [our puppy] the name Trooper, because he truly is one,” he said.