Posted: Friday, July 31, 2009, 4:37 p.m., EDT

If adopted, the new regulations will increase permit fees and will require groomers and pet aquatic facilities (i.e., swim spas and pools for dogs) to obtain permits for the first time. Pet shop permit fees would be $182 for limited or no animal sales or $473 otherwise.

Pet businesses would also require a separate health permit ($182 fee) for each additional service provided: commercial kennel (boarding, propagation and training), pet daycare, animal shelter, pet aquatic facility, and pet grooming service. Permit fees for those services as standalone business would be $182 for grooming, $400 for pet aquatic facility and $291 for all others.

As the regulations are primarily designed to address disease control issues, they appear to apply only to pet stores selling live animals (excluding fish) or “raw animal-derived pet foods or pet treats.” Stores selling raw foods and treats would need a health permit, even if they didn’t sell live animals.

Stores selling raw foods would need to ensure that such products are clearly identified as animal food. In addition, they would need to make written safe handling guidelines, as approved by the public health department, available to purchasers of such products, unless the products’ packaging already contained such information.

In addition, the regulations would require: stores selling reptiles, amphibians or poultry to display information about Salmonella infections; stores selling parrots and other psittacine birds to display information about Psittacosis; dogs, cats and ferrets older than 4 months to be vaccinated for rabies; stores would have a written infection control plan specifying cleaning procedures; and stores allowing customers to handle or touch pets must provide public hand-washing facilities and supplies and direct customers to these facilities after handlings.

Pet shops offering dogs and cats will provide the public health department a quarterly list of all dogs and cats “sold, adopted, traded, transferred or otherwise disposed of, including those dying or euthanized.” Listed information would include date of transfer, age and breed/type of animal transferred, and names and addresses of people to whom the animals were transferred.

The proposed regulations governing the various pet services will require those businesses to maintain a written infection control plan, immediately separate sick or injured animals from healthy animals, obtain proof from animal owner of rabies vaccinations for dogs, cats and ferrets older than four months before admitting the animal.

In addition, daycare facilities operators must obtain proof from prospective clients that animals are free of internal parasites, as evidenced by a negative fecal examination performed within the past 30 days by a licensed veterinarian. Daycare operations must also staff at least one supervisory employee for every 20 animals at the facility. That employee must also be “equipped to immediately remove animal feces, urine or other bodily fluids followed by cleaning and disinfection of the soiled area.”

Under the proposed regulations, pet business owners will need to pay the public health department plan review fees ($182 base fee for first hour of review, plus $182 per extra hour) for the health department to review building and remodeling plans.

The hearings will be held in Redmond (Aug. 3, 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m), Seattle (Aug. 4, 5:30-7:30 p.m.), and Burien (Aug. 5, 12:30-3:30 p.m.).

The regulations would become effective 30 days following their adoption.

Click here to read the proposals and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council Pet Alert on the hearings. <HOME>