Abington, PA Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Chapter 58, Article VII of the Abington Township Code, adopted 8-14-2025 by Ordinance No. 2233, makes it unlawful under Section 58-37(A) for a retail pet store, defined in Section 58-36 as a commercial establishment that sells or offers animals on its premises, to sell, offer for sale, deliver, barter, auction or transfer a dog or cat. The definition of "retail pet store" already excludes animal shelters, animal rescue organizations and individuals selling only animals they bred and raised themselves, so those sellers are outside the ban from the start.

Section 58-37(B) preserves a specific adoption model: a retail pet store may still provide space to an animal shelter or an animal rescue organization, whether based inside or outside Pennsylvania, so the public can see dogs and cats available for adoption on the store's floor. Subsection C gives the Township a check on that arrangement: if the Township determines a hosted shelter or rescue is substantially out of compliance with animal welfare standards, laws or regulations, the store must stop displaying that organization's animals until compliance is restored.

Subsection D exempts sales from the premises where the animal was actually bred and reared, protecting in-home and small-scale breeders from the retail-store ban. The article's definitions carve breeding operations that share premises, personnel or compensation arrangements with a rescue out of the "animal rescue organization" label, closing an obvious workaround for a store trying to badge itself as a rescue.