Arlington Heights, IL Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Section 12-1502 defines a Pet Shop Operator as anyone who sells, offers to sell, exchange, or offers for adoption with or without charge or donation dogs, cats, birds, fish, reptiles, or other animals customarily obtained as pets, excluding people who sell only animals they personally produced and raised and licensed veterinary hospitals or clinics. Section 12-1503 requires the license application to include a copy of the operator's current Pet Shop Operator's license from the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Section 12-1505 requires sanitary, filth-free premises and bans selling, bartering or giving away any rabbit or fowl that has been dyed or artificially colored, and bars selling baby chicks or ducklings as pets or novelties at all.

Section 12-1506 is the ordinance's core consumer-protection measure: at the time of sale of every dog or cat, the operator must hand the buyer a signed Disclosure Statement covering the animal's breed, age, sex and color; its medical treatment history; the breeder's business name and address; the breeder's USDA license number and inspection report, with a link to the USDA site for further checking; whether the breeder is a hobby breeder with fewer than five breeding females; population and lineage data; the animal's birth location; and any prior ownership transfers.

Signed statements must be kept on file at least two years and made available to Village inspectors, and every posted or handed statement must list contact information for the Building Department's Code Enforcement line.