Austin, TX Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

City Code Sec. 3-2-3 governs commerce in live animals. Subsection (B) makes it an offense for a pet trader to conduct an off-site retail sale, defined in Sec. 3-1-1(12) as exchanging a cat or dog for consideration at a location other than where it was bred, which is what keeps typical retail pet stores from selling puppies or kittens sourced from outside breeders. Subsection (C) separately bars anyone from selling, trading, bartering, leasing, renting, giving away, or displaying for commercial purposes a live animal on a roadside, public right-of-way, or commercial parking lot, or at an outdoor sale, swap meet, or flea market.

Sec. 3-2-3(D) exempts the City of Austin animal shelter, its certified partners, registered 501(c)(3) rescue organizations, agricultural livestock events, and mobile pet adoption events run by exempt organizations. Even a compliant on-site sale by a pet trader triggers Sec. 3-2-3(E)-(G): an animal processing fee (waived for sterilized or breeding-incapable animals), mandatory microchip implantation before the exchange with registration information given to the new owner, and a signed disclosure form covering the breeder's name, address and USDA license, birth date, breed markings, inoculation and worming records, any veterinary treatment, and a veterinarian's statement on the animal's health.

The pet trader must keep each signed form for at least two years and make it available to a humane officer, animal control officer, or law enforcement officer.