Cherokee County, GA Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Chapter 18, Division 10 of the Code of Ordinances, added by Ord. No. 2019-O-011 on August 6, 2019, defines a pet shop as any retail establishment selling animals to the public and flatly bars it from selling, exchanging, bartering, offering for sale, auctioning or otherwise transferring a cat or dog (Sec. 18-376). The only carve-out is space provided free of charge for an animal control facility (a government-run shelter that does not breed animals) or an animal rescue organization (a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) that does not breed animals) to showcase animals for adoption, and even then the shop cannot offer an animal under eight weeks old for adoption.

Any pet shop that hosts such adoptions must post a sign, conspicuously placed on the cage or enclosure of each animal, naming the animal control facility or rescue organization that actually owns the dog or cat (Sec. 18-377). Enforcement runs through the Cherokee County Marshal's Office and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, which issue court citations and may delegate authority to designated employees (Sec. 18-378). The ordinance treats the shelter/rescue carve-out narrowly: a shop cannot use it to sell animals it purchased or bred itself, since only facilities and organizations meeting the statutory definitions qualify, and the restriction applies only within the unincorporated county, not inside Canton, Woodstock, Holly Springs, Ball Ground or Waleska, each of which sets its own rules.