Durham County, NC Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Chapter 8, Article IV treats every pet shop as a separate enterprise requiring its own permit from the county's animal control director under Sec. S. 19A-27. An applicant completes a form disclosing the shop's veterinarian and emergency contact, passes an initial inspection confirming it can meet the minimum standards in Sec. 00 fee to transfer the permit on a change of ownership. Section 8-106 does not prohibit selling dogs or cats retail; instead it bars specific sale practices: a shop may not sell or trade an animal showing signs of infection or communicable disease without a veterinary good-health certificate, and must disclose to a buyer any veterinary treatment given in the prior 30 days; it may not sell or trade a dog or cat under six weeks of age; and it may never sell certain species outright, including lions, tigers, bears, wolves, non-domesticated felidae, monkeys, apes, livestock, deadly-venomous animals, and turtle eggs or live turtles.

Section 8-105 layers on detailed daily-care minimum standards drawn from the 1987 PIJAC manual and 15A NCAC 52J, covering feeding schedules, cage sanitation, water freshness and species-specific housing, and Sec. 8-107 requires the shop to keep origin, description, disposition and veterinary-treatment records on every dog, cat and bird for a year after sale.