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

Section 14-171 flatly prohibits a pet shop from selling, advertising for sale, exchanging, offering for adoption, bartering, auctioning, or otherwise delivering or transferring a cat or dog, closing off the traditional retail model entirely for these two species. The only carve-out lets a pet shop provide space and care for cats and dogs that remain owned by an animal control facility or an animal rescue organization, so the animals can be adopted out to the public from the store, provided the pet shop takes no ownership interest in the animals and receives no fee for hosting the adoption space.

Section 14-172 requires the store to post a conspicuous sign on each cage or enclosure identifying which shelter or rescue owns that particular dog or cat, so customers know they are dealing with a rescue placement, not a retail sale. A companion rule in section 14-173 bans roadside sales entirely: no one may sell, trade, barter, lease, or display for a commercial purpose any dog, cat, or domestic rabbit on a roadside, public right-of-way, median, park, flea market, or commercial parking lot, though shelters, rescues, and 4-H or fair exhibitions are exempted.

This pair of ordinances, adopted in 2022, functions as the county's puppy-mill retail ban, steering all pet-shop dog and cat placements toward the adoption model rather than commercial breeder or broker sales.