Fort Collins, CO Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Sec. 4-122 makes it unlawful for any retail store, or its owner, operator or employees, to sell, deliver, offer for sale or adoption, advertise for sale, barter, auction, give away, or otherwise transfer or dispose of cats or dogs. City Council adopted this puppy-mill-style ban by Ordinance No. 123, 2024, effective September 3, 2024. The prohibition carves out lawfully operated hobby breeders, animal rescue organizations, and animal shelters, and it does not stop a retail store from transferring animals to a rescue or shelter, or from hosting adoption space for a rescue's or shelter's own animals.

A store that hosts adoptions this way may not hold any ownership interest in the animals and may not collect a fee for the animals adopted or for providing the space and care; it must also post, in a conspicuous spot on each animal's enclosure, a sign naming the rescue organization or shelter the animal came from. A companion provision, Sec. 4-123, extends the same sale prohibition to streets, public rights-of-way, parks, parking lots and outdoor markets citywide, again exempting lawfully operated rescues and shelters, so a pop-up puppy sale in a parking lot is covered the same as a storefront.