Orem, UT Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Section 5-1-6 of Orem City Code, Sale of Certain Turtles Prohibited, reads: it shall be unlawful for any pet shop to raise or sell any Pseudemys Scripta-Elegans, or P. Troostii family Testudinidae ('Pet Turtles'). Those Latin names correspond to the red-eared slider and related sliders long sold as small 'dime store' turtles, a category federal and state health regulators have targeted for decades over salmonella risk to children. Orem defines 'pet shop' broadly in Section 5-1-1(R) as any establishment, not part of a kennel or cattery, containing cages or exhibition pens where dogs, cats, birds, or other pets for sale are kept or displayed, so the turtle restriction applies to any Orem retailer meeting that definition, not just specialty reptile stores.

Outside this one species-specific prohibition, Chapter 5 does not bar pet shops from selling dogs or cats, does not require shelter-only sourcing, and does not impose a puppy-mill sourcing rule; a broader retail pet-sale ban would have to come from state or federal law, not Orem's own code. Pet shops otherwise remain subject to the chapter's general animal-welfare rules on care, cruelty, and sanitation found elsewhere in Article 5-1.