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

Section 12-1-27 makes it unlawful to display, offer for sale, deliver, barter, auction, give away, transfer, rent, lease, or sell a live dog, cat, or rabbit in any pet shop, retail business, or other commercial establishment in Sandy unless that animal was obtained from a city or county animal shelter, a humane society, or a nonprofit rescue organization. A qualifying nonprofit rescue is either a 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is rescuing and placing dogs, cats, or rabbits without paying a breeder or broker, or a non-exempt nonprofit that is an active rescue partner of a city or county shelter.

Every store selling or boarding-for-sale these animals must maintain, and produce on request to Animal Control Officers, law enforcement, code compliance officials, or any other enforcing city employee, a certificate of source naming where each animal came from. The rule doesn't reach animals sold from the premises where they were bred and reared, and it doesn't stop a shop from housing and helping adopt out animals owned by a shelter, humane society, or rescue. Separate clauses in the same section bar selling fowl under two months old except in lots of six or more, forbid giving away any live animal as a sales premium, and set a four-inch minimum shell length for turtles sold in Sandy. The Sandy City Council added the sourcing mandate by Ordinance No. 18-12 on May 5, 2018.