Springfield, IL Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Sec. 27(a), added by Ord. No. 413-10-19 effective October 1, 2019, prohibits any pet store from selling, delivering, offering for sale, bartering, auctioning, giving away, or otherwise transferring or disposing of cats or dogs. That's a puppy-mill-style ban meant to cut retail stores out of the commercial cat and dog pipeline entirely, rather than just regulating where the animals come from. The section carves out one narrow exception: a pet store may collaborate with an animal care facility or animal rescue organization to offer floor space so that entity can showcase adoptable dogs or cats, provided the store holds no ownership interest in those animals and does not receive any fee for providing the space.

That distinction matters for enforcement, since a store that takes a cut of adoption fees or claims any stake in the animals falls back under the general sale prohibition. Subsection (b) sets the penalty at $500 per violating pet store, with the ordinance specifying that each dog or cat offered for sale in violation is its own separate violation, so the fine scales directly with how many animals are on the floor rather than capping at a single citation per inspection.