Stafford Township, NJ Animal Ordinances: Pet Store Rules (2026)

Pet shops are regulated in § 60-21, License for kennel, pet shop, shelter or pound. Subsection A requires anyone who keeps, operates or proposes to establish a pet shop to apply to the Township for a license. The license is not transferable to another owner or different premises, and under subsection C it expires on the last day of June each year. The annual pet shop fee in § 60-22C is $10.

Control over what the shop sells is in subsection F. The Township can issue a license that lets a shop sell pet supplies for all types of animals, including cats and dogs, and sell animals other than cats and dogs, but restricts the shop from selling cats or dogs, or both. Subsection E lets the Township review a license on recommendation of the State Department of Health and Senior Services or the local health authority. After a hearing, the Township can suspend the license for 90 days or revoke it if the shop failed to maintain proper hygiene and exercise reasonable care in safeguarding the health of animals, or sold a substantial number of animals it knew, or reasonably should have known, to be unfit for purchase.

Subsection I, added 4-7-2015 by Ord. No. 2015-05, is the sourcing rule. Under I(3)(a) no pet shop shall sell, offer for sale, or purchase for resale any animal bought from a breeder or broker who is not in possession of a current USDA license, who lacks the other licenses its state requires, or who was cited on a USDA inspection report for a direct violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act during the two-year period before the purchase. Subsection I(3)(b) protects buying for resale or adoption, and selling or offering for adoption, animals obtained from a publicly operated animal control facility, an animal rescue organization or pound, or a qualifying shelter.

Disclosure and health duties follow. A licensed veterinarian must examine each animal within five days before it is offered for sale, with reexamination once 14 days have passed. Each cage must post the animal's birth date and place and the breeder's name, address and USDA license number, plus the USDA inspection reports for the two prior years. Consumer recourse runs 14 days for noncongenital illness or death and 180 days for congenital or hereditary conditions, with veterinary fee reimbursement capped at two times the purchase price. Every pet shop reports to the Township by May 1 each year the total cats and dogs sold (subsection G) and its breeders and brokers (I(3)(c)).