TITLE
Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an amendment to Section 6.16.080 and Section 6.16.190 of the Long Beach Municipal Code to allow for permitted dog breeding. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
The Department of Health and Human Services Animal Control Division is responsible for the enforcement of Title 6 of the Long Beach Municipal Code (L.B.M.C.), which includes Sections 6.16.080 and 6.16.190 that regulate animal breeding. As currently written, these Municipal Code sections prohibit any breeding of animals within the City of Long Beach.
Over the past three years, City of Long Beach residents who wish to breed their dogs, as well as national organizations that promote the continuation of dog breeds through responsible breeding , have approached the City, requesting a reconsideration of the City’s total ban on dog breeding. As a result of the inquiries, Department of Health and Human Services Animal Control staff reviewed the history of Title 6 of the L.B.M.C.
In reviewing Title 6 of the L.B.M.C., staff found that Section 6.16.190 was re-titled from “Breeding Kennels a Nuisance” to “Dog Breeding Prohibited” during the recodification process of 1982. The recodification process was intended to only reorganize and renumber the existing Long Beach Municipal Code, and not modify or affect in any manner the scope, meaning or intent of the Code. In re-titling Section 6.16.190, however, the meaning and interpretation of the section was inadvertently changed to prohibit any breeding of dogs by private individuals, which was not the intent of the L.B.M.C., as originally enacted.
Before recommending an amendment to the City’s animal breeding ordinance, Animal Control Division staff conducted a telephone survey of nine major cities and counties throughout the United States to determine what, if any, restrictions were placed on animal breeding in their jurisdictions. While no locale had a specific law banning the breeding of domestic animals, most agencies wit...
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