I love every dog — and I love every cat and rabbit too — which is why I can't stay quiet while Massachusetts lawmakers quietly strip the strongest part out of an animal welfare bill.
Senate Bill 3028 passed the Massachusetts House on July 17, 2026, by a lopsided 151 to 5 vote. It does real good: it creates a fair civil court process for animal seizure in neglect cases, removes barriers that keep seniors in public housing from having pets, creates a licensure path for veterinary technicians, and forces rideshare companies to stop denying rides to people with service animals. I'm grateful for all of that.
But the House version quietly dropped the provision the Senate had already passed: a ban on the retail sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits in Massachusetts pet shops. That ban is the single most effective tool state legislatures have to cut off the puppy-mill and rabbit-mill pipeline that funnels sick, undersocialized animals into storefronts and unsuspecting families' homes. A House amendment to restore the ban, filed by Representative Natalie Higgins, was withdrawn before it could even get a vote. Now the fate of that language sits with a conference committee tasked with reconciling the House and Senate versions of the bill.
I'm asking Senate President Karen Spilka, House Speaker Ron Mariano, and every member appointed to the conference committee on Senate Bill 3028 to put the pet shop sales ban back in the final bill before it reaches the governor's desk. Massachusetts already passed this ban once, in the Senate. Don't let it die in a closed-door negotiation that most residents will never see happen.
Please sign to tell Massachusetts leadership: finish the job, and send a final bill that ends puppy- and rabbit-mill sales in Massachusetts pet shops.
