Steeper penalties for ‘backyard’ dog breeders likely coming to Fresno – potentially $1,000 per dog

The Fresno City Council delayed a vote Thursday to give city staff more time to come up with harsher penalties for illegal dog breeders — with proposals for $1,000 fines and potential criminal charges on the table.

Council President Annalisa Perea and Councilmember Garry Bredefeld co-sponsored Thursday’s resolution to put a temporary moratorium on issuing new “unaltered dog licenses” – which exempt owners from spaying or neutering their animals as municipal code requires.

City leaders cited “dire” issues with overcrowding at the Fresno Animal Shelter as the motivation behind the moratorium.

“It is a crisis,” Perea said. “It really is.”

The version of the resolution brought before council Thursday proposed a fine structure for unlicensed dog breeders, including $500 for their first offense, $75o for their second offense, and $1,000 for each additional offense. 

But the council ultimately decided to table the resolution and bring forward another version of it at the next city council meeting June 20 with even higher penalties.

“I would love to pass this resolution today, but I think there is (an) opportunity to make this stronger,” Perea said. “So I will be working with our City Attorney’s Office over the next few days to make sure that we do everything we can to strengthen this resolution and bring it back next week.”

Several animal safety advocates spoke in favor of a bigger crackdown on illegal breeding Thursday. Among them was Mona Ahmed, founder of the nonprofit Fresno Furry Friends. 

“Too many animals are dying,” she said. “Too many animals are getting put down for no reason.”

City Manager Georgeanne White said Thursday that overcrowding at the animal shelter leads to higher euthanasia rates. 

Some councilmembers push for even greater penalties for illegal dog breeders

Ahmed brought with her a bag full of posters advertising dog sales she’d taken down from around the city.

“I guarantee you 99% of these people don’t have licenses to breed,” she said. “Nobody’s enforcing it.”

She told council she’s also concerned by “trucks and trucks” of puppies for sale at local markets in Fresno.

Councilmember Miguel Arias suggested the council explore penalizing the people running the markets that allow sales of illegally bred dogs to take place on their property.

“I think we’re going to have to look at this two ways. One is the fine structure for the breeders,” he said, “and another is a fine structure for the commercial owners that are hosting the breeders.”

Bredefeld also floated the idea of $1,000 penalties per dog an unauthorized breeder is trying to sell, plus criminal charges.

“We should also look at misdemeanors,” he said, “not only a financial fine but a criminal penalty for this.”

In other council news

The Fresno City Council approved multiple agreements related to ground transportation from the Fresno Yosemite Airport on Thursday.

One of the agreements was a one-year permit with Turo Inc., a rental car-sharing service. The city estimates the permit will generate $80,000 in annual revenue.

The city also extended an existing agreement with Uber and Lyft, which city documents estimate will generate over $2.7 million in revenue over the life of the extended agreement.

On the small business side of things, the city council approved a grant agreement with the Fresno Chamber of Commerce to administer a small business security camera rebate program.

Businesses who receive the grant funding will receive rebates of up to $2,000 for security cameras.

The goal of the program is to both deter property crime against small businesses in the city and to give the Fresno Police Department an additional tool to investigate these crimes.

Recipients of the grants will have to sign an agreement to provide footage to Fresno PD “upon request for the life of the equipment,” according to a copy of the agreement.

The city council also approved an amendment to an affordable housing agreement to reduce the number of units planned for a senior housing development from 82 to 76 “due to severely limited tax credits available this year.”

All of the above items were approved without further discussion in a 7-0 vote to pass the consent agenda.