Pet bill snatches local control from Oklahoma communities

February 27, 2026

A bill to remove local control from communities in favor of out-of-state, corporate puppy mill peddlers is scheduled to be heard by the Oklahoma House of Representatives early next week.

Kirkpatrick Policy Group urges all Oklahomans to contact their state representative before 1:30 p.m. CST on Monday, March 2, 2026, and tell them to vote NO on HB 4335 to protect our communities, consumers, and animals.

Click the link to find your Oklahoma House of Representatives by entering your address: https://www.oklegislature.gov/findmylegislature.aspx.

More than 400 Maltese dogs were seized by law enforcement in July 2025 from a puppy mill in Stoud that operated for years with a valid state commercial pet breeder’s license, despite receiving multiple complaints and operating in noncompliance with pet breeder regulations.

What HB 4335 does

The bill prohibits any city or county from restricting or banning retail pet sales unless an individual pet store or commercial breeder has received three or more convictions over five years for violating the state’s commercial pet breeders and animal shelter licensing act.

The Legislature has used the concept of state preemption before to prohibit local governments from passing ordinances regulating some industries, including oil and gas, firearms, and tobacco.

HB 4335 takes decision‑making away from Oklahoma communities and hands it to out‑of‑state corporate interests. Our communities know their own needs, but the bill takes away their ability to respond to real consumer and animal‑welfare problems. Protecting local control with a NO vote on HB 4335 aligns with conservative principles about government overreach.

What lawmakers say about HB 4335

The bill is eligible to be heard on the House floor following its passage from the House Government Oversight Committee on February 24 by a vote of 13-6.

Speaker Pro Tem Anthony Moore (R), HB 4335’s author, framed the bill as a uniformity and consumer-protection measure designed to prevent a “patchwork” of local ordinances surrounding retail pet sales to avoid having “700 communities with 700 different laws.”

Representative Ellen Pogemiller (D) questioned the need to preemptively prohibit communities from banning retail pet sales given that communities are already dealing with pet overpopulation, overcrowded shelters, and cases of animal cruelty among state licensed commercial pet breeders.

Representative Jim Shaw (R) pointed out that HB 4335’s requirement for three convictions within five years could create an unachievable enforcement standard. Shaw referenced a 2025 case in his district where a puppy mill operator in Stroud received a multitude of complaints over a fourteen-year span for keeping hundreds of dogs in inhumane conditions despite holding a valid breeder’s license.

Shaw asked whether the enforcement methods in place make it unlikely that anyone would ever reach the “three strikes” threshold for banning a breeder or pet store.

HB 4335 also includes a grandfather clause that allows counties and municipalities which passed retail pet bans ordinances before January 1, 2026, to remain in place. Representative Andy Fugate (D), whose Del City district borders Midwest City, where a retail pet sale ban is in effect, asked if the bill adequately solved the “patchwork” problem Moore described.

In the end, the committee’s three Democrats joined three Freedom Caucus members to oppose HB 4335.

Years of complaints

Until more than 400 Maltese dogs were seized by law enforcement last year, the puppy mill in Stroud received numerous complaints over the years but still held a state-issued commercial pet breeder license.

The owner of Add Love Pets, LLC and Pink Poodle Grooming, Jerry Hine, held a commercial breeders license since at least 2011, according to information obtained from the Department of Agriculture via an open records request. Hine renewed it on July 1, 2025, only weeks before the dogs were seized. His application said he had ninety dogs.

In July 2025, thirteen different complaints were submitted to the Department of Agriculture, the state agency responsible for enforcing the commercial pet breeder law. One complainant, an animal rescue volunteer, alleged Hine was housing hundreds of puppies in hot, overcrowded, unsanitary conditions.

“Puppies were dirty and kept in their own fecal matter. They did not have access to fresh water. Healthier puppies were shown up front and owner stated that ‘the worst ones were in the back,’” the complaint stated.

Multiple times during 2023 and 2024, Department of Agriculture inspectors visited the strip mall where the puppy mill operated. They reported ungroomed dogs (as many as eight to a crate), the strong smell of ammonia, incomplete animal health records, and other violations.

This case is not an isolated “bad actor,” as Moore said. In March 2024, Humane World for Animals rescued hundreds of dogs from two puppy mills in Milburn, Oklahoma. Workers observed dogs of different breeds living in bare concrete or dirt-bottomed, unsanitary enclosures with no enrichment items, often stepping in their own feces, according to a news release by Humane World for Animals.

Corporate lobbyists behind HB 4335

The bill is being pushed through the Oklahoma Legislature at the behest of the Pet Advocacy Network, a nonprofit that represents retail pet sellers and breeders such as Petland, which operates retail pet stores in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Elizabeth Kunzelman—Petland’s vice president of legislative and public affairs—serves as vice chair of the Pet Advocacy Network board of directors.

The Pet Advocacy Network are advancing a coordinated national strategy to pass state preemption bills like HB 4335—legislation designed to block cities from banning or regulating retail pet sales and to keep the puppy‑mill supply chain insulated from local oversight. Their model bills have appeared across the country, including Texas’s sweeping HB 2127 and repeated attempts in Florida, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Hawaii, all aimed at stripping municipalities of authority after hundreds of cities enacted local pet‑sale bans.

According to a 2025 report commissioned by the Florida attorney general’s office, high‑volume pet retailers in Florida routinely sold sick or misrepresented puppies, leaving families with steep veterinary bills. The same report found that these retailers relied on predatory financing products with interest rates up to 35.99 percent APR, and it noted that complaints dropped sharply in one county after the AG secured a consent judgment against a Petland franchise.