California will be the first state to require pet stores to sell only rescue animals received from rescue organizations. Your thoughts?

Thank you for your reply L. I wonder how long that law will last and if it will be rescinded? :)

I would think there is a good argument for restraint of trade, but I guess we'll see.

I totally understand the reason for it but maybe it's a matter of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Maybe there is a better way, another way, a smarter way. I guess we'll find out. Thank you for your reply L! :)

Let's hope so.

It is no more an overreach than government telling a pharmacist he doesn't have to dispense birth control meds or an employer he doesn't have to cover birth controls meds in insurance provided employees if it is against his religion. Government intervention works for you when it does what YOU want it to do. Otherwise no dice, right m2c? I'm gonna ask. Thank you for your reply.

No, that is the gov NOT forcing a person/business to do something. Not the same as forcing an action. 
If a pharmacist has a religious objection they have another qualified person fill the script. Gov does not have the right to force someone to purchase a product. 

Government does not have the right to prevent someone from purchasing whatever he wishes to purchases providing it is LEGAL. Birth control pills are LEGAL. But Government does prevent it m2c by giving the pharmacist the RIGHT to refuse to fill the prescription. Or gives a doctor the right to NOT give a prescription for birth control pills to a patient WHO REQUESTS THEM. You are missing the point here. Once again I repeat you are FOR government intervention when you approve of it and AGAINST it when you disapprove. In other words you are very flipfloppy according to your preferences. Now that is not true JUST for you. It is true for others too. If a judge gives an order I like I am pro him/her. If I don't like it I'm anti. Just like you only I am the flip side of you. You want to control what people do to their own bodies. I don't. Different strokes. Thank you for your reply.

No, I am not the one favoring gov intervention at all. 
Birth control is available for anyone whom. wants it. It may be a little inconvenient but we do not have the right to force others to do things against their rights. 
I used to use the bc shot. My Doc office was in a Catholic hospital. I had to take the script and bring it to the Country Health Clinic to get my shot. So I got my BC and did not violate anyone else's rights.

Well said my friend. Well said. I have a very good friend whom I met on Answerbag years ago with whom I stay in touch and she is ALWAYS volunteering at local pet shelters and involved in finding them good homes. She is one very busy lady with a husband, kids, career but she finds the time to do that. Those ads on TV where you see the animals who have been abused or abandoned or both just break your heart. So "we'll see what happens".  Our Tigger was a stray who adopted us in the apartment complex where we used to live years ago. May he rest in peace in heaven somewhere up there. Thank you for your thoughtful and information-filled reply Shuhak!  :)

All my cats have been strays, as was the last dog I had.  He was an Australian SHepherd.  The People next door bred Australian shepherds, so someone dumped the dog off nearby (he was about 2).  My neighbors refused to have anything to do with the dog and kept running it off.  When the dog finally wandered into my yard, he was rail thin and covered with ticks and fleas (plus he had heartworm).  He was told, "if you want to stay here you can never go out the gate again"... and he never did.  That dog had been so abused that he was afraid of a potato chip, and brooms were the devil himself.  Gun shots and other loud noises terrified him beyond measure.  It took years to get him to be a "normal" dog, and it wasn't until he went deaf that he finally stopped being afraid of loud noises.  Unfortunately, when he was 9 or 10 he ate rat poison (neighbors must have poisoned them and he got a tainted rat).  He had complete liver failure and the vet said he would die.  He got weaker and weaker unit he could barely move.  We were about to go and have him put down when I looked at him one last time and said, "do you want a bone?".  That nearly dead dog stood up, wearily walked over to me and waited for me to give him a bone.  I gave him a bone and he was fine.  The vet was astonished and called him a miracle dog (no way a dog simply "recovers" from complete liver failure).  Although Tucker had to take expensive liver medicine the rest of his life (which the vet gave to us for free), that dog lived to be over 14  and finally died of old age a few months after my dad passed.

Now that IS A HAPPY ENDING to what would have been a very sad story Shuhak. What on earth prompted you to offer him a bone at that moment? Any idea because it surely would not have been any move I would hve made yet it saved his life and extended it for a couple of years! Wow! That is awesome!  Thank you for your reply! :)

I sincerely hope you are very wrong about that Walt. The animals we see in those ads about abused/abanadoned pets just break your heart. They are shivering and look so sad. I cannot bear thinking that shelters which are ostensibly in existence for the purpose of taking care of them until they find forever homes would abuse them. Just as is foster parents who take care of kids not their own for the money the state pays them and abuse THEM. Like Scarlett O'Hara "I'll think about that tomorrow". Thank you for your reply and Happy New Year's Tuesday 2019 to thee and thine Walt!  :)

Unfortunately, there are far more animal shelters than there are breeders.
And in areas where breeders are not regulated, neither are shelters.
On top of that, many shelters are actually nothing more than "animal hoarders".

Having volunteered for a couple local shelters, I know of instances where we received animals from out of state when someone complained about a shelter, and investigations revealed animals living in abusive conditions.

Geez Walt that makes me feel so much sadder. No I'm not sorry you told me m'dear it's just that I would have liked to have believed that there was a 100% SAFE HAVEN for abused pets. Some are I'm sure (I HOPE) but not all. Like foster parents. Some are very loving and caring toward their foster kids and some do it just for the money. I guess it's a crap shoot who gets what. Unless it is all predetermined somewhere out there in which case I'd like to know WHY the ones chosen to be damaged were chosen to be damaged. Either way it sucks. By  random happenstance or design it sucks!  :(

I don't know the answer to that question Ele. It's a good one. Thank you for your response and Happy New Year's Tuesday 2019 to thee and thine! :)

I can't answer that question Sharon. All I know is that there are probably millions of pets that have been abandoned or abused or both. An Answerbag friend volunteers all the time in such shelters and helps to find loving homes for these pets. Remember Elizabeth? We've kept in touch and that is what she does as often as she can. You can only help those you know about not those you don't. SIGH. Children and pets are the most abused and most in need of love/protection living things on the planet. Every little bit we can do to help we should. Even if it's a drip in the bucket. Don'tcha think? Thank you for your reply.