Pet shop ordinance approved after four-month struggle
Published 5:33 pm Tuesday, January 27, 2026
VALDOSTA — Four months after the county-wide ordinance to ban pet shops and prioritize pet adoptions in Lowndes County, Valdosta’s city council has agreed to go along, although some members hope to negotiate some changes in the future. The decision came with pushback and opened a conversation on how the Citizens To Be Heard part of the meeting should be handled.
The original ordinance, adopted in 2008, has gone through multiple revisions in its 18 years of activity. This most recent change will shift the county’s focus away from pet shops selling dogs and cats and put its energy into adoptions to combat the growing overpopulation of stray animals.
The county-wide change was approved on Sept. 9, 2025, in a unanimous decision among the county commissioners. The decision then went to the city council to decide how they wanted to proceed within the city limits.
The ordinance was, at its core, accepted by most of the council. However, there were different points that members of the city council wanted changed.
On Jan. 22, the city council made a unanimous decision to accept the ordinance as it stood and go back for changes at a later date. This placed the initial wording into effect, opening up a larger conversation while putting the first steps in place.
There were multiple instances of dissent against the decision stemming from a group representing Petland, a local pet shop specializing in puppy sales. One representative stood and attempted to address the council in the middle of the discussion, which led to a brief argument where Mayor Scott Matheson told her to sit down on multiple occasions before she complied.
A second person attempted to speak about the concern regarding the ruling, but a city ordinance — Sec. 2-47-2 — bars speakers from discussing an agenda item during the Citizens to be Heard part of the meeting. The woman attempted to continue the conversation, but after a minute of arguing, returned to her seat.
Following this, a woman spoke about her own experience abroad and how they handled pet ownership and stray animals while abroad. She cited stray animal fees and microchips in each pet so local governments knew whom each animal belonged to.
Two city council members voiced their discomfort with the way the speakers were treated.
“Valdosta has the slogan, ‘A City Without Limits,’,” Councilwoman Sandra Tooley said. “We want people to come here, we want businesses, we want to thrive. When you clutch and cut things off like that, how are you going to get businesses in?… ‘The City Without Limits’ has so many limits, we need to change that slogan. You don’t want to open your minds up, you don’t want to grow.”
Tooley proceeded to apologize to the woman who had been cut off, citing the unfairness of the situation.
“That’s not what we all represent,” Tooley said. “Some of us up here might represent that, but I don’t represent that.”
Councilman-At-Large Nick Harden followed Tooley’s concerns with similar comments, ending the conversation with his opinion on the fairness of how the open-comment portion of the meeting was handled.
“While I do agree on some of the mechanisms that need to be put in place, we need to be fair,” Harden said. “She definitely spoke on the same thing, so we cannot pick and choose who we’re going to listen to. Let’s be fair going forward, and I would like to apologize as well.”
While the decision was made to approve the ordinance, further changes are expected as the needs of the community are addressed.
