Animal swap meets are places where people buy, sell or trade animals in an open-air, flea-market-style setting. Swap meet vendors sell and trade a wide range of animals, from birds, to farm animals, to cats and dogs. Swap meets are local events where people can come together in an informal setting to sell, trade, and barter. In recent years, animal welfare advocates have expressed concern about the treatment of animals at swap meets. Animals are often kept outside without water in hot temperatures, confined in small cages, and stored like warehouse items. Additionally, swap meets may facilitate the spread of diseases from sick animals to humans.
Animal swap meets can be regulated in three ways: by the swap meet organizer, by the locality, or by the state. Some swap meets impose their own restrictions on buyers and sellers. Some localities have adopted ordinances to regulate swap meets in their jurisdictions. On the state level, animal cruelty, pet store, and live market laws regulate swap meets on a limited basis. However, in many places, few laws address the animal welfare concerns of swap meets.
A handful of states have sought to address this vacuum in the last few years by passing legislation directly regulating swap meets. Illinois was the first state to regulate swap meets when it required swap meet organizers to provide the state information about the swap meet 30 days before it occurs. Nebraska has similar procedural requirements related to swap meets. California and Nevada have much more substantive restrictions, and allow animals to be sold at swap meets only if the local jurisdiction has adopted standards for the care and treatment of those animals. Finally, Virginia regulates the sale of dogs and cats at swap meets. These five states illustrate that while it has proven politically untenable to ban animal swap meets altogether, state legislation can regulate the sale of animals at swap meets.