CAMBRIDGE — Debbie Corey felt like a member of a dying breed.

The owner of the last pet shop still operating in Cambridge watched and listened as city council adopted a full ban on pet stores in the city.

"Only seven pet shops in Ontario," said Corey, whose Number 1 Pet Centre in the Cambridge Centre Mall was allowed to continue to sell dogs and cats for three years as the ban was grandfathered in for her lone case.

"Not very many around. Some of them haven't been targeted yet, but they will be."

Advocate Angela Cowan says the fight to ban pet shops has been a three-year struggle in Cambridge. It's often argued pet shops can be avenues for puppy mills and unethical breeders to mass produce dogs and cats for profit. Concerns over animal health and consumer protection are also often cited to support a ban.

Cowan welcomes the new Cambridge ban and hopes the city's last pet shop will be held to provide full disclosure to customers for the source of its pets, as the shop was regulated to do on Tuesday night.

"We don't want city staff dragging their feet on this," Cowan said after a 6-2 vote approved the ban on any new pet shops in the city.

"Every month that goes by, there's another hundred puppies being sold out of that store."

Corey says her store sells 1,200 cats and dogs every year. Now, they'll begin to phase out their pet sales operations. But the grandfathering in of the clause over three years — a span she was happy with, even though she has five years left on her mall lease — will allow her to keep her nine staff employed.

"If we want to change and go into something like a rescue-type operation, we can discuss that too and we can do that in the next few years," Corey said.

Corey's store has been operating for 30 years. She told council she doesn't deal with unethical, unlicensed puppy mills.

"I'm not dealing with that kind of a place," she said. "I stake my reputation on it."

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Waterloo adopted a pet store ban in 2014, even though there were none operating in the city. Now, Cambridge has a ban in place too. Corey will adapt to the modern reality.

"Times are moving on," Corey said. "We've moved on."