A Los Angeles councilman introduced a motion Friday that could prohibit the sale and purchase of pets bred in puppy and kitten mills.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents an area that includes West L.A., Hollywood and Encino, said he introduced the motion to ease the city’s pet overpopulation problem.

Some pet stores purchase animals from puppy and kitten mills or large-scale breeding operations with unsanitary and overcrowded conditions and inbreeding.

“By being customers, we perpetuate the problem,” Koretz said.

Although Los Angeles is not a mecca for puppy and kitten mills, he said it is important for the city to end the practice of puppy mill sales because so many other pets are available for adoption.

“The ban of puppy mills is just a piece of the issue,” he said. “It’s probably of more symbolic importance than anything else.”

The motion asks various agencies, including the police department and the city attorney's office, to study such issues as banning sales of commercially bred dogs, cats and rabbits and create a program in which shelters and pet stores develop a system of best practices.