(upbeat music) - I'm Starla Sampaco, in the Crosscut KCTS 9 Newsroom.

One of the bills before this Washington State legislative session is being pushed by teens.

Two high school students from Bellevue are advocating for a bill to ban retail puppy sales.

Novia Lou and Ava Finn are animal lovers who met as young Humane Society volunteers.

Though too young to vote, they pitched a bill to last year's legislature that would have ended the supply chain of out-of-state dogs and cats to retail pet stores.

It died in committee.

Now they have a partner in State Representative Amy Walen, a Kirkland Democrat who is sponsoring House Bill 1424.

The bill would end puppy sales by new retail pet stores, though existing retailers would be exempt as long as they could document that their puppies were sourced from registered legal breeders.

As Walen says, "The barcode on a frozen turkey will tell you where it was raised, but where that cute puppy comes from is often a mystery."

I'm Starla Sampaco.

Find nonprofit Northwest news and culture every day on crosscut.com.

(upbeat music)