Horrible Hundred 2022 Report Cites Problem Puppy Mills In 18 States

ACROSS AMERICA — Missouri and Iowa are the worst states in the country for puppy mills, breeding facilities that churn out puppies often without regard for the dogs’ health, the Humane Society of the United States said with the release of its Horrible Hundred 2022 report.

This is the 10th year for the Humane Society’s report on conditions at puppy breeding facilities that sell puppies to pet stores, on the internet and elsewhere. Horrible Hundred reports are based on official inspection records from federal and state agriculture departments.

The animal welfare group said in the report, released earlier this month, that its investigations have covered 650 breeders and dealers in 33 states over the past decade, leading to the shuttering of 200 puppy mills and rescue of some 1,420 dogs.

Here is year’s Horrible Hundred list:

• Missouri: 26 dealers
• Iowa: 17 dealers
• New York: 12 dealers
• Kansas: 7 dealers
• Wisconsin: 7 dealers (state agency did not fulfill document request)
• Pennsylvania: 5 dealers
• Texas: 5 dealers
• Georgia: 4 dealers
• Nebraska: 4 dealers
• Indiana: 3 dealers
• Arkansas: 2 dealers
• Ohio: 2 dealers (state agency did not fulfill document request)
• Michigan: 1 dealer
• Mississippi: 1 dealer
• New Mexico: 1 dealer
• North Carolina: 1 dealer
• Oklahoma: 1 dealer (state agency did not fulfill document request)
• South Dakota: 1 dealer

All 50 U.S. states have anti-cruelty laws to protect puppies, but only about a third require inspections. Oklahoma and Ohio, both of which have appeared prominently on the Horrible Hundreds list over the years, are among those states but did not turn respond to its requests for documents, the Humane Society said.

Eleven states have strengthened their laws, including Missouri, the so-called puppy mill capital as the No. 1 state for problem breeding facilities all 10 years of the report, in late 2021, and Iowa in 2020. Iowa is the second-worst state for puppy mills, the report said, with 17 problem dealers cited.

The Humane Society emphasized its report doesn’t include every breeding facility where dogs and their puppies endure terrible conditions. There are about 10,000 puppy mills in the United States, and many are not inspected at all, the Humane Society said.

This year’s report focuses on 44 dealers who have appeared on the Horrible Hundred list two or more times in the last decade, and eight dealers listed in one report. Among them:

• A dog breeder in Iowa admitted to a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector that he had killed unwanted dogs by injecting them in the stomach with a drug and leaving them to die alone in their cages, the report said. As of May, the report said, the breeder’s license had not been revoked.
• Another Iowa breeder told USDA inspectors he had performed a do-it-yourself surgery without anesthesia to treat a dog with a neck wound, stitching the would with “sewing string,” according to the report.
• After inspectors at a Kansas kennel saw an adult dog carrying a puppy in its mouth, the owner told USDA authorities she had been “in a hurry” and tossed some dead puppies in the field, the report said, adding the USDA didn’t document any violations during the reporting period.
• An American Kennel Club breeder in Missouri — who was sued by the state in 2019 for failing to provide proper care for dogs the report said were filthy, emaciated and dying — was still in business and still accumulating violations, according to the report, which said the state fined the operator $4,500.
• A Missouri dog breeder who sells to multiple pet stores was cited for violations in at least three state inspections from May to December 2021, with issues ranging from an underweight, limping dog, dirty condition, and mouse feces in the kennel, the report said. The Humane Society said the USDA did not cite the breeder and hasn’t performed in inspection in about a year.

» Read the full Horrible Hundred 2022 report.