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The Humane Society of the United States publishes an annual list of puppy mills and puppy brokers that commit health violations. There are five Indiana puppy mills listed in the report this year.
Indiana State Director Samantha Morton says the list details unhealthy conditions dogs and their offspring are kept in at high-volume breeding operations.
“The report seeks to inform consumers and asks inspection agencies like the USDA or State Animal Board of Health or Departments of Agriculture to really work on their inspection procedures, says Morton”
The national report is called the Horrible Hundred and cites operations in 21 states.
“Looking at the violations, in those violations, in those inspections reports, most of them are related to lack of veterinary care or poor conditions for these dogs.”
For the eighth year in a row, Missouri has the largest number of puppy sellers on the list (30), followed by Ohio (nine), Kansas (eight), Wisconsin (eight), Georgia (seven) and Pennsylvania (six). But because puppy mills sell to pet stores and via websites across the country, puppies from breeders included in the Horrible Hundred report are distributed throughout the country.
Morton says the problem is bigger than the list. She says the Humane Society of Indiana disproves of many standard breeding practices used by commercial breeding operations in the state.
For the first time since 2017, the report includes a full list of kennel names and license numbers. The report has been published every May since 2013, but since the U. S. Department of Agriculture data purge in 2017, some of the kennel names were unavailable and some puppy mills were only identified by city and state.
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