March 28, 2024

Abusive puppy mills degrade Iowa’s image

For the past seven years, including 2016, citizen advocates from all across Iowa have asked our legislators for better state-level protections for the dogs kept for commercial breeding purposes in Iowa’s USDA-licensed kennels. Many of our current “puppy mills,” of which Iowa has approximately 220, continue to demonstrate, via federal public records, that dogs and their puppies are routinely being injured, starved, neglected, brutalized and also killed by unapproved and inhumane methods.

Our state’s image and reputation has been further marred on a national scale by the recent publication on May 1 of the “Horrible Hundred” puppy mills list by the Humane Society Of The United States. Fifteen chronically substandard Iowa kennels were named  — all licensed and inspected by the USDA. It should be mentioned that every USDA kennel in Iowa pays annual state permit fees and are issued operating permits by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to do business in our state. Yet the state of Iowa provides no routine oversight of these facilities to assure that dogs are afforded the protections found in our state animal welfare code.

It’s painfully clear that the USDA has little interest in revoking the licenses of these kennel operators and removing their dogs to safety. And given the lack of action by our state legislators this session, it would appear that the State of Iowa is also knowingly turning a blind eye to the ongoing but preventable suffering of 15,000 of Man’s Best Friends. Iowa can and must do better ... and our legislators have the urgent responsibility to take a stand once and for all against companion animal cruelty.

Lisa Kuehl

Madrid