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Dog By Dog – How America’s Disreputable Puppy Mills, Big Ag, the AKC, and Politicians Collude to Protect the Unethical Breeding of Dogs

by Jennie Richards · Published March 8, 2018 · Updated July 20, 2021

“I never think of giving up, because the dogs in puppy mills have no option. I will fight for them forever until every puppy mill is closed and there are no more puppy mill dogs. I will use my voice until I don’t have one.” (Dog Advocate)

“Until the public stops buying puppies off the Internet or from pet stores, this horrible factory farming of puppies and mother dogs will never stop.” (Puppy Mill Rescue Volunteer)

Dog By Dog exposes the truth about puppy mill breeders and the puppy mill industry in the U.S., and sheds a glaring light on the collusion and financial connections between the American Kennel Club (AKC), Big Agriculture, Washington’s politicians, the government, and the largely unregulated puppy mill operators. The film seeks to educate and inform the general public about the harsh and cruel realities of puppy mills, and how many state and federal political legislators and deep-pocketed groups continue to support this notorious industry because they benefit from the profits. The film clearly illustrates how the power of money and political power and will is working to protect this extremely cruel, disgraceful industry, and how corporate agribusiness and the AKC are fighting hard against any and all legislation forwarded to improve conditions for dogs bred by commercial breeders.

This thoroughly researched film is a montage of well-informed interviews with dog owners, puppy mill puppy buyers, dog rescue volunteers, pet store owners, dog advocates, politicians, leaders of animal welfare organizations, and the USDA. It has left out the hard-to-watch graphic footage but does show investigative film footage of puppy mills and the dogs that come from them. One puppy mill rescue volunteer said, “If it wasn’t for us, these dogs would never have a chance. If we don’t save and rescue them, puppy mill operators will just kill them.” The film reveals how unethical puppy mill breeders are, and how they treat dogs like a commodity, and females like breeding machines—they don’t love dogs, it’s purely about the money these poor, voiceless, helpless animals make for them. The dogs are the victims, just like all factory farming of animals, animals aren’t seen as sentient beings but only products for profit. But animal rights advocates and dog lovers recognize that the more people who get involved and become active in raising awareness and campaigning against puppy mills the better, “One person can get so much done, but it’s not until you inspire other people and get more people involved. That’s the only way change will be possible.” This person sums it up best, the bottom line is, “Don’t support the puppy mills and they will go out of business. Everyone counts. Adopt Don’t Shop!”

By shining a light on the deep injustice, cruelty, neglect and conscious misery that every puppy mill operator is responsible for, and the politicians, lawmakers, AKC, and multi-national ag corporations that work hard to cover it all up—it’s time for each and every one of us to take action, and to spread the truth about the horrors of this industry. We need to do it for the dogs who have no say in this, are sick and dying, have no voice, no vote, and depend on each of us to speak out against this abomination.

Definition: Puppy Mill

A dog breeding operation in which the health of the dogs is disregarded in order to maintain a low overhear and maximize profits. (Avenson Zegart, 1984)

Film Length: 1 hour, 26 minutes

Film Premier: May 2015

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Some Statistics

There are an estimated 10,000 puppy mills in the U.S. (this includes both licensed and unlicensed facilities). Over 2 million puppies bred in mills each year. An estimated 1.2 million dogs are euthanized in shelters every year. (The Puppy Mill Project)

2 to 4 million dogs are born in puppy mills every year.

An estimated 2 million puppies are sold online and in pet stores each year, 5179 puppies a day, 342 in the last 90 minutes—nearly all are from parents that spend their entire lives in a cage.

Iowa, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania still supply the majority of dogs sold in pet stores and over the Internet.

What You Can Do

Never Purchase a Puppy or Dog on the Internet or from a pet store.
Never Purchase a Puppy or Dog from a flea market, backyard breeder, dog “broker,” auction, or irresponsible commercial breeder
Don’t Fall for “Puppies from a Licensed USDA Breeder” or “local breeder” at a pet store. These “licensed” dogs come from puppy mills, the USDA license still means cruelty, abuse, neglect and sick and dying dogs
Adopt From our Local Animal Shelter or Rescue Group. Adopt Don’t Shop!
Adopt a Breed-Specific Dog from a rescue group or shelter – before searching for a breeder
Become an Advocate, see this Advocate Guide to Stopping Puppy Mills
File a Complaint! See or know of a sick dog? Or witness deplorable conditions at a commercial breeder? File a complaint at 1-877-MILL-TIP with the HSUS, or report a puppy mill online here
Contact Your Legislators – Call, email or write letters to your legislators to advocate for higher humane standards and welfare for dogs, and the banning of puppy mills in your state and nationally. Demand that legislators make it a priority to put an end to unethical dog breeders and commercial puppy mills in Congress. Find your legislator.
Raise Awareness, Spread the Word! – Protest pet stores that sell dogs, write letters to the editor of your community newspaper, advocate against puppy mills on social media, do everything you can to spread the word to Adopt Don’t Shop, and Don’t Buy Dogs Online or from Pet Stores – and to Ban Puppy Mills. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has two letter templates that you can edit: Sample Puppy Mill Letter1 and Sample Puppy Mill Letter2

More Information About Puppy Mills

Stop Puppy Mills: 15 Things You Can Do

Stop Puppy Mills, www.stoppuppymills.org

Advocate Against Puppy Mills, Here’s a Guide to Stopping Puppy Mills

Visit The Puppy Mill Project

Visit Bailing Out Benji, www.bailingoutbenji.com

See the Responsible Breeder Checklist

How to Research Your Breeder

HSUS’s Five-Year Study of 2,500 Puppy Mill Buyer Complaints

Learn more about Pennsylvania’s notorious puppy mills at: www.stoppuppymills.org and www.mainlinerescue.com

Unethical Dog Breeders, Puppy Mills, Backyard Breeders, Irresponsible Breeders:

Show no concern for the welfare of their dogs, or animals
They do not provide proper medical care or veterinary care when the puppy is ill, or sick
They do not follow proper vaccine protocol to prevent disease and illness
They do not provide clean, sanitized housing, free of stench, the smells of feces and urine waste
They do not house puppies and dogs in wire mesh crates and kennels, but keep them in their homes on the floor with ample space to run, play and move
They do not provide their dogs and puppies with high quality dry and wet food twice a day, and ample, clean water daily
They do not interact and play with their dogs and puppies, providing safe and nurturing human contact, to properly socialize the puppies
They do not over breed the females, by forcing them to become pregnant in every heat cycle to maximize profits – depleting the female’s health, immunity and wellbeing
They do not sell their puppies before 10-12 weeks, before the puppy is fully weaned from the mother
They do not allow adopters to “see” the facility, but instead, “deliver” the puppy to the adopter, preventing the adopter from seeing where the puppy came from

What is a Puppy Mill? (Source: The Humane Society of the U.S.)

Quotes About The American Kennel Club (AKC) in the film

“The AKC is a group that pretends to be the dog’s champion, but instead the AKC consistently leads the fight against all efforts to establish humane dog breeding standards through legislation and laws. The AKC opposes every regulation, every bill, every standard, every law—that would protect dogs, they are supporting puppy mills. Because they want the profits and money from breeders instead.”

“Julian Prager, former official at the AKC and pet industry lobbyist, has consistently opposed laws regulating puppy mills including the new USDA regulation on puppy mills selling over the Internet.”

“The American Kennel Club, is not a dog’s best friend, it opposes all the laws and standards that are put in place to try to regulate puppy mills, because they would lose profits.”

“It’s not unusual to see an ‘AKC’ dog in a pet store. AKC certified means absolutely nothing because they maintain zero standards.”

“The AKC won’t crack down on large-scale breeders because they don’t want to lose money and profits. They won’t make public their records, their standards, their inspection efforts public—so no one knows what they are. They are completely meaningless and worthless.”

“AKC papers or AKC ‘registered dog’ means absolutely nothing. They are in favor of breeding dogs, the more breeding the better for them, and the more money the AKC makes.”

“The AKC seeks puppy mill monies to sponsor the AKC dog shows and to subsidize the Westminster Dog Show. These AKC shows are fully subsidized by the cruelty of puppy mills, and the inhumane treatment of dog across the U.S.“

“Missouri is the puppy mill capital of the U.S. – one of the worst states for puppy mills. Proposition B made it to the 2010 election ballot, and the legislation ONLY applied to dogs. Lawyers said so. But the AKC worked very hard to make this law fail. They spent millions to instill fear and spread misinformation. The legislation had nothing to do with any other animal, but the AKC tried to tie it to false claims.”

Animal Welfare Act (AWA)

The AWA sets the standards governing the care of dogs and cats in commercial breeding facilities. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the agency responsible for overseeing the commercial dog breeding industry and enforcing the AWA. Breeders that want to sell to a pet store or to consumers over the Internet and have five+ breeding females must be licensed with the USDA. But the problem lies in the fact that the USDA does not enforce the AWA standards, and the AWA’s standards are completely insufficient and non-existent and do not protect dogs in commercial-breeding facilities.

What is Allowed Under the AWA? (Source: The Puppy Mill Project)

There is no limit to the number of dogs on the premises. A puppy mill could have hundreds or thousands of dogs.
There is no requirement on the number of staff that must be available to care for the dogs.
Dogs may be kept in stacked cages.
Mesh or wire flooring is allowed.
Dogs may be forced to relieve themselves in their cages.
Dogs may be confined in spaces only six inches larger than their bodies, not including the tail.
A dog may be caged 24 hours a day for his or her entire life, only removed from the cage to be bred.
There is no exercise requirement if dogs are housed with other dogs and certain minimal size requirements are met for the dog’s enclosure.
Human interaction is not required.
Breeding females at the first heat cycle and every heat cycle is permissible.
Unwanted animals may be killed or auctioned off.
Many of the AWA’s requirements are vague. The AWA leaves it up to the mill owners to determine what is “adequate.”

Quotes From the Film

“People are in this only for the profit.”

“The challenges of regulating licensed breeders and finding unlicensed breeders is the problem.”

“Mom and dad dogs are not ‘pets’ they are breeding stock only, they are machines, they live in a pen all their lives. They spend 24/7 in a cage.”

“You smell the facility before you even see the cages. And when you see the cages with the above ground wire bottom cages, stacked on top of each other, then you know why.”

“They make money on dogs being born, the dogs rarely see vets because veterinarians cut into profits. It’s a terrible place for a dog to be.”

“The first night after constant diarrhea, vomiting, howling—I took him to our family vet where he spent two days being treated for hypoglycemia, he returned home, the vet certifying the puppy was ‘Unfit for Purchase.’”

“There’s no natural light, no human contact, food is just scattered, it is completely unregulated, and all done under the radar. This is where the dog parents will live their entire lives, until they can no longer breed, produce puppies, and deliver the profits expected by the owner.”

“What bothered me is that this dog was a life that no one cared about, they just pulled a 6-week old puppy from its mother – totally sick — and shoved it into a van and no one cares.”

“Pennsylvania farmers began breeding dogs 30 years ago. Pennsylvania is called the puppy mill capital of the East. The Amish view puppy mills as ‘cash products.’ The overwhelming majority of breeders are Amish or Mennonites.”

“Many puppy mill operators receive years and years and years of warnings—and the puppy mills do nothing to change or improve, they don’t care.”

“Laws to improve the lives of dogs in puppy mills would always die in the Pennsylvania legislature.”

“People were horrified, just horrified by what was happening in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, and in Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska—they could not believe the cruelty that was happening to animals, the cruelty done to dogs.”

“In Pennsylvania, it was a 2-year battle to get a law passed. It was a huge battle. But yeah, they passed the law, but no one is enforcing these laws in Pennsylvania. But finally an audit of the

“In Pennsylvania, these puppy mills are legal, they are allowed. I try to rescue as many as I can from the filth, stench, noise, sickness, the dogs have urine all over them, they have never been touched by humans—I am literally the first one to touch them when I rescue them.”

“At Petland Stores – Puppies come from large-scale kennels where the dog parents live in small wire cages their entire lives. An investigative report revealed 15,000 puppies from massive commercial puppy brokers to over 95% of Petland stores in a few months.”

“Families cannot afford the medical care for Petland store dogs.”

“Independent pet stores always seek out puppy mill dogs from the same states – Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Why? The price. The dogs are cheap. It’s not about the wellbeing of the dogs. It’s all about the profit and money. These stores make a ton of money on puppy mill dogs.”

“No good, reputable breeder will sell a dog on the Internet, or sell to a broker, or sell to a pet store.”

“You always must see the parents of the puppy. If you are not allowed to meet the parents, it’s guaranteed they’re from a puppy mill.”

“Missouri Farm Bureau supports the Big Ag corporations like Smithfield Foods—not individual farmers. They side with industry, not farmers. Prop B was fought by the Missouri Farm Bureau, the American Kennel Club, Missouri Pork Producers, Missouri Soybean Association, Smithfield Foods, Cargill, Tyson, Monsanto—all financed by corporate agriculture and their conservative Political Action Committees (PACs). Without the financing of these huge PACs and ACK, and industry groups, Prop B would have passed.”

“Opposition to the humane treatment of dogs and animal welfare is coming from huge agriculture groups and conservative front groups that support Big Ag and are anti animal welfare. They create ‘misinformation’ campaigns to create fear, and it’s at the expense of the dogs and animal welfare. Prop B was approved by 51 percent. But Missouri state lawmakers overturned and repealed it because of Big Ag and the AKC.”

“How do you run a government when the public passes a bill in an election and then lawmakers overturn the law because of huge industry money that pressures lawmakers to overturn laws in their favor – the election of these lawmakers are funded by these giant corporations and special interest groups.”

“Voting with corporate agriculture results in cold hard campaign cash for political election campaigns.”

“Things are definitely much improved with some of the worst operators eliminated in Missouri even though Prop B was repealed, but you still have chronic violators operating, still have the inhumane treatment of the animals, and operators who think they can do anything they want.”

“We individually have to take responsibility as producers and as consumers.”

“The dogs in the animal shelters need your home more than puppy mill operators need your money.”

“If we can all educate our little corner of the Earth, then once the public really knows what is going on they won’t support it.”

“The dogs are forced to live in the very extreme heat and freezing cold.”

“Never in the state of Ohio, has any breeder been forced out of business because of repeat violations.”

“Mother dogs aren’t treated like pets, they are treated like breeding machines. Their entire lives consist of misery.”

“If it wasn’t for us, these dogs don’t have a chance. If we don’t save and rescue them, puppy mill operators will just kill them.”

“One person can get so much done, but it’s not until you inspire other people and get more people involved. That’s the only way change will be possible.”

“Don’t support the puppy mills and they will go out of business. Everyone counts. Adopt Don’t Shop!”