Shocking glimpses into large-scale puppy breeding and selling operations this year only underscored our determination to stop puppy mills and create permanent change for dogs in the U.S. In August, for example, our Animal Rescue Team helped law enforcement with the rescue of over 100 dogs from an American Kennel Club-linked dog breeding operation in Maryland.
Our responders discovered dogs suffering in filthy, overcrowded conditions. The walls of the house prominently displayed numerous American Kennel Club ribbons and certificates. Following the rescue, we provided care as the dogs recovered in a safe location. When they were ready, we placed them with our caring adoption partners.
There’s something tragic about how the puppy mill industry dupes people who love dogs into supporting systemic animal cruelty like what our team saw in Maryland. Misleading advertisements and “certifications” from the American Kennel Club and other dodgy organizations prompt people to buy puppies from inhumane breeders or pet stores, which source puppies from puppy mills. Without knowing it or meaning to, these dog lovers provide the market for an industry that shows dogs no love at all, an industry that should be dying out.
Here are our top 10 wins against puppy mills from 2025:
1. HALF A MILLION PUPPIES ESCAPED A CRUEL START IN LIFE: An estimated 550,000 fewer puppies were bred by puppy mills that sell to pet stores and online this year, compared to five years ago. Based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data (the only public source of records on puppy mills in all 50 states) our researchers found that both the size and number of puppy mills that sell to pet stores are shrinking, resulting in a 44% decrease in puppies produced by USDA-licensed puppy mills. This is a tremendous indication of the successful impact of laws ending the sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores.
2. 750 DOGS WERE RESCUED FROM HORRIBLE HUNDRED BREEDERS: Over 750 dogs were rescued from puppy mills that shut down or faced court action in 2025 after appearing on our Horrible Hundred puppy mills report in recent years, including more than 400 dogs in Oklahoma, more than 160 dogs from Colorado, more than 130 dogs in Georgia and 49 in Iowa. Most of the owners were charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty. In the Iowa case, the documentation provided in our Horrible Hundred report was even used to secure a warrant.
3. SEVERAL PUPPY RETAIL STORES WERE FINED AND CLOSED. Notorious puppy stores were fined and closed, including Puppy Town in Nevada, which was fined $20,000 based on violating a local pet store ordinance that we helped pass. Petland stores that we investigated in recent years also closed, including one in Kansas. We also reported several puppy yoga businesses for links to puppy mills or for allowing puppy sales in areas that prohibit the sale of puppies in retail establishments, including puppy yoga stores in Nashville and Chicago. We reported numerous puppy stores in New York that failed to stop selling puppies after the state humane pet store law went into effect; most of them have now closed or stopped selling dogs. As a testament to our Petland campaign, eight Petland stores closed or stopped selling puppies in 2025.
4. MORE LAWSUITS FILED AGAINST PETLAND: Earlier this year our attorneys helped file a lawsuit against an Ohio Petland store after a father and two children became sick from a Petland puppy. Months later, the store closed down. The lawsuit is still ongoing. In Texas, our attorneys helped file another lawsuit against a Petland store alleging that the store engaged in deceptive practices related to the puppy’s health and violated financing laws, and families who purchased sick puppies from a Petland store received compensation after settling a lawsuit assisted by our attorneys.
5. TWO UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATIONS RELEASED: We released two new undercover investigations, one focused on six Nevada puppy stores in January and an investigation of AKC-linked breeder Sportsman’s Kennels in December, where our investigator found hundreds of dogs languishing in appalling conditions. Following both investigations, citations were issued by appropriate authorities. In addition, after the Nevada investigation, the Puppy Heaven store in Las Vegas was fined, and within the year, the city of Las Vegas passed an ordinance that will end the sale of puppies in pet stores.
6. OVER 500 LOCAL HUMANE PET STORE LAWS HAVE PASSED: As of this year, a total of 523 localities passed humane pet store ordinances that prohibit the sale of puppies (and often kittens and rabbits too) in retail stores, including Denver, Detroit, Jersey City and Las Vegas. Fifteen of the 20 largest cities in the nation have now moved to end the sale of puppy mill puppies in stores.
7. ATTORNEYS GENERAL TOOK ACTION: We worked with the North Carolina state attorney general’s office to educate its staff on puppy scams, and the attorney general produced this warning for the public; the Pennsylvania attorney general also posted this warning in December; the Washington state attorney general’s office, with which we had worked in prior years, fined Puppyland a whopping $3.75 million as part of a consumer protection lawsuit; the New York attorney general filed enforcement action against Vanity Pups after we provided evidence that the store appeared to be still selling puppies in violation of the law. In addition, eight puppy stores in New Jersey, including three that we investigated last year, were penalized with over $70,000 in fines for failing to abide by the state’s pet store laws.
8. ALMOST 500 PET BUSINESSES ENDORSE HUMANE BILLS. Meanwhile, more than 475 pet supply stores to date have endorsed local bills to end the sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores, proving that the pet industry itself supports reform. In November, a pet supply store in Colorado discontinued the sale of commercially raised puppies and committed to helping with local pet adoption organizations instead; the store will hold a grand reopening in early 2026.
9. DANGEROUS BILLS DEFEATED: We defeated all efforts this year by Petland to pass preemption legislation, which are laws that would prevent localities from regulating puppy stores as they see fit, including bills in Kentucky and Oklahoma.
10. FEDERAL BILLS GAINED BIPARTISAN SUPPORT. Both the Puppy Protection Act with 198 cosponsors and the Better Collaboration, Accountability, and Regulatory Enforcement (CARE) for Animals Act with 192 cosponsors in the House and 38 cosponsors in the Senate were reintroduced in the 119th Congress, gaining bipartisan support. The Better CARE for Animals Act has been endorsed by key players, including the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, the National Animal Care and Control Association, and more than 115 shelters, rescues and animal welfare organizations. Underscoring the need for federal action, a USDA audit, released in February concluded that licensed dog breeders’ “continued noncompliance” threatens the safety and well-being of dogs in USDA-licensed facilities.
Even as we celebrate these wins, we know that countless dogs and puppies still languish in thousands of puppy mills across the U.S. Mother and father dogs are treated not like family members, but as mere breeding machines, churning out litter after litter.
We can’t create permanent change for animals and end puppy mills by waiting for breeding operations to rack up violations so that someone finally shuts them down. We must fight puppy mill cruelty from all angles, including in the legislatures, in public education forums and in the courts. With your support, we are making substantial progress toward the humane world at the center of our vision—and that’s a world that treats companion animals as companions, not commodities.
Kitty Block is president and CEO of Humane World for Animals. Follow Kitty Block on X. Sara Amundson is president of Humane World Action Fund.
