An HSUS undercover investigator has recorded video footage of animals living in dismal conditions at puppy mills in the Midwest that have never or only rarely been cited for neglecting the animals in their care by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal agency whose job is to ensure these...

Lovie Langston’s complaint came to our Stop Puppy Mills team in December 2022. “I am paying $7,000 for ashes,” she stated. Langston said she purchased a Maltese puppy whom she named Ziva Girl as a holiday gift for herself and her family at the Petland (Bellaire) store in Houston, Texas in November...

Each year, our campaigns work on a multitude of issues related to improving the lives of companion animals, including dogs, cats and horses. In 2019, we made incredible gains on this front, culminating with the signing of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act into law in November. The...

Despite the pandemic, our fight against puppy mills continued full throttle in 2020. We won several important legal and legislative battles against these commercial enterprises that keep large numbers of dogs in sordid conditions, and we continued to raise awareness about problem mills through our...

Each December, we round up some of the year’s most notable successes in carrying on the fight for animal protection. For the next several weeks, alongside breaking news about animals and our efforts to protect them, I will bring you our top animal protection victories during this most unusual year...

The work we do every day requires us to be flexible and pivot at a moment’s notice when challenges arise, and thanks to our in-house experts and our vast network of partners, we are able to ensure the best outcomes for animals. Nothing highlights this better than a recent case in West Virginia...

India has seen a boom in pet ownership in recent years, and there has been a corresponding increase in the number of pet stores doing brisk business by selling puppies. Unfortunately, the boom comes with a downside for the animals caught up in this trade. Puppies sold in pet stores in India often...

Our eight-month investigation into six Petland stores has revealed heartbreaking stories of puppy mistreatment and deaths. It has led to hundreds of customers contacting us with personal stories of buying animals from Petland, only to have them fall sick and even die; it has caused several ex...

Our latest investigation reveals shocking and deceptive tactics used by a corporate-run Petland store to sell a sick puppy to a shopper working on behalf of the Humane Society of the United States, and to keep customers in the dark about other disease outbreaks among animals for sale at the store...

UPDATE 11/22/22: The lawsuit has been amended with another complainant who claims she was sold a sick puppy by Petland Webster. Additional claims may be added to the lawsuit in the coming weeks if more potential plaintiffs come forward. When Stephanie Gonzalez and her 7-year-old son went to the...

This week, Indianapolis became the 450th locality in the nation to prohibit the sale of puppy mill puppies in pet stores. The passage of this ordinance also means that half of the 20 largest cities in the nation won’t allow puppy mill puppies to be sold in retail pet stores—a strong statement to...

We have good news to share from Mississippi and Iowa, the only two states in the nation without a law on the books that would make acts of animal torture, like burning, drowning and intentional starvation, an automatic felony. Recently, Mississippi’s state legislature passed a bill that would do...

Missouri has finally moved to close down a puppy mill owner who’s been on the radar of federal and state inspectors for more than two decades for serious neglect of animals in her facility. Marilyn Shepherd (a.k.a. Marilyn Williams) and her Cedercrest Kennel (a.k.a. Pup 4 U) had operated without a...

Just days after the release of our annual Horrible Hundred report, Missouri’s attorney general has sued to shut down one of the puppy mills named in it. The owners of Little Bit Ranch in Unionville, Missouri, failed to provide adequate veterinary care for their dogs and left them with only frozen...

The mistreatment of animals is a matter of injustice, and so it’s only fitting that the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in to stop cruelty at Even Keel Exotics in Temperance, Michigan. The DOJ’s recent resolution of a complaint against the facility’s owner, animal dealer Zachery Keeler, resulted...

Imagine spending thousands of dollars for a puppy and seeing the delight in your children’s eyes as they cuddle their new family member, only to find yourself in a veterinary emergency room days later, with your puppy on an IV, struggling to live. Worse, imagine that beloved animal dying just over...

The fight to wipe out puppy mills passed a critical milestone this month: more than 350 American localities now ban the sales of puppy mill dogs in pet stores. The latest ordinances were passed by Roselle, New Jersey; Algonquin, Illinois and Carver, Minnesota last week, taking the total number of...

New York has the dubious distinction of being home to more puppy-selling pet stores than any other state in the nation. This could be about to change as lawmakers there move on legislation that would prohibit all dog, cat and rabbit sales in pet stores. Bills have already been introduced in the...

In a country where political tempers often run hot, agreement can seem incredibly rare. But, regardless of party affiliation, a consensus is emerging that our companion animals should be treated with basic decency—and this is not how kitten and puppy mills treat dogs and cats. While we advocate for...

A New York pet store that sold numerous sick puppy mill dogs to unsuspecting consumers now faces a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court for allegedly failing to give proper medical care to sick puppies and deceiving buyers about their health. The store’s former owner may have to pay nearly $4 million...