ASPCA: Repeat-offender puppy mills face no consequences for violations

A new report by a national animal-advocacy group says nearly a third of all actively licensed commercial dog dealers went uninspected in 2025.

The report, issued this week by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, examines the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s oversight of licensed dog breeders.

According to the ASPCA, the USDA conducted around 2,000 compliance inspections, and around 1,000 other types of inspections, at dog-breeding facilities last year.

The ASPCA found that although commercial dealers are required to make their premises available for unannounced inspections, they are sometimes allowed to specify the inspection times that work best for them.

On 150 occasions last year, licensees turned away a USDA official who was attempting to conduct an inspection, the ASPCA reported. Those so-called “attempted inspections” are categorized by the USDA as a serious violation, but federal records also show the USDA frequently allowed repeated attempted inspections to go uncorrected and unpunished.

The report indicates that there are 16,000 various types of businesses licensed by the USDA — nearly double the number of licensees and registrants prior to 2021.

“With only 80 inspectors, the USDA clearly licenses more businesses than it can inspect,” the report states. “In 2016, 81% of all businesses were inspected. In 2025, only 35% of businesses were inspected.”

Among the other findings detailed in the report:

— No inspections: Because there is no requirement that the USDA conduct inspections with any specific frequency, some dog dealers have gone years without an inspection. One out of 3 active dog dealers underwent no compliance inspections during 2025.

— Automatic licensing: Every 2025 applicant for a dog dealers’ license received one after paying the required fee. “Becoming USDA-licensed is easy, even for dog dealers with long histories of problematic care,” the report states.

— No penalties: Not a single commercial dog breeder lost their license or paid a fine in 2025.

— No removals: Among the inspected dog dealers, 1 out of every 6 was cited for at least one violation in 2025. No dogs were removed from any USDA-licensed facilities during the year.

Lawsuit over Iowa breeders continues

The new ASPCA report cites the 2025 inspection of a dog breeding facility operated by Heath Meyers of Grundy Center. According to the report, a USDA inspector saw an adult Bichon panting and in pain with her back foot stuck in the mesh flooring of her enclosure.

“It took them a few minutes to free her, and, when they did, she walked with a limp,” the report states. “The facility confirmed this was not the first time this had happened.”

The communications staff with the USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service did not immediately respond to the Iowa Capital Dispatch’s request for a comment on the ASPCA report.

Currently, the ASPCA is pursuing litigation against the USDA over the federal agency’s alleged lack of enforcement involving Iowa dog breeders.

In that case, filed in 2024 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the ASPCA alleges the government has violated the federal Animal Welfare Act by repeatedly renewing the license of Steve Kruse, an Iowa-based breeder who operates a large-scale kennel in West Point and has a long history of animal welfare violations.

The ASPCA claims the USDA routinely licenses dog breeders and dealers such as Kruse despite the agency’s direct knowledge of practices that fall far below the standards required by the Animal Welfare Act.

It also alleges that federal records show the USDA is fully aware that Kruse is using other licensees, such as Wuanita Swedlund of Farmington, to engage in “puppy laundering” — the practice of routing dogs to retailers through third-party breeders who don’t have an extensive record of violations.

The practice, the ASPCA claims, enables repeat offenders to sell dogs in states where they’d normally be barred from doing business.

The lawsuit seeks a court order that would force the USDA to void all current licenses issued to Kruse and his associates and prevent the agency from renewing them.

There has been little movement in the case since its filing in September 2024. A judge in the case has yet to rule on the USDA’s pending motion to dismiss the lawsuit due to an alleged lack of standing by the ASPCA.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.