The San Diego Humane Society said it would step up its efforts to educate the public about so-called “puppy mills” in light of an in-depth Los Angeles Times investigation that found widespread abuses in the selling of dogs to California consumers from other states, mainly in the Midwest.
According to The Times, “truckloads of doodles, French bulldogs and other expensive dogs from profit-driven mass breeders pour into the state from the Midwest, feeding an underground market where they are resold by people claiming to be small, local home breeders.”
In reporting the story, the newspaper filed public records requests to all 50 states for dog export records and all 58 counties in California for dog import records, involving what it said were 88,000 dogs approved to travel to the state since 2018.
The Times described multiple cases of neglect and deceitful advertising by the sellers, leaving many California residents with sick animals and massive vet bills on their hands. The investigation also described a broken system of record keeping, with confusion among local government officials as to who should receive the records, and massive amounts of documents being destroyed.