The Iowa Legislature declined this year to give the state’s Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship authority to inspect for animal health conditions large dog breeding facilities, particularly those suspected of having substandard conditions for animals at the facilities.
Meantime, 11 breeding facilities in Iowa were named to The Humane Society of the United States’ “The Horrible Hundred” list of commercial animal breeders with the worst health records for animals.
This IowaWatch Connection radio report and podcast updates listeners to the stalled regulatatory legislation and things people should know when purchasing a pet dog or other pet animal.
Excellent coverage, IowaWatch! Thank you!
Thank you for working on helping helpless dogs in puppy mills. We need better laws for animal cruelty all around, besides puppy mills, ie girlfriend hanging boyfriend’s dog..punishment- non existent! Seriously?!
Thanks for keeping this important issue in front of people. It helps!
thank you for all you have done!!!!
Your article on the puppy mill legislation that didn’t pass was excellent!!!! I belong to Iowa Voters for Companion Animals in the Quad Cities and we need more articles like yours to get the word out and let the legislatures know this needs to change.
People need to be educated because a lot of Iowans don’t really know about the inhumane conditions these dogs live in their whole life. Some live in darkness 24/7, not vetted with open wounds and live in feces from the cage above. Iowa is second in the nation for puppy mills. Iowa needs to be known for something better than that.
We just had a meeting last Wed and had new people join that saw a piece on the news and said they had no idea this was going on in Iowa.
Again, thank you so much for your article! Hopefully it reaches more Iowans to get involved.