As California works to tighten the loopholes in its puppy mills ban, the state of Iowa has lent a helping hand — shutting down an alleged puppy-laundering ring that supplied sick animals to Golden State pet stores.
Despite vet care exceeding $14,000, Churro died about a month after coming home. (Courtesy Kevyn Camacho and Robyn Whitman) 
Californians were duped into believing that the young, designer-breed dogs they fell in love with in pet stores were legitimate rescues. California’s new law requires that all pet store animals be rescues, and the stores furnished paperwork confirming that every adorable pup came from registered nonprofits in the Midwest, despite price tags that sometimes approached $4,000 per pup.
Many of these “rescue” pups died of diseases common in puppy mills, even after their heartbroken owners spent thousands of dollars on vet care trying to save them.
It turned out that commercial breeders simply registered as nonprofits with the Internal Revenue Service to circumvent California’s puppy mill ban, authorities said — something that’s quite easy to do.
Since the pups were coming from registered nonprofits, California animal control officials said they were helpless to stop the sales.
Two Orange County puppy stores shut down after the Southern California News Group reported on the loophole, and lawsuits brought by animal rights activists have shut down several others.
The Iowa attorney general’s action, and two bills pending in Sacramento aiming to fix holes in the puppy mill ban, give activists hope that remaining bad actors will shut down in short order.

Victory in Iowa

Last year, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller filed suit alleging that two nonprofit rescue groups, a commercial broker and their officers illegally transferred hundreds of designer puppies through sham nonprofit “rescues” to out-of-state pet shops.
The two nonprofits — Hobo K9 Rescue and Rescue Pets Iowa Corp. — transferred at least 3,600 dogs to California, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and New Jersey over a three-year period, the A.G.’s investigation found. They included Pomeranians, Shar-Peis, Alaskan Malamutes, Poodle-Yorkies and other high-priced purebred and designer breeds.
The groups misled consumers about the true source of the puppies and abused their nonprofit status to circumvent laws banning the sale of “puppy mill” dogs, Miller charged.
Also named were J.A.K.’s Puppies, a for-profit puppy broker based in Britt; Jolyn Noethe, co-owner of J.A.K.’s and co-president of Hobo K9 Rescue; Kimberly Dolphint, co-owner of J.A.K.’s and treasurer of Hobo K9 Rescue; and Russell A. Kirk, president of Rescue Pets Iowa.
“The defendants were officers in both the nonprofit Hobo K9 and the for-profit J.A.K.’s, thus it appears they must claim to ‘rescue’ puppies from themselves — or from the for-profit puppy mill industry in which they participate,” Miller’s lawsuit alleged.
The attorney general prevailed last month. The operators agreed to dissolve their “pet rescue” nonprofits, permanently cease deceptive operations, pay the state $60,000 and submit to other restrictions as part of a settlement.
While the groups still deny the allegations, they agreed to the consent judgment.
“This case was the first of its kind brought by any state attorney general, and this settlement will ensure the defendants never again attempt to evade ‘puppy mill’ bans,” Miller said in a statement. “This outcome should send a strong message to others who are thinking about engaging in similar fraudulent activities in Iowa.”
Mindi Callison, founder and executive director of Bailing Out Benji, a nonprofit devoted to battling puppy mill abuses in California and elsewhere, was pleased with the outcome — but disheartened that J.A.K.S. Puppies is still able to do business.
Bailing Out Benji’s sleuthing uncovered how those groups sent puppies to PetConnect Rescue in Joplin, Missouri, which then sent the puppies to pet shops all over California.
“Getting Iowa on board sounds like a great step; hopefully, we can get other states like Missouri on board as well,” said Joe Simmons, an emergency veterinarian in Huntington Beach who treated several sick puppies.

Tightening California’s ban

Bert and Delight Homan bought Taquito Pepe at CA Puppy in Westminster Mall only to learn that the chihuahua was deathly ill. After spending more than $15,000 in vet bills, the family, including their parrot, Lola, is now doing well. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG) 
Taquito Pepe was one of the lucky ones. Delight Homan wandered into the CA Puppy store in Westminster Mall last fall and fell instantly in love with the tiny Chihuahua. But shortly after coming home, the pup fell gravely ill. Homan and husband Bert spent more than $15,000 to get Taquito well — and some six months later, he’s a delightful whirlwind of unbridled puppy joy.
Huntington Beach college students Kevyn Camacho and Robyn Whitman were not so fortunate. They got Churro, a purebred dachshund, at the same store. He had Parvo, kennel cough, distemper and various respiratory viruses. His vet care exceeded $14,000, and one agonizing month after coming home, he was dead.
The Iowa action should help prevent such tragedies in California, said Judie Mancuso, president of Social Compassion in Legislation and sponsor of the puppy mill ban. And two bills aim to tighten things further.
AB 2117 by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, would forbid pet stores from selling dogs, cats or rabbits unless the animals came from a public animal control agency or shelter. It also would make the selling of puppy mill animals a crime.
AB 2152, by Assemblyman Todd Gloria, D-San Diego, would prohibit pet stores from selling dogs, cats or rabbits altogether. Dubbed “Bella’s Act,” after a Corgi who was “illegally and inhumanely bred in a puppy mill,” it would allow pet stores to provide space to public shelters and rescue groups to showcase adoptable animals, so long as the pet stores have no ownership interest in the animals and don’t get compensation for providing space. Violations would be a crime.
The bills are still works in progress. A cap on the amount of money rescues and shelters can request as an adoption fee — at $500 or so — is under consideration to quash the puppy profit motive once and for all.
“The financial cap is perfect because if we take away the profits, there won’t be any incentive for scammers,” said Simmons, the vet. He pointed out some privately funded rescues do have expenses in the $200-300 range per pet, “so there is a fine line between shutting down scammers and inhibiting legitimate rescues from doing their work.”
Lawmakers are determined to find a balance. “We will no longer continue to facilitate or tolerate puppy mill cruelty in California,” Gloria said in a prepared statement.