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Stop Breeders From Hiding Pet Records From The Public
Final signature count: 6,309
6,309 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site
Pet buyers deserve to know whether a commercial breeder has failed inspections, violated animal welfare rules, or kept hundreds of animals before money changes hands.
Animal shelters and rescue organizations care for countless dogs and cats who need safe, permanent homes. Choosing adoption saves lives, supports community shelters, and reduces demand for commercial breeding.
When people still decide to purchase an animal from a breeder, they deserve access to verified information about that operation.Yet in some states, consumers have limited access to basic information from the breeder who produced that animal. License details, inspection results, violations, and the size of a breeding operation may remain difficult to find or unavailable online.1
A Minnesota proposal highlighted the problem. The state regulates commercial breeders, but supporters of a data transparency bill said consumers had virtually no public information about approximately 100 licensed operations. Proposed disclosures included the number of animals kept and recent inspection reports.2
Inspection Records Can Reveal Serious Animal Welfare Problems
These records are not minor paperwork. A 2025 audit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General found continued Animal Welfare Act noncompliance among 80% of the sampled dog breeders it visited. Inspectors documented conditions such as excessive feces and flies, lack of water, untreated medical problems, matted hair, contaminated food, and unsafe enclosures.3
The audit also found problems with the inspection process itself. Some inspections occurred more than a year beyond required risk-based frequency guidelines, and APHIS did not close 69% of the sampled breeder complaints within established time frames.3
Federal regulators demonstrate that public access is possible. The USDA Animal Care Public Search Tool provides access to licensing information and Animal Welfare Act inspection reports for regulated facilities.4 State systems, however, form a patchwork. Bailing Out Benji has compiled records from state agriculture departments and federal sources into a separate database of more than 5,000 licensed dog and cat breeders because oversight information is spread across different systems.5
States Can Give Consumers the Facts Before a Pet Is Purchased
State legislatures and agriculture departments can create searchable public breeder databases. At a minimum, each record can show current license status, the number of animals held, recent inspection reports, and documented violations.
Transparency does not decide where a person gets a pet. It gives that person verified information before making the decision. It also places documented regulatory histories where the public can actually review them.
Sign the petition and call on state lawmakers and agriculture departments make commercial dog and cat breeder records searchable and public.
