In 2003, Courtney Horning’s family bought a Yorkie named Maggie from a pet store. Maggie was very sick. When the vet asked where she came from, it was the first time the Hornings had heard the words “puppy mill.” Maggie lived fifteen years — but with a lot of health problems along the way. One sick puppy set the course of Courtney’s life.
Today, Courtney is the Outreach Specialist for the Puppy Mills Campaign at Humane World for Animals, formerly known as the Humane Society of the United States. She’s based in Evansville, Indiana. I sat down with her to talk about what puppy mills really are, what’s happening here in Indiana, and what any of us can do about it.
What led you to this work?
I’ve always been a huge animal lover — not just dogs and cats, anything. I was the kid who wanted to touch the snakes at the fair. I still take spiders outside. I used to ride my bike down to the Humane Society to visit the animals when I was little.
But the real turning point was in 2003, when my mom bought a Yorkie named Maggie from a pet store. Maggie was very, very sick. We spent a couple thousand dollars at the emergency vet, and that’s when the vet asked where she came from. My mom explained it was a pet store, and that was the first time we heard the words “puppy mill.”
After that, I just started doing research. I wanted to make sure everybody knew that buying these puppies — that they came from horrible conditions, and that it comes with a lot of financial issues, because my parents spent several thousand dollars to save her. She did live — she made it to fifteen — but she had a lot of health problems. Maggie truly changed my life and kind of changed my direction. That’s when I found this space.
What’s the difference between a puppy mill, a backyard breeder, and a reputable breeder?
“Puppy mill” and “backyard breeder” can be interchangeable. Really, it’s anyone who is mass producing dogs for profit and not putting their best interests first. The scale varies — some have 20 dogs, some have multiple buildings and 500 dogs they’re breeding. They do now have to provide access to potable water continuously.
USDA-licensed dog breeders are generally required to provide dogs with continuous access to potable (drinkable) water at all times. The current federal rule in 9 CFR § 3.10 says: dogs must have “continuous access to potable drinking water at all times” unless a veterinarian orders otherwise. Dogs not having access to continuous water is a common violation we still see.
They’re on wire grids. They’re not getting the proper bedding they need. They’re just not treated like a loving pet.
Ethical breeders breed once a year. They keep the breeding dogs in the house as part of the family. They have a waitlist. They want to meet the people they’re selling to. They will not sell to pet stores, and they will not sell to brokers who deliver to pet stores. That’s in their code of ethics.
“If a puppy is in a pet store, it came from a puppy mill. Ethical breeders will not sell to them — that’s in their code of ethics. Any puppy in a pet store comes from a puppy mill. Period.”
What are the red flags when you’re looking for a breeder?
A lot of people say, “Oh, they’re AKC registered,” like that means something. It really doesn’t, unfortunately. We’ve had puppy mills that have AKC. They’re just signing the paperwork. So what you want to look for is:
• If they say “I’ll meet you halfway” — that’s a red flag. They should want you to come to them.
• If they won’t let you come on-site and meet the parents, see where the puppy was born and raised — that’s a red flag.
• If health records for the puppy and parents aren’t available, that’s another red flag.
• Ethical breeders have puppies available when they have puppies. Not whenever you want one.
What does your team actually do?
There are eight of us on the Puppy Mills team and we do a lot of policy work — working on things that can change outcomes for these dogs, whether it’s a city or county ordinance or a statewide bill. One of the avenues we’ve found most effective is shutting down where these puppies are sold. If you stop the source, you reduce how many puppies are being born into these conditions. We work on passing humane pet store laws at the local and state level.
We also conduct investigations. We go through USDA inspection reports, sift through all of these reports, flag the violations, and document everything. And each year we put out the Horrible Hundred report — a list of known problem breeders and brokers based on state and federal inspection reports. It’s not a list of all the puppy mills in the country, but it shines a spotlight on some of the worst cases. Read it here: 2026 Horrible Hundred Indiana has five facilities in this year’s report.
One thing I always want people to understand: a USDA license does not mean a breeder is reputable.
“The USDA put out an internal audit saying that dogs in USDA-licensed facilities are normal to neglect and mistreatment. That was their own documentation. We’re not making this up — we have their own documentation to prove it.”
That audit — released in February 2025 — found that 80% of studied dog breeders with non-compliances did not fully correct the concerns found during inspections. Read it here
Source: Humane World for Animals, Horrible Hundred 2026, p. 4]
What’s happening with puppy mills here in Indiana?
There are still pet stores in Indiana and there are still lots of puppy mills here. We were making a lot of strides — we had passed several city and county ordinances across the state and we were really building momentum. And then, about two years ago, we had a big battle at the statehouse. They repealed all of those ordinances and put in preemption. So after that, in Indiana, we can no longer pass local laws that are stronger than state law. The pet store industry came in and got to our state legislature, and it wiped out all the work we had done.
“Our hands are tied trying to implement because we can’t pass anything at the local level. We have to pass at the state level now. And usually the good way to pass state laws is by building all those small local ordinances first to build momentum. Preemption wiped all of that away.”
If someone bought a sick puppy from a pet store, what can they do?
First, file a report with us at humaneworld.org/puppy complaint. You can remain anonymous if you want, but the more information we have, the better. We can help connect people to next steps and walk them through the process. From there:
• Report to the Better Business Bureau.
• File a complaint with your state attorney general. The more complaints they get, the stronger the case for statewide change.
• Contact your state representative and your state senator. In Indiana especially, change has to happen at the state level now. They are the ones who make change.
• And I always encourage people: if you’re in a position to, consider adopting a retired breeding dog. Some mills will relinquish breeding parents when they can no longer breed, and these dogs deserve a real life.
You mentioned predatory lending — can you explain that?
A lot of people don’t realize that a lot of these pet stores have their own credit cards with very high interest rates — some up to 180%. So someone buys a $3,000 dog, pays the bare minimum, and they’re basically paying $14,000 for that dog. And the way it works is, you have a parent come in holding a kid on one arm and a puppy on the other, and the store is saying, “You can finance this.” They’re signing paperwork and they don’t understand the interest rates or what they’ve really signed up for. We call this predatory lending, and it’s a huge business model for a lot of these stores.
We’ve had cases — a woman in Michigan who had her puppy for four days and it passed, and she’s still making payments on a dog she no longer has. A woman in Texas who is still paying on a dog that died. It’s not just hard emotionally — it’s financially devastating. Read the fine print. Always.
You adopted a retired breeding dog yourself. What was that like?
She had never lived in a home. Never experienced love. The first time I actually held her, the first time she ever picked up a toy — those are just such rewarding milestones for something that has been through so much. It’s not for the faint of heart. There is time and patience involved.
“It is the most rewarding experience when they overcome. When they flourish in your home — there’s nothing like it. My mom adopted one too. She called me crying one day saying she couldn’t do it. She still has her, and she’s 14 now. She says she can’t believe she ever thought she couldn’t.”
Is there anything you’d recommend for people who want to understand this more?
There is a book called The Doggie in the Window. When I started this job, they sent it to me and said, “You need to read this first.” It’s a very, very hard read. There were times I had to put it down. Times I got physically sick. But I just think it’s something people truly need to know. The magnitude of what these puppy mills are — people just don’t realize it. They see the cute puppy, but nobody thinks about the parents. The parents are the ones left behind.
I really appreciate Courtney taking the time to sit down with me on this. It’s not a comfortable subject, but that’s exactly why it needs to be talked about. People don’t know what they don’t know — and the more of us who do, the harder this problem is to ignore.
If you’d like to take action, Humane World for Animals makes it easy to send a letter to your elected officials urging stronger protections for dogs in commercial breeding facilities. It takes two minutes: Sign the letter here
The dogs don’t have a voice in this. We do.
Connect with Humane World for Animals: humaneworld.org — report a sick puppy, sign the letter to your elected officials, or read the 2026 Horrible Hundred report.
Courtney Horning is the Outreach Specialist for the Puppy Mills Campaign at Humane World for Animals, based in Evansville, Indiana. She advocates for stronger laws to end the commercial puppy mill pipeline and supports consumers who have purchased sick puppies from pet stores.