©Bailing Out Benji 2025
All research and information was done by the research team at Bailing Out Benji and must be cited as such when shared or quoted!
To view the rest of our CVI data, click here.
Each month, Bailing Out Benji collects and analyzes all of the USDA inspections that are publicly posted on the USDA search engine, while also monitoring any actions taken against licensees. Each quarter we release a list of those facilities in order to provide transparency to the puppy-buying public in an attempt to help them do their research before they buy.
If you would like to view our regular quarterly reports, you can do so by clicking here.
Below you will find our first annual audit of the USDA inspections performed during the time period of January 1st, 2024 to December 31st, 2024. This data was sourced directly from the USDA website, with additional statistics coming from our internal database.
To view our full Enforcement Report, click here: 2024 USDA Annual Enforcement Report
While over 4,000 USDA inspections were performed in 2024 at Class A and Class B licensed facilities, only 71% of those inspections were at facilities with dogs and cats. USDA inspectors are also tasked with overseeing facilities that have monkeys, birds, wild/exotic animals, and small animals like guinea pigs, rats, and rabbits. Based on our research, guinea pigs suffer at an extremely high rate within commercial breeding facilities.
Although we also view inspection reports pertaining to other species, all of the statistics listed in this report are strictly for dog and cat breeding or brokering facilities.
In 2024, we tracked 86 USDA inspectors on the ground at 2,000 dog and cat facilities and 15% of those inspections resulted in a violation.
The most frequent violations that were documented in 2024 were for Veterinary Care for Dogs (26%), Attending Veterinarian and Adequate Veterinary Care (13%) and Housing Facilities (11%). Although the majority of violations were listed as ‘non-critical’, 6.4% were found to be direct violations and 1.3% were critical violations. It is important to note that the USDA has had numerous issues found during their two most recent audits performed by the Office of the Inspector General. These audits showed that, among other things, violations weren’t cited or documented properly.
The USDA took official action against 23 breeders and 3 brokers in 2024 by handing out:
25 Official Warnings
6 License Revocations
3 Administrative complaints
2 Fines
2 Settlement Agreements
1 Notice of Confiscation
Based on information analyzed from the USDA, we were able to determine that 39% of the licensees in Wisconsin who were inspected in 2024 had a violation, with Ohio and Pennsylvania being second with 29% of their inspected licensees having violations. Our research team was surprised to see that only 3% of inspected licensees in Missouri had violations, despite their reputation.
Benji Tracker
For years it has been approximated that there are around 10,000 puppy mills in operation across the United States, but there didn’t seem to be a concerted effort to research and track licensed and unlicensed breeders across the country in order to determine the scope of the problem. Because research is at the core of what we do at Bailing Out Benji, we have built the nation’s largest database of breeders across the country and connected each of them to their license type, violation history, sale history, and more.
Right now we are currently tracking 7,800 breeding or brokering facilities across the country, including 1,800 that have cancelled their license. We are also in the process of auditing more than 16,000 breeders who are selling online.
Not every breeder we are tracking would be considered a puppy mill, but we wanted to share some insight on the research we are seeing behind the scenes!
Methodology:
Each month our research team monitors every USDA inspection report that is publicly posted and we update each breeder’s information in our database. We track and analyze the inspectors who are on the ground, all of the licensed dog and cat facilities, and the violations received. This report was analyzed by our Research Analyst Alexis Bell, our Assistant Research Analyst Rosie Henson, and our Executive Director Mindi Callison.
For questions regarding the report, please fill out the form below!
©Bailing Out Benji 2025
All research and information was done by the research team at Bailing Out Benji and must be cited as such when shared or quoted!
To view the rest of our CVI data, click here.