Illinois Pet Store/Puppy Mill Connection

©Bailing Out Benji 2023
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. 
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Our unique research connects puppy mills and commercial dog breeders across the country to the pet stores and online websites they sell through.

Through Freedom of Information Act requests, our team forensically audits government health records and inspection records and makes that information public in order to provide transparency for the consumer. Below you will find a list of all of the research that we have done into some of the nation’s most notorious businesses. Everything that we do can be independently verified through obtaining FOIA requests from governmental agencies across the country. To make it easy, our research is organized by business designation type, state and business name. 

The research we do can be very costly but it has proven to be the most effective tool advocates have in order to create change in their communities. To date we have connected more than 65% of the nation’s puppy-selling stores to the puppy mills and commercial dog breeders they buy from. 

Bailing Out Benji is a small nonprofit that started in Ames, Iowa and now has volunteer teams all over the country who are dedicated to raising awareness about the puppy mill industry.

Volunteers from Bailing Out Benji devote their free time to researching puppy mills to create puppy mill maps for the worst states, as well as raise awareness about notorious pet stores and breeding operations with huge violations. This includes obtaining CVI data (Certificates of Veterinary Inspections) and making those reports public. 

NOTE:

-Before an animal is transported out of state, a veterinarian, accredited by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), must examine the animal for signs of “infectious, contagious or communicable disease” and, if no disease is found, sign the certificate for approval to transport.

To make this easier, we will be breaking our research down alphabetically by each pet store and connecting them to the various puppy mills they use. All of this information has come from the Department of Agriculture and the USDA.

All of the breeders listed as associated with the pet stores sold puppies or kittens to them after the Humane Pet Store Law went into effect at the end of February 2022. 

 

*Please note* We do not receive documents about the Illinois breeders these stores source from, since CVIs are not needed unless animals cross state lines. If you bought a puppy from an Illinois pet store and want to know more about its origins, please fill out the form below. 

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Furry Babies Chain of Stores. 

2352 Fox Valley Center Dr, Aurora, Illinois 

170 Yorktown Shopping Center, Lombard, IL 

7200 Harrison Avenue Suite F39, Rockford, IL

This store also has a location in Indiana

  1. Allison Hedgpeth, Dog Mother Rescue AKA Lonewolf Kennels. Iberia, Missouri- This facility was named one of the worst puppy mills in the country after being uncovered as a sham rescue operation that is owned by the facility “Lonewolf Kennels.” They were added to the horrible hundred list again after refusing to allow USDA inspectors to conduct business. 
  2. Indiana Puppy Rescue. Hammond, Indiana- This facility was formed right after the Humane Pet Store Law went into effect. As of the posting of this article, Indiana Puppy Rescue is not a legitimate 501c3 rescue. 
  3. Mike Moore and Melanie Moore, MAM Kennel. Lamar, Missouri- 190 adult breeding dogs and 125 puppies. 
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King Neptune’s Pet World 707 W Jefferson St, Shorewood, IL

  1. Jolyn Noethe, JAKS Puppies, Britt Iowa – 113 puppies .  JAKS has also started their own “rescue” in order to lie to the public about not being a puppy mill. You can read that information here JAKS was also named one of the worst puppy mills in the country. To see where JAKS Puppies buys their dogs from, click here. JAKS was investigated and sued by the Iowa Attorney General for charity fraud and was ordered to stop their sham rescue in 2020. 
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Petland Batavia- 401 N Randall Rd, Batavia, IL 60510

  1. Levi Graber, Blue Ribbon Puppies. Odon,  Indiana– This large puppy broker was also named one of the worst in the nation due to a huge campylobacter outbreak in Petland stores. Campylobacter is a zoonotic diseases that passes from puppies to humans. To learn more about Blue Ribbon Puppies, click here
  2. Pinnacle Pet AKA Sobrad LLC. Neosho, Missouri- one of the largest puppy brokers in the country with 277 puppies on their premises at the time of last inspection.
  3. Tony Schindler, QD Kennels. Frankford, Missouri- This is a large puppy brokering facility. 

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*Please note* We do not receive documents about the Illinois breeders these stores source from, since CVIs are not needed unless animals cross state lines. If you bought a puppy from an Illinois pet store and want to know more about its origins, please fill out the form below.  

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For more ways you can help the dogs trapped in puppy mills, click here.

For more information, please visit our main page Bailing Out Benji . We also have educational materials that you can print to hang up in your own area.

©Bailing Out Benji 2023

All research and information was done by the research team at Bailing Out Benji and must be cited as such when shared or quoted.

 

** If you bought a puppy from any of the pet stores in Illinois and are wondering where they were born, please send us an email! Even if the store is not listed above, we have data on IL stores that have since closed or gone humane.**

 

This research can be  extremely costly, please consider making a donation to help us continue exposing the puppy mill industry. Every dollar helps us!

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