If you are researching a pet store or thinking about buying a puppy from a pet store, you have probably wondered where it came from. Most stores do not make it easy to find out. The breeder is usually hundreds of miles away, and many puppies pass through a broker before they ever reach the store.
We track the breeders and brokers supplying 562 open pet stores nationwide. Of the stores where we have identified suppliers, 8 in 10 buy only from out-of-state breeders and brokers, and 9 in 10 buy through at least one broker.
Not every breeder who sells to a pet store is a puppy mill. But families deserve to know where their puppy came from, and advocates need reliable data to understand how puppies move through the pet trade. That’s why we document these connections.
Below is what we have found so far. We are still documenting connections, so these numbers will grow as we go.
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See how each state regulates commercial breeders and pet stores.
Not every breeder who sells to a pet store is a puppy mill, but many pet store puppies come from large commercial operations. Of the USDA-inspected breeders and brokers we have found selling to pet stores, about 1 in 4 were cited for at least one violation in the past five years. Because most stores buy from many suppliers, 77% of the stores where we have identified suppliers bought from at least one of them. You can look up a specific store in our Pet Store Directory.
Most come from a handful of states, led by Missouri and Indiana, followed by Iowa, Ohio, and Oklahoma. Of the stores where we have identified suppliers, 8 in 10 buy only from out-of-state breeders and brokers, so the puppy in the window has usually traveled a long way.
A broker is a business that buys puppies from breeders and resells them to pet stores. Nine in 10 of the stores where we have identified suppliers bought through at least one broker. When a broker is involved, it can be harder to trace a puppy back to the breeder who raised it.
Most are. About 55% of the suppliers we have identified hold an active USDA license. But 28% had no USDA or state license we could find, and 12% once held a USDA license that has since ended. Some small breeders are exempt from USDA licensing, so a missing license is not always a violation, but it is worth asking about.
Ask the store for the breeder’s name and USDA license number, then look them up in our Breeder Directory and on the USDA’s inspection search. You can also ask to see the puppy’s health certificate, which lists where it was shipped from. If a store won’t share this information, or the only name it gives you is a broker, that tells you something too.
Our research team documents pet store suppliers using health certificates, public records requests, and USDA inspection reports. These numbers reflect the connections we have confirmed so far, so the true numbers are likely higher.
