USDA WILL NO LONGER WARN PUPPY MILLS OF UPCOMING INSPECTIONS
Intense Opposition to Announced Inspections Forces USDA to Reconsider 
Thanks to your efforts in calling and emailing Bernadette Juarez, USDA’s Deputy Administrator/Animal Care, USDA has decided to discontinue warning puppy mills of upcoming inspections. Most significantly, Ms. Juarez has been transferred out of Animal Care and will no longer be able to continue her assault against the welfare of animals in puppy mills. 

Announced inspections, combined with USDA's refusal to release the identity of dog breeders on inspection reports, was part of the Agency’s continuing efforts to whitewash the sordid puppy mill industry. USDA had instructed inspectors to schedule appointments with puppy mills in order to give substandard breeders time to clean the facilities and hide away any sick or injured dogs. USDA was following the lead of AKC who gives their breeders a week’s notice before its inspections. 
Juarez has been sent packing but will the animals receive a good replacement?

In further efforts to protect the reputation of the commercial dog breeding industry, USDA has implemented the “teachable moments” rule and “self-reporting” rule. 

USDA had even proposed that third parties, such as the AKC and other industry groups, perform inspections of dog breeders on behalf of USDA. Fortunately, that proposal was also scrapped after negative feed-back at “listening sessions” as well as voluminous calls and emails objecting to USDA allowing third parties to perform inspections in lieu of federal inspectors.  

Your telephone calls and emails do make a difference!  Please watch for similar calls to action by the Alliance.