Every year, 6.5 million animals enter U.S. shelters while countless puppy ads flood Craigslist and Facebook. What if the solution isn’t chasing individual breeders, but regulating the platforms that enable them?
In this episode, we explore a revolutionary three-part regulatory framework that transforms online advertising platforms from passive enablers into active enforcement partners. Instead of playing whack-a-mole with hidden backyard breeders, this systems approach creates economic incentives that make unregistered breeding unprofitable.
You’ll learn:
- Why current breeder regulations miss the mark
- The hidden economics driving backyard breeding operations
- How mandatory registration + platform liability = fewer shelter intakes (and more adoptions!)
- Why this approach works when traditional enforcement fails
- Specific legislative language advocates can use in their states
This isn’t about building more shelters—it’s about preventing the need for them. By following successful regulatory models from credit card and copyright industries, we can create upstream solutions that address root causes rather than just symptoms.
Episode Highlights:
00:00 – Host introduces a new focus on effective ideas to reduce shelter overcrowding, starting with backyard breeding. Announces new resource to help advocates get started with proposing laws.
01:58 – Over 6.5 million animals enter US shelters annually; 1.5 million are euthanized due to lack of space.
02:46 – Distinction made between “puppy mills” (large, regulated) and “backyard breeders” (small, under the radar).
04:20 – Backyard breeders often ignore market demand, breeding dogs that already fill shelters and contribute to shelter overcrowding with unsold puppies.
05:48 – Motivation for backyard breeders is profit, leading to low costs. With little oversight of breeders, shelters absorb the consequences.
06:49 – Current breeder regulations target large operations, leaving a regulatory gap that backyard breeders exploit.
08:44 – Online platforms like Craigslist enable and profit from backyard breeders.
10:41 – Proposed solution: universal breeder registration, mandatory ads with registration/sales tax identificiation, and platform accountability.
16:52 – Advocates are urged to push for comprehensive laws at state level and make advertising platforms partners in enforcement.
Transcript
Welcome back to the Animal Advocate. I want to tell you about my plans for this and the upcoming episodes because I’ve been looking at the data on what you’re listening to, and it’s clear you really connect with episodes about animal sheltering, what’s working, what isn’t, and how we can do better. I’ve got some concrete ideas about changes that you animal advocates could help make happen, changes that would genuinely reduce the burden on animal shelters starting with today’s topic on reducing backyard breeding, plus other strategies to prevent people from having to surrender their pets in the first place. The math is simple. Fewer animals entering shelters means shelters have more resources to spend on each animal in their care. In these upcoming episodes, I’ll be introducing you to these ideas, showing you what the laws would actually look like, and talking to experts about both the problems and the solutions that they think will move the needle. I’m also creating a resource to give you a jumpstart on making these proposals in your own state or city, something I’m really excited to share with you.
So let’s dive in.
Welcome to the Animal Advocate, where we arm animal lovers with the information and inspiration you need to become effective advocates. I’m your host, Penny Ellison, and I’ve taught animal law and advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania since 2006. If you’ve ever thought someone should do something about that, I’m here to guide you on your journey to being that someone. You can find us on the web at animaladvocacyacademy.com and that’s where you’ll find show notes and resources, and you can send us your comments on episodes and ideas for topics you’d like to hear on future shows. So, on to today’s topic.
Picture this. Every year, more than six and a half million animals find their way into US shelters, and sadly, one and a half million face euthanasia because there’s simply not enough space. Meanwhile, scroll through Craigslist or Facebook for just five minutes and you’ll find countless ads for puppies, often from the very breeders whose excess inventory ends up in those overcrowded shelters. This isn’t just a numbers problem. It’s a systems problem. And like many systems problems, it requires us to think differently about where we’re using our legal leverage to create change.
The way we’re regulating breeders right now isn’t working. You can probably see that it fails when it comes to backyard breeders. So why is that? Well, first we need to understand when and how the law steps in and then talk about the economic realities that sustain backyard breeding. So first, let’s define some terms. When I talk about puppy mills, I’m talking about larger scale breeders that select and breed dogs based on their mass market appeal. They’re problematic for many reasons, most importantly, their lack of attention to the welfare of their breeding dogs. But they’re treating it like a business. So they produce dogs, usually small breeds like French bulldogs or Doodles and Goldens, the uber popular breeds that people want to buy. These breeders are big enough that they should be regulated by state dog law regulations. They need kennel licenses and are subject to inspections. And the state can fine them or shut them down, theoretically. Now, they can still fly under the radar, and states can sometimes be lackluster in their enforcement. But technically, puppy mills are covered by state dog law requirements.
By contrast, backyard breeders are almost universally under the radar. They either don’t meet the annual requirement for the number of dogs that are produced, or they don’t step forward to ask for a license. And because their operations are smaller, they’re harder for the outside world to see, hear and report. And often their friends and neighbors are their customers. They’re just like puppy mills sometimes in that they don’t take great care of their dogs. But also there’s a difference. Because they don’t consider the market for the puppies they produce, the result is excess inventory. Unpurchased puppies have to be disposed of, often at local animal control shelters or just abandoned somewhere. Backyard breeders contribute more to shelter overcrowding, in my experience, because of this breeding without regard to the market. And they’re often breeding dogs that are already filling the shelters: pits, Rottweilers, huskies, other large breeds. And they know that there’s little to no likelihood that when they or their customers dump their dogs, either because they haven’t sold or because they got sick from not getting any vaccines, they know that they’re not going to suffer any consequences.
During COVID when shelters were emptying, the problem got worse. Lots of people realized they could capitalize on the fact that everyone wanted a pet. So prices were rising and they bred and sold puppies. Lots and lots of puppies. So, let’s think about the incentives at work here. Backyard breeders. Obviously, they’re motivated by profit. Prices rise and they keep costs low by getting no vaccines or vet care and maybe not keeping the puppies to the age that they can be safely separated from their mom.
Ads from these unscrupulous breeders fill the online classified ads. The economics are simple. Minimal oversight and costs, easy advertising, ready buyers who want a simple transaction. And, when things go wrong, shelters and the animals bear the cost, not the breeders.
So one more distinction here. Backyard breeders can be accidental breeders or intentional profit driven breeders. The unintentional ones, I think, can be reached through education and subsidized accessible spay neuter programs. We’ve talked about them before and we’ll talk about those programs again as we explore the policies and laws that can really change things for animals. Today, we’re focusing on those intentional backyard breeders, the ones trying to make money at it, because if their dogs are their meal ticket, they’re not going to take advantage of any help with spaying or neutering their pet. So how do we reach them?
Well, let’s take a look at how we regulate breeders now and why current regulations miss the mark. The fundamental challenge isn’t that we don’t have any laws. It’s that the way we regulate is based on 20th century assumptions about how the markets work. State and federal dog breeding regulations are designed to regulate large scale breeders and explicitly exclude small volume breeders from coverage. This creates a regulatory gap where backyard breeders who sell under the threshold number of dogs are exempt from any licensing requirements. The only restriction on their activities are state animal cruelty laws which require someone to actually witness animal cruelty and report it. And producing puppies is not cruelty. So right now we really have no effective tool to shut down backyard breeders.
So as I said, I’d call this problem a regulatory gap. Not because policymakers intended one, but because they designed rules around visible large scale operations, while the real problematic action is really happening in the shadows with these small-scale distributed networks. So let’s consider the challenge in cracking down on these small operators. Without a huge expenditure of resources, identifying these breeders we all know are out there is pretty much impossible. Take Pennsylvania for example. The state threshold for requiring a kennel license from the Department of Agriculture is 26 dogs in a year. But even if a breeder meets that threshold, how do authorities find them? Customers aren’t turning them in. We’re essentially playing an endless game of whack a mole, trying to find individual breeders scattered across communities and often operating out of residential properties.
Meanwhile, there’s a massive problem on Craigslist with people advertising puppies for sale under the guise of rehoming them or placing them for adoption. That fools a lot of people. There are also many posts where people are either requesting stud services or offering up their dogs for stud. Platforms like Craigslist currently don’t enforce their restrictions on posts like these. Instead, they rely on people to flag prohibited posts. The flagging system is so inefficient and multiple people need to flag posts to even think about getting them removed.
So here’s where I think traditional regulatory thinking gets stuck. It focuses on regulating the hardest to find actors, – those individual breeders – while ignoring the easiest to find infrastructure that enables them – those advertising platforms. It’s like trying to stop drug dealing by chasing every street corner dealer while giving broad immunity to the communications network that they use to coordinate sales.
Backyard breeders wouldn’t be able to sell nearly as many puppies without the help of online marketplaces. The online selling platforms have become essential infrastructure for this underground economy that treats its dogs like crap and puts such an unfair burden on animal shelters. This creates what systems thinkers call a leverage point, a place where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes. Instead of trying to regulate millions of dispersed breeders, what if we regulated the handful of platforms that connect them to buyers?
Here’s a new framework for regulation that’s designed to reach these backyard breeders that are burdening our shelters and driving up euthanasia numbers. Registration, identification and platform accountability. Let’s talk about what that means. This solution lies in creating a three part system that works with market incentives rather than against them.
Number one, Mandatory registration. First, we require all breeders, regardless of the number of puppies they turn out, to register with state or local authorities, or both. Ideally, states would adopt legislation requiring all breeders to register in an online database and get an identification number. That database would reduce enforcement costs by giving consumers a mechanism to ensure that their purchases are from a registered breeder.
Second, advertising requirements. Require registration numbers in all advertisements for dogs. Every ad must include the registration number and a corresponding sales tax number. Because when you sell a dog, you are supposed to be collecting sales tax and that sales tax number would have the advertiser’s name, address and phone number. This isn’t about creating a bureaucratic burden. It’s about creating traceability in a market that currently operates completely anonymously and in the shadows.
So the third element, and it’s essential, is platform liability. Hold the platforms accountable for publishing ads without the required registration information. My proposed law would ensure that no ads offering dogs for sale can be accepted without a registration and sales tax ID number. Penalties would be on the platforms for accepting ads without that information, and that would eliminate the impossible task of identifying and locating and shutting down this huge number of backyard breeders.
Will every backyard breeder comply with registering with the state and getting a sales tax license? Of course not. But that’s okay. Then they can’t advertise. The genius of this approach is that compliance becomes less important than visibility. No registration, no ads, no ads, a lot fewer customers. This approach borrows from successful regulatory models in other industries. Credit card companies became partners in fighting money laundering not through goodwill, but through know your customer requirements that made them liable to for facilitating illegal transactions. In the world of copyright infringement, a law, the Digital Millennium Copyright act, created a notice and takedown system that made platforms partners in copyright enforcement. Going after the medium means you have an enforceable law that works on a much larger scale than trying to send out kennel inspectors to find every person who’s breeding in their backyard or living room. This approach succeeds because it aligns enforcement with economic incentives rather than fighting them. Platforms are easy to find, have real business addresses, employ compliance teams, and care deeply about avoiding legal liability. Unlike dispersed backyard breeders, they’re used to regulation and have staff who are responsible for keeping them out of trouble.
More importantly, it creates what economists call network effects in enforcement. When platforms start requiring registration numbers, legitimate breeders will comply to maintain their market access. Illegitimate breeders will be pushed toward the less visible, less effective advertising methods, or hopefully out of the market entirely. By removing profits, a domino effect is created. No sales tax number and registration. No ads. No ads mean no sales. No sales mean no profits. The beauty of this system is that it doesn’t require perfect enforcement to work. It just needs to make unregistered breeding less profitable and more difficult than legitimate economic alternatives.
Traditional animal welfare advocacy has been focusing downstream, building more shelters, encouraging adoption. These remain essential, but they’re treating symptoms rather than causes. The kind of systems thinking I’m encouraging teaches us to look for regenerative solutions, approaches that fix the system that creates those problems, rather than just treats the problem. By transforming advertising platforms from passive enablers into active enforcement partners, we create a regenerative solution that prevents shelter overcrowding rather than just manages it.
And this approach isn’t anti technology or anti business. Most of the platforms already implement some kind of system like this for other regulated content. Like Facebook prevents ads for prescription drugs without proper licensing. Google removes copyright infringing content when they’re notified about it. The infrastructure for verification already exists. We just need to apply it to animal sales. And my vision is that this goes beyond an enforcement action. The ultimate goal isn’t just to stop bad breeders. It’s to create conditions where transparency and accountability become the norm. When consumers can easily verify breeders through required registration numbers, buying from random Internet sites has to go down.
When platforms become partners in enforcement rather than obstacles. The entire market shifts towards greater oversight and transparency. Also, the online database would allow inspectors to track puppy sales by number to determine which breeders have exceeded the level that qualifies them for an exemption. This creates natural mechanisms for graduated regulation. Small hobby breeders face lighter requirements while larger operations get more oversight.
The path forward is straightforward but requires focused legislative action. States could pass comprehensive legislation requiring four key components.
1.Universal registration All breeders must register with state authorities with no minimum threshold for the number of puppies.
- Sales tax licensing all breeders must obtain a proper sales tax license.
- Advertising requirements Both the registration and a sales tax license have to appear in all advertisements; and
- Platform penalties. Online platforms would face meaningful penalties for accepting non compliant advertisements.
If comprehensive state regulation like this proves difficult to pass, advocates should pursue these requirements at a local level. City and county governments often have more flexibility to implement innovative solutions, and they can serve as a proving ground for later state adoption of laws just like this.
Most importantly, this approach requires shifting our mental model from impossible enforcement to smart systems design. Instead of trying to police every backyard breeder, we create conditions where unregistered breeding becomes economically unviable.
The animal welfare community has learned to think like 21st century advocates through the use of social media, data analytics and network effects to amplify impact. Now lawyers and advocates need to think like 21st century regulators, using systems leverage and market incentives to create the change we need. The overpopulation crisis in shelters is caused by a combination of factors including rising housing costs (especially for pet inclusive housing), not enough access to spay neuter services, rising veterinary costs, irresponsible pet owners and unethical breeders. And we can’t solve the crisis by addressing just one factor. But by intelligently regulating the advertising infrastructure that enables irresponsible breeding, we can create leverage that shifts the entire system toward better outcomes for animals and communities. The question isn’t whether we can stop every single backyard breeder. It’s whether we can make the platforms that enable them partners in the solution. And that transformation, I think, is entirely within our reach. That’s it for today.
The Animal Advocate is brought to you by the Animal Advocacy Academy. You can find the episodes and show notes@animaladvocacyacademy.com you can listen to episodes you missed, leave a comment, and start a discussion there.
And if you’re really interested in learning more about protecting animals, subscribe to the show so you can get every episode right when it comes out. If you have any questions on this or any other topic related to animal law, go ahead and email them to me at podcast at animaladvocacyacademy.com. And remember, compassion is great, but compassionate action is infinitely better.
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