The American Kennel Club, the world’s largest registry for purebred dogs, is quietly fighting several animal welfare bills winding through Congress.
The AKC is widely considered the gold standard for dog breeding and care, and supports more than 29,000 events each year including the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. The group’s tagline is “Everything We Do, We Do For Dogs,” but its lobbying efforts have drawn criticism from animal rights advocates supporting bills the AKC hates.
Some animal welfare groups allege the public face of purebred dogs has a dark underbelly that prioritizes “profits over puppies,” as Sara Amundson, president of Humane World Action Fund, the political arm of the Humane World for Animals, told NOTUS.
Humane World, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals criticized AKC’s opposition to bills that would give the Justice Department more authority to enforce the Animal Welfare Act, update minimum care standards for commercial breeders and require federal inspectors to quickly report animal neglect and abuse to state and local officials.
“It comes as no surprise to PETA that the American Kennel Club is prioritizing the breeding industry’s profits over protecting dogs, as its lobbying efforts are funded by the millions of dollars that it receives from breeders who pay AKC registration fees,” Nicole Meyer, a senior media officer at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told NOTUS.
AKC leaders argue that breeders are dog-care experts, and that the lawmakers or animal rights activists bent on enacting what they consider to be overreaching, one-size-fits-all restrictions on them don’t have the same understanding of dogs’ needs. Their lobbying efforts directly challenge one of the rare areas of bipartisan agreement in Congress.
“Everything we do, we do for dogs, and whether it’s an owner, enthusiast or a breeder, we want to make sure that they have the freedom to take the best possible care for their animals,” Sheila Goffe, AKC’s executive secretary and vice president for government relations, told NOTUS.
The slate of animal-centric bills pending in Congress could, if passed, significantly change enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act. Nearly six decades ago, the act tasked the U.S. Department of Agriculture with enforcing humane standards for animals in research and commercial facilities including USDA-licensed breeders.
But the USDA’s inspection capacity has eroded even as its oversight duties have exploded. Local law enforcement often lacks the resources to seize and shelter abused and neglected animals. James Custer, the sheriff in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, told NOTUS that these bills offer a path to unlock necessary support.
“They don’t see what goes on in the cruelty and abuse world of animals that we see on a daily basis,” Custer said when asked about AKC’s opposition to the Better CARE Act, which would expand the Department of Justice’s authority to enforce violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including by revoking licenses and issuing temporary restraining orders.
“When you go to a shelter or a facility that has 50, 60 dogs just stacked in filth and inhumane conditions, I don’t think they’re seeing that part of it,” Custer, who also serves as vice chair of the Animal Cruelty and Abuse Committee at the National Sheriffs’ Association, added.
AKC has warned the “radical” Better CARE Act would allow the Justice Department to “circumvent” USDA and “negatively impact due process rights” of breeders regulated by the Animal Welfare Act.
The organization has a massive national footprint, but a relatively small one in Washington.
AKC has paid Mike Williams Capitol Strategies $30,000 a quarter in recent years to lobby Congress and the administration on a range of issues including these three bills, according to federal lobbying disclosures.
The AKC also contributed $67,800 to federal candidates during the 2024 election cycle, which was more money than it had in previous cycles, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. Of that total, $53,800 went to members sitting on the Senate and House agriculture committees last Congress.
Advocates anticipate lawmakers could attach any or all of the bills onto the larger farm bill, which would almost certainly require buy-in from the chairs of those committees, Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania and Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas. Thompson’s campaign received $4,8000 and Boozman’s received $4,000, making them the top two recipients of AKC PAC contributions during the last election cycle.
Spokespeople for Thompson and Boozman did not respond to questions about attaching the legislation to the farm bill, concerns with the three bills or how the campaign contributions factor into their thinking about whether or not to advance them.
Among the bills in question is Goldie’s Act, which would require USDA inspectors to record violations during visits and turn over copies to state, local and municipal law enforcement within 24 hours.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is a leading sponsor on Goldie’s Act and the Better CARE Act, which she said would take “important steps to give some teeth to the Animal Welfare Act and DOJ and really foster a better working relationship and more transparency between USDA and DOJ.”
“If we want to address the issue of animal abuse, we need to have laws that have real teeth in them and actually prevent the abusers from being able to continue the practice,” Malliotakis, a Republican co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, told NOTUS.
Maggie Garrett, the vice president of federal affairs for the ASPCA, said in a statement to NOTUS that the AKC’s lobbying strategy ignores breeders who “reject the cruel practices that are happening in federally licensed puppy mills and are instead dedicated to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of dogs throughout their lives.”
“Anyone who cares about animals would want to fix this broken system, yet a handful of industry groups, including the American Kennel Club, have routinely lobbied to kill legislation designed to help dogs trapped in these mass breeding operations,” Garrett said.
Goffe, AKC’s executive secretary, said the organization’s inspectors turn over evidence of neglect and cruelty at facilities to law enforcement. When NOTUS asked why they would oppose USDA doing the same under Goldie’s Act, Goffe said AKC’s issue with the bill is on a provision that would scrap the existing distinction between “direct” and “indirect” violations.
“One is basically a paperwork type of violation. The other is one that impacts the care and condition of the animal. We think it’s a mistake to treat them all the same,” Goffe said. “And combined with the Better CARE for Animals Act that would allow the Department of Justice to come in and address any violation, we believe this really opens up a situation where you can have a lot of overreach.”
Malliotakis suggested she was open to suggestions from the AKC on how to improve the bill and minimize unintended consequences. But she emphasized the importance of intervening before it’s too late — as it was in the case of Goldie, a golden retriever who died in 2021 after suffering neglect at a USDA-licensed facility.
“I know American Kennel Club also has a love for dogs, and I would imagine that their members do not want to see animals being abused and neglected and mistreated, and we’re happy to hear some suggestions if they have ways that we can make the bill better,” Malliotakis told NOTUS.
USDA has struggled to protect research animals, according to a report last month in the journal Science, which found the agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has lost more than one-third of its inspectors in “the past several years” even as its inspection caseload doubled.
A USDA spokesperson told NOTUS that the agency is currently recruiting 21 veterinary inspectors, but declined to comment on the “potential impact of draft legislation.” Goffe said AKC has been advocating for additional resources at USDA.
“We believe they do need additional resources,” Goffe said. “We don’t believe in, ‘I’ll put it this way, throwing the baby out with the bathwater and allowing DOJ to circumvent [USDA].’”
Also putting the American Kennel Club on edge: the proposed Puppy Protection Act, which aims to raise living standards for dogs at USDA-licensed facilities by mandating water and outdoor access, minimum enclosure sizes and temperature controls and setting limits on when, and how many times, a female dog can produce litters.
AKC takes issue with “arbitrary requirements that ignore best practices for individual outcomes are not appropriate for federal mandates,” according to a one-pager on its opposition to the Puppy Protection Act. It also says that “one-size-fits-all requirements do not take into account the broad range of breeds and types of dogs, or best health and breeding practices.”
Amundson, the president of Humane World Action Fund, called AKC’s opposition to the bills “unconscionable.”
“If you’re all about dogs, then you should be willing to allow the spotlight to be shone on what you are doing to raise them in healthy conditions,” Amundson told NOTUS. “Space, food, water, socialization, a chance to touch a blade of grass off of the bottom of a wire mesh cage, that’s critically important for all of these animals.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican and one of the Puppy Protection Act’s leading sponsors, said that “safeguarding animal welfare isn’t complicated or partisan, it’s simply the right thing to do.”
“It’s time to bring America’s animal welfare laws into the 21st century. This bipartisan bill closes outdated loopholes in the Animal Welfare Act, sets enforceable, science-based standards of care, and protects dogs from cruelty while giving responsible breeders clear rules of the road,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement to NOTUS.