LOS ANGELES, IOWA (January 31, 2025) — The United States District Court for the Central District of California has ruled in favor of a group of consumers who purchased commercially-bred dogs mislabeled as “rescues,” denying defendants’ attempt to dismiss a class-action lawsuit against JAKS Puppies and its associates for conspiring with California pet stores to violate federal racketeering laws, California consumer protection laws, and California animal welfare laws.
In the decision, the court explained, “Plaintiffs have sufficiently pleaded. . . Defendants engaged in related predicate acts demonstrating a long-term scheme to defraud Plaintiffs into believing that puppies being sold in California pet stores were ‘rescue’ dogs rather than sourced from puppy mills.”
Puppy mills are large commercial dog-breeding facilities that mass-produce animals for sale. They keep animals in abhorrent living conditions, treat dogs inhumanely, and tend to produce sick dogs.
“The court’s decision will send a message to JAKS, and bad actors everywhere, that there are steep consequences for lying to consumers,” says ALDF Senior Staff Attorney Ariel Flint. “This is an important first step in helping thousands of families who were tricked into buying commercially-bred puppies who were mislabeled as ‘rescues,’ but were instead raised for profit.”
The lawsuit, filed in December 2021, alleges that JAKS and its owners funneled dogs through fake animal rescue organizations Rescue Pets Iowa, Bark Adoptions, and Pet Connect Rescue, and worked with other associates to profit from puppy mill dogs despite California’s ban on such sales. The practice is known as “puppy laundering,” a term coined by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office in the settled 2019 lawsuit against some of the same defendants. The Central District of California’s decision recognized that defendants’ puppy laundering scheme appeared to violate nearly a dozen state and federal statutes, including for money laundering, mail fraud, and wire fraud, and allowed the case to move forward towards trial.
In June 2024, ALDF submitted a complaint to the US Department of Agriculture, requesting that the agency investigate and revoke Subject Enterprise’s carrier license for mishandling animals, resulting in their injury and death. Subject Enterprise has been the exclusive transporter of JAKS Puppies.
In December 2024, a complaint submitted by ALDF urged Iowa’s Attorney General to investigate violations of the settlement agreement between the state of Iowa and JAKS Puppies. Contrary to the settlement agreement, ALDF obtained evidence that the company is continuing to circumvent local and state restrictions to sell dogs from puppy mills. The evidence revealed JAKS Puppies has continued to sell dogs from puppy mills — despite local and state restrictions — to many stores, including Critters Exotic Pets in Waco, Texas; King Neptune’s Pet World in Morris and Shorewood, Illinois; Miramar Pets of Miramar, Florida; Puppy World in Olympia, Washington; Puppy Dreams of Sherman, Texas; and Wet Kisses Pet Company of Lake Worth Beach, Florida. These actions outline a clear breach of the judgment that JAKS Puppies agreed to in court.
Plaintiffs in the California case are represented by ALDF and Smith and Lowney PLLC.
For more information, visit aldf.org/puppymills.
About the Animal Legal Defense Fund
The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1979 to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To accomplish this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm; provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors and law enforcement to ensure that animal victims are removed from cruelty situations and animal abusers are held accountable; supports tough animal-protection legislation and fights harmful legislation; and provides resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. For more information, please visit aldf.org.
