Sign the petition asking the USDA to enforce standards for dog breeders

Context

USDA standards allow a dog to be kept for her entire life in a tiny, wire-floored cage and bred at every opportunity with no time to recover. Licensed facilities with sick, neglected or injured animals can stay in business year after year. The USDA oversees more than 12,000 facilities but opened only 17 enforcement cases in 2019.

The strategy

Petitions show decision-makers how many people want a change, and a large total can prompt a response. This petition needs about 9,000 more signatures to reach its 130,000 goal, and it asks the USDA to act on the dogs under its oversight.

Why it scored 10 points

Scale: Big

Rough estimate: about 300,000 dogs in USDA-licensed facilities, which is under 1 million.

Severity: Serious

Enforcing existing standards would meaningfully reduce neglect, though it would not end breeding or confinement.

Chance of success: Long shot

The USDA opened only 17 enforcement cases in 2019 across more than 12,000 facilities, so a petition is unlikely to change its approach soon.

Your difference: Small

120,989 people have signed, and signatures are added to a total of over 100,000 rather than read individually.