The Iowa State Humane Society has teamed up with a nonprofit lobbying group in a campaign to raise awareness of Iowa’s puppy mills.

The society is working with Iowans Promoting Animal Welfare (IPAW) to draw attention to Iowa’s large-scale commercial breeding farms which mass produce puppies for pet stores.

Operating partially on donations from the ISU Humane Society, IPAW is located in Ankeny and has been lobbying Iowa’s legislature for stricter regulations and punishment of puppy mill operators.

But recently, IPAW members have redirected their goals toward public awareness instead of legislation.

“Basically there are enough laws on the books to close down these puppy mills. Things they come down on animal shelters for are not enforced with the operations and to be more effective we need more people to complain about them,” said Paul Meenan, president of IPAW.

Lorna Lavendar of the Ames Animal Shelter and Control Center said the shelter has struggled to rehabilitate the sick and mistreated puppies that come out of puppy mills.

“The biggest problem we have is with population control. These puppy mills are a big problem in causing population problems and we see a lot of homeless animals,” she said.

Iowa was recognized by the U.S. Humane Society as one of the six worst puppy mill states in 1991.

Meenan said Iowa has over 900 such operations, including 500 registered breeders.

IPAW’s publicity efforts come in the wake of previous successes with the legislature, including the passage of HF 136, a law requiring the sterilization of all animals adopted from Iowa animal shelters, and HF 637, a law which strengthens Iowa’s animal cruelty laws.

The ISU Humane Society has been fighting for regulation with informational meetings, displays, mailings and a protest at the state capitol to raise awareness of pending legislation on puppy mill regulation.

Rob Koch, co-president of the ISU Humane Society, said it was because of the passage of HF 637 that state law enforcement was able to free 19 dogs from a southern Iowa operation last year and bring them to the Ames Animal Shelter for public adoption.

“We put together a bake sale in a day or so when we heard about the dogs and made some pretty good money,” Koch said, “We made $70 and that was able to buy some extra dog food.”

Koch said that in order to help stop the proliferation of puppy mill operations, people need to buy their puppies from the local animal shelter instead of pet store.

David Metcalf, owner of The Ark, an Ames pet store, said he doesn’t sell puppies in his shop because he is also wary of “mediocre” animals coming out of large-scale commercial suppliers.

“We don’t sell puppies at the Ark because we destroy six to seven million dogs in the U.S. each year because we can’t find homes for them,” he said.

Possible cases of animal cruelty should be reported to John Schiltz at the State Animal Welfare Division in Des Moines.

“If they get a complaint, they have to act on it. We need more political pressure,” Meenan said.