Guest blog written by Cori Menkin, Senior Director of the ASPCA's Puppy Mills Campaign.

Lambriar, Inc., one of the largest puppy brokers in the United States, has announced that it is closing its kennel doors for good. Puppy brokers like Lambriar are middlemen, buying dogs from puppy mills and distributing them to pet stores throughout the country. Brokers are an important cog in the wheel of the cruel and inhumane puppy mill industry.

When asked why Lambriar is closing its doors, owner Roger Lambert told Kansas newspaper  The Belleville Telescope “When you couple the bad economy with increasing rules and regulations and increased pressure from animal rights activists, well, it just got too hard.”

We have been working hard to shed light on the link between puppy mills and pet store puppies, and it seems to be working! As more and more people take our No Pet Store Puppies pledge not to buy anything in stores that sell puppies, the industry will continue to feel the ripple effects and be forced to make changes.

If you haven’t taken the No Pet Store Puppies pledge yet, please do! And please be sure to share it with your friends so that one day, puppy mill cruelty will be a distant memory.

We never get used to it. No matter how many cases of cruelty our team investigates, the brutality of it still hits us hard in the heart. This case was no exception. In mid-July our Humane Law Enforcement department received a call from an eyewitness who saw a father and son beating their cat to death with a stick. We jumped into action.

Quickly finding the deceased cat in a garbage bag on the side of the road, our Agents subsequently obtained a search warrant for the home. A search uncovered a broken stick encrusted with cat fibers and blood in the attic. Jean Rog Murat, 60, and his son, Robenson Murat, 29, were arrested and taken into custody.

The Kings County District Attorney indicted the duo on charges of aggravated cruelty to animals; overdriving, torturing and injuring animals; and failure to provide proper sustenance for animals. If convicted, the defendants will face a maximum of two years of incarceration.

“This was a heinous act on an innocent animal and a clear case of violent abuse,” says Stacy Wolf, Vice President and Chief Counsel of the ASPCA’s Humane Law Enforcement department. “We praise the district attorney for his commitment to hold these perpetrators accountable for their cruel and callous acts.”

Animal cruelty is a crime in every state. With your help, we fight back. Please join our battle against animal cruelty today!