Breeder: Albert V. Stutzman
Address: 17775 Grange Rd
City, State, Zip: Fredericktown, OH 43019
USDA License: 31-A-0677 (noted cancelled as of 3/27/26)
Date and time of CAPS Investigation: 4/25/26, 1528
Weather at time of investigation: 65°F and cloudy
Number of dogs and puppies noted in 12/12/25 USDA inspection: 20 dogs and 7 puppies
Albert V Stutzman no longer operates the kennel on his property, with his USDA license being cancelled in March 2025 and his Ohio license in August 2025. In February 2025, Stutzman was indicted for attempted rape, as well as rape (two counts) and gross sexual imposition of a victim less than 13 years of age at the time. However, Stutzman was in the Canine Care Certified program (CCC), and Ohio Dept of Agriculture told CAPS that a family member has taken over the kennel. The design of the kennel does not match the claims CCC represents their breeders must have to be part of the program. Therefore, CAPS has written a report on this facility.
The property had two kennel buildings on its northwest side. They had indoor/outdoor runs attached to them, most with cage doors. The enclosures had tall, solid walls on their sides the dogs couldn’t see through, thus severely limiting the dogs’ vision outside their enclosures. One set of runs had a solid wall about four feet tall placed in front of the runs, blocking the dogs’ view to the outside world. One building had six runs on one side, and five on another, with the outdoor runs all elevated over the ground. Those runs appeared to be between two to three feet wide, and five to six feet long. The other building had runs on three different sides of it, with seven on one side that were also elevated and each about 3.5 feet wide and five feet long. One of the runs had its outer cage door open, indicating no dogs were inside. Two other sets of runs on the building were partially covered, making their dimensions unclear. However, I saw a black dog in one of the covered enclosures, which was one of the ones with the four-foot wall set in front of it. The dog was lying near the wall and moving a bit as I observed the kennel. A plastic dish was on the floor of that enclosure.
Grassy yards were near the kennel, but only one had a fence fully enclosing it. The other had a gap in the fence, on which there was no gate, for a driveway going up to the kennel. One yard was covered in grass, the other in weeds.
Evidence contradicting claims by The Canine Care Certified Program
The Canine Care Certified (CCC) program is a voluntary national certification for dog breeders, created by the Center for Animal Welfare Science at Purdue University. CAPS believes that the purpose of the program is primarily one of marketing: to increase the sale of puppies online and in pet shops by whitewashing the commercial dog breeding industry.
While the CCC program may sound impressive to those who are not familiar with the pet shop and puppy mill industry, and while conditions at some of the dog breeding facilities may be improved as a result of certification, the breeders who participate in the program still run commercial breeding facilities that mass produce dogs for resale—puppy mills. Dogs are still living in livestock conditions and used for breeding to produce puppies that are sold at pet shops and online. The puppies are often transported to brokers, such as Missouri-based Pinnacle Pet (which is closely aligned with the CCC program). After spending several days at a brokerage facility, puppies then get transported to pet shops all over the United States and even to other countries. Some breeders sell puppies through the online broker PBT Marketplace but then must find transport services to get those puppies to pet shops.
The above-mentioned broker Pinnacle Pet also runs a “dog adoption agency” for “retired” breeding dogs called A Dog’s Dream. But nowhere on the website for A Dog’s Dream does it say that the “rescue” is run by a puppy mill broker and is located across the street from the brokerage facility. Though there are clues that the nonprofit is industry-run, such as this statement on its website: “Your support matters the most to us! Without avid dog lovers like you, the pet industry would be at a complete loss.” Their list of supporters includes Pinnacle Pet, Pinnacle Vet Clinic, Petland Charities, and two Oklahoma Petland stores. The website also has a page about the CCC program with a link to Purdue’s CCC website.
CCC’s website states that one of their “Standards Emphasis Areas” is on “Housing,” noting the importance of “quality and quantity of space, temperature and air quality, outdoor access, exercise area, and quarantine.” Stutzman’s primary enclosures give dogs only enough space to take a few steps before having to turn around again. His facility purposefully blocks the dogs’ views of other dogs and has walls that block the runs from the property’s front. This does not constitute a focus on “quality and quantity of space.” It’s the design of a commercial puppy mill, made efficient for purposes of cleaning it and for keeping it secret from the outside world.
The CCC website states, under “Puppies & Juveniles,” that puppies receive “socialization” and that there is “care and training for juvenile dogs.” There is no way that Stutzman is socializing and training every puppy that he weans and sells by eight weeks of age, nor does any commercial breeder.
The CCC website states, under “Behavioral Wellness,” that dogs are given “Problem prevention, training, socialization, enrichment, exercise, handling, and positive caretake interactions.” I have never seen any commercial breeder take time to socialize, train, and play with their dozens of dogs. Stutzman’s kennel is designed for efficiency of cleaning and breeding, not for socialization and training.
The CCC website states, under “Staffing & Caretaker Education,” that they require an “Evidence-based approach to staffing numbers” and “Requirements for Continuing Education.” This is a nonsensical claim. Very few commercial dog breeding facilities employ people to work at them. This is a nonsensical claim. Very few commercial dog breeding facilities employ people to work on them. Facilities like Stutzman’s are designed to be cleaned and maintained with minimal effort to avoid having employees.
The CCC website states: “Like you, we love dogs. We want to support good breeders and end “puppy mills.” Canine Care Certified™ helps breeders meet high standards for welfare, and helps ensure that puppies come from a kennel where dogs are treated well.” This is a misleading statement. Stutzman’s facility, because it commercially breeds dogs for profit, is a puppy mill. Furthermore, keeping dogs in pens without enrichment of any kind is not what the public thinks of as treating dogs “well.”
Breeder is connected to the following stores:
PetCenter Argyle, 1040 Brush Creek Rd, Argyle, TX 76226 (breeder information obtained in store visit 2023). The owners of this store had run a Petland franchise in Dallas, TX until a retail ban ordinance went into effect in November 2022.
Evidence contradicting store’s claims
I visited PetCenter Argyle in 2023, which was a house from which puppies were sold. A woman named Kat there told me that the vast front yard of the property represented where their breeders’ puppies go out to play at breeding facilities, and that dogs have play yards “they can come and go in and out as they please.” No breeder allows dogs unfettered access to play yards, and no breeder allows young puppies with undeveloped immune systems to run in an open yard where predators such as hawks could grab them. This is a blatant lie and does not represent the small runs covered by solid walls that were used to house Stutzman’s dogs.
The Canine Care Certified and Bailing Out Benji Illusion
The nonprofit Bailing Out Benji (BOB) acts as a front for the puppy mill industry by promoting Canine Care Certified breeders. BOB states that many CCC breeders are Amish, and BOB states on its website: “The Amish breeders that are behind the Canine Care Certified program are truly trying to set themselves apart by meeting standards that far exceed USDA regulation …” BOB visits CCC facilities and promotes them as not being puppy mills. At the same time, Petland stores market their puppies as coming from CCC breeders to increase sales. It’s a major contradiction for BOB, a nonprofit that supposedly fights puppy mills and claims to discourage the public from buying puppies at pet shops, to be promoting CCC—the same program that is promoted by Petland and financially supported by Petland Charities. The 990s of Petland Charities show large grants to Purdue Research Foundation, which funds the CCC program. The Purdue Foundation’s 990s fail to list their grant recipients. While they no doubt have a long list of recipients, which they can include on a separate page, their lack of transparency is troubling.
