Breeder: Benjamin L Borntrager
Kennel name: B&F Kennel
Address: 1408 Audrain Rd
City, State, Zip: Clark, MO 65243
USDA License: 43-A-6081
Date and time of CAPS Investigation: 6/22/26, about 1700
Weather at time of investigation: 70°F and cloudy
Number of dogs and puppies noted in 8/14/25 USDA inspection: 83 dogs and 55 puppies
Benjamin Bontrager is a Canine Care Certified (CCC) breeder.
Commercial kennel design, weeds in play yards
There were two kennel buildings, located on the eastern end of the property, one north of the other. The southern building had eleven runs on its eastern side. Each run was about 25 feet long, with two runs about six feet wide but the others only about three feet wide. They had wire walls and ramps going from their doggie-doors down to a solid flooring. The entire flooring for all the outdoor runs had a thick white wall around it that appeared to be made of plastic, preventing the dogs from viewing the surrounding area unless they were at the tops of their ramps.
I saw about seven dogs and puppies in the outdoor runs. They appeared to be small breeds. While their runs gave them a long distance to walk forward and back, the dogs only had about enough space to take one or two steps widthwise before turning around. Three fenced-in play yards were attached to the building. Each was about 13 feet wide. One was about 120 feet long, and the other two were about 150 feet long. The yards had green artificial turf in them, and each had a shaded area about six feet wide and long. One yard had what appeared to be a table-sized piece of indented blue plastic, like a rectangular canoe, set in one run. Another had a small, white, circular object, perhaps a low table, set inside. Weeds were growing in various places throughout the runs, seeming to have punctured the artificial turf (3.1 Housing facilities, general (b) Condition and site). The turf floorings looked worn along the fencing that separated them, for about half the lengths of the fences.
One corner of the plastic wall around the runs had hundreds of objects stacked against it. They appeared to be about the size and shape of metal self-feeders, which are often attached to kennel walls. The pile was about four feet tall and 10 feet wide and long, resting up against the wall (3.1 Housing facilities, general (b) Condition and site). On the other side of the runs, weeds grew about four feet tall (3.1 Housing facilities, general (b) Condition and site). Beside a fence near them, about 30 feet from the kennel, there were about a dozen plastic buckets strewn about the ground near a water hose (3.1 Housing facilities, general (b) Condition and site).
Another walled dog kennel
The northern kennel building had 19 outdoor runs on its eastern side and appeared to have the same amount on the western side. But it was the eastern runs that I saw the clearest. Of those, eight were about five feet long and 3.5 feet wide, and the other 11 were about eight feet long and four feet wide. I saw over a dozen dogs that appeared to be small breeds, with one to three dogs per enclosure where I saw them. Solid walls on the sides and a solid wall a few feet in front of the kennels kept the dogs from seeing the outside world. Artificial turf was outside their runs for a short distance. And on the other side of the exterior wall, which had wire fencing and doors on top under which were stairs for dogs to presumably go up and over the wall, there were five play yards with artificial turf, surrounded by wire walls. Each yard was about 20 feet long and wide. One had a snow shovel in it, and another had what appeared to be a long plastic pole on the ground (3.1 Housing facilities, general (b) Condition and site). None of the yards were occupied by dogs.
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.” Borntrager’s primary enclosures are wide enough for dogs to take only 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 Borntrager is socializing and training every puppy 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 caretaker interactions.” I have never seen any commercial breeder take time to socialize, train, and play with their dozens of dogs. Borntrager’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. Facilities like Borntrager’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. Borntrager’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.”
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.
