The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) filed a lawsuit against the USDA in September 2024, challenging its past decisions to license three Iowa dog breeders. The ASPCA claims hundreds of dogs have cycled through these breeders as part of a puppy-laundering scheme intended to conceal their role in supplying puppies to out-of-state retailers. In response, the USDA is arguing that the agency is not required to enforce the law — stating that none of the enforcement provisions of the Animal Welfare Act are mandatory, and that decisions on enforcement are entirely at the agency’s own discretion.
IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) filed a lawsuit against the USDA in September 2024, challenging its past decisions to license three Iowa dog breeders — Steve Kruse, Brian Lichirie and Wuanita Swedlund.
The lawsuit, which is still pending, alleges the USDA has pursued an informal policy of failing to enforce the federal Animal Welfare Act. As evidence, the ASPCA cites the USDA’s decision to repeatedly renew Kruse’s license, despite a history of animal-welfare violations, and by licensing two of his associates, Lichirie and Swedlund.
As a result, the ASPCA claims, hundreds of Kruse’s dogs have cycled through Kruse’s associates as part of a puppy-laundering scheme intended to conceal the role Kruse plays in supplying puppies to out-of-state retailers.
More recently, the ASPCA has noted in court filings that within days of Kruse’s license being canceled in September 2025, the USDA approved a license for another individual, Christine Snakenberg, at 2345 Highway 16 in West Point — the same address as Kruse’s Stonehenge Kennels, which Kruse still owned at the time.
All of that, the ASPCA contends, points to the USDA’s informal policy of refusing to enforce the Animal Welfare Act.
In response to those allegations, the USDA is arguing that the agency is not required to enforce the law — stating that none of the enforcement provisions of the Animal Welfare Act are mandatory, and that decisions on enforcement are entirely at the agency’s own discretion…
In court, the USDA is arguing that the ASPCA’s lawsuit centers on four Iowa breeders — Kruse, Swedlund, Lichirie and Snakenberg. The first three have voluntarily surrendered their licenses or allowed them to expire, the USDA alleges, and Snakenberg fits the agency’s “regulatory criteria for licensure.” Because of that, the USDA argues, the lawsuit should be dismissed as moot.
The ASPCA’s lawsuit cites the licensing of Snakenberg as evidence that the USDA’s “ongoing policy of non-enforcement persists to this day,” and so the lawsuit should not be dismissed as moot. SOURCE
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