Clark Kauffman is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is suing the federal government over its alleged lax oversight of a major Iowa puppy-mill operator.

The ASPCA filed the lawsuit on September 19 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, naming as defendants the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Michael Watson, who heads the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Also named as a defendant is Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture and former governor of Iowa.

The lawsuit alleges that the USDA has violated the federal Animal Welfare Act by repeatedly renewing the license of Steve Kruse, an Iowa-based breeder who operates a large-scale kennel in West Point and has a long history of animal welfare violations.

Ten dog breeding facilities in Iowa made the Humane Society’s latest annual report on the country’s “Horrible Hundred” puppy mills. Iowa has long been one of the worst states for unscrupulous dog breeders, and a 2010 law designed to “crack down on the bad actors in this industry” did little to resolve the problem. Only Missouri and Ohio had more dog breeders listed in the latest Humane Society report. Iowa was among the five worst states for puppy mills in similar reports for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Two of the Iowa breeders mentioned this year are “repeat offenders” from past “Horrible Hundred” lists.