Hunter
03/11/24
An area dog breeder who’s been charged with 41 counts of animal neglect after over 130 of his dogs were seized during a summer inspection says that inspectors are running him and other breeders in Iowa out of business.
Eight of the dogs had to be euthanized due to health issues.
62-year-old Loren Yoder, in an interview with Iowa Capital Dispatch, said that those dogs wouldn’t have died had a federal U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector not pressured state and county officials into rounding up the animals in their outdoor enclosures on a 100-degree day.
Don McDowell, communications director for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said his organization had nothing to do with the dogs being removed, but did notify the County Sheriff’s Office after observing multiple signs of distress and neglect at Yoder’s Sunset Valley Farm.
Yoder claims that previous state and federal inspectors would overlook violations as long as dogs were outside and could rest in the shade, but that changed when a female USDA inspector began handling inspections that men used to conduct. He called the inspector an “animal rightist” who is “brainless” and exerting influence over state inspectors.
Yoder added, “These animal rightist people are going to apply to be a policeman or a sheriff or the president, and our country is going to crumble when we have these unsensible people in leadership.”
Yoder had been cited by the USDA for violations in the first, second and third quarters of 2022, and was issued an official warning from the USDA for violations found during the September visit that year. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship cited Yoder for several violations in January 2023.