President-Elect Donald Trump’s recent choice for the person who will head up the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has animal rights activities worried…and rightly so. According to Wednesday’s publication of the Daily KOS, Brian Klippenstein, Executive Director of Protect the Harvest, has been selected to lead the USDA.

The organization that Klippenstein heads up supports puppy mills, and condemns the Humane Society of the United States,  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). On the Protect the Harvest website, the agency’s stance is revealed:

The War on Pet Breeders And Stores

Pet breeding has a long, proud tradition in America but it’s facing some serious threats from animal rights groups.

Because you can’t just openly support laws and regulations outlawing pet ownership, HSUS instead works to regulate pet breeders out of business.

The organization also supports “animal entertainment,” such as circuses, and it has spoken out against humane farming practices, citing an increase cost of food, and a prediction that meat will become “scarce.”

If Klippenstein turns a blind eye to puppy-mill operations, the ongoing practice of cruel breeding practices will continue, unchecked. The ASPCA has described the horrific conditions often found at large-scale breeding operations:

Puppy mills usually house dogs in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions without adequate veterinary care, food, water or socialization. In order to maximize profits, female dogs are bred at every opportunity with little-to-no recovery time between litters. In a puppy mill, dogs are often kept in cages with wire flooring that injures their paws and legs—and it is not unusual for cages to be stacked in columns. When female breeding dogs reach a point of physical depletion and can no longer reproduce, they are often killed.

Read more about the Protect the Harvest organization at this link.