A federal court judge has dismissed all claims against The Hunte Corp. of Goodman, Mo., made in an amended lawsuit that alleges the supplier and pet retailer Petland defrauded the public by misrepresenting the health of so-called “puppy mill” puppies. In the same ruling, the judge allowed certain claims against Petland to move forward.

The amended lawsuit, filed on Sept. 11, 2009, in Phoenix, alleged that Petland of Chillicothe, Ohio, and Hunte violated federal racketeering and state consumer protection laws by conspiring to misrepresent the health of puppies sold in Petland stores.

The suit, which is backed by the Humane Society of the United States, named 31 plaintiffs who alleged that they bought puppies from Petland that were sick at the time of purchase or became ill shortly thereafter. They maintained that Petland and Hunte intentionally represented the puppies as healthy “although they knew the puppies were unhealthy due to the puppy mill conditions under which they were bred and reared.” A total of five claims were made against Petland and Hunte.

In his ruling issued on Jan. 26, U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell dismissed all of the claims that were made against Hunte with prejudice, meaning that the plaintiffs cannot file another case based on the same claims again. Similar to his ruling on the original lawsuit, which was dismissed in August, Campbell said the plaintiffs failed to allege facts showing a “direct relation” between their injuries and Hunte’s representations.

Hunte President Steve Rook said the company was confident from the very beginning that the case would be dismissed.

“The whole case was basically a public relations tool of the HSUS and the animal rights organizations in general to disparage the reputation of The Hunte Corp. and to attack the pet industry as a whole and at the same time get the HSUS name out in a kind of continued overall effort to seek donations,” he said.

With regard to Petland, Judge Campbell dismissed all but three claims made by two of the plaintiffs.

“The amended complaint alleges a fraud scheme based on misrepresentation, but, with two exceptions, fails to allege that plaintiffs relied on the scheme’s misrepresentations when deciding to purchase a puppy,” Campbell wrote in the ruling.

In a statement, Petland’s management said these two plaintiffs purchased dogs from stores in Maine and New Hampshire, both of which were individually owned and operated franchises.

“Both locations have since closed and Petland has found no evidence that these customers ever contacted Petland Inc. for a settlement or to discuss their complaints for resolution,” the company stated.

In general, Petland said it was “pleased, but not surprised” by the judge’s decision.

“HSUS widely reported that they had received hundreds of complaints from Petland customers, that it (HSUS) spent months investigating 32,000 puppy purchases from Petland and that thousands of the puppies sold by Petland were from substandard breeders, or ‘puppy mills,’” Petland stated. “However, HSUS could only muster 31 purchasers over a period of more than five years to present a claim in court. Yesterday, the court dismissed the claims of 29 of those 31 people.”

An attorney representing the plaintiffs could not be immediately reached. <HOME>