Article: Breeding dogs, raising alarms; Minnesota, with 127 licensed commercial kennels, is a target of new protests. Authorities say that breeders are hard to regulate and that some operate illegally. Many kennels are clean, but USDA reports on others cite filth and overcrowding.(NEWS)

Byline: Paul Levy; Staff Writer

Belle Prairie Township, Minn. -- On a hot August night three years ago, Wade Hanson walked into a kennel here and saw dogs slumped in their pens, looking miserable. They were surrounded by flies and feces, he said, and the air smelled of ammonia.

Hanson, an agent for the Humane Society of Companion Animals, said he left that inspection feeling little could be done through the law to get the kennel to improve its operation - "and the kennel owners know it."

That dismay is at the heart of a debate emerging in the state about a dog -breeding industry that has become a multimillion-dollar marketplace, fueled by growing public demand ...

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