Families in Los Angeles paid adoption fees as high as $1,500 believing they were giving a rescue dog a second chance. According to a lawsuit from the Los Angeles City Attorney, many of those dogs may have come from breeders, puppy mills and a Missouri dog auction instead.

The complaint accuses Wagmor Pets, a Studio City rescue popular with celebrities, and its owner Melissa Bacelar of what the city calls “puppy laundering”: passing off dogs bought from commercial breeders as rescues. Prosecutors allege some of the dogs had serious health problems, and several died within weeks, some within days, of joining their new homes. Bacelar denies the allegations, and the court has not ruled.

Whatever the outcome, the case exposes a gap. Families have no easy way to check where a “rescue” dog actually came from. That gap rewards bad actors, hurts honest rescues and keeps money flowing to the very puppy mills adopters are trying to avoid.

California lawmakers can close it. The California State Legislature should require every rescue placing dogs in the state to disclose each dog’s source and veterinary records before adoption, with real penalties for false rescue claims. Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto should also keep pressing for full restitution for any families who were misled.

Adopting a rescue dog should be an act of kindness, not a gamble. Sign the petition to require rescue transparency in California and stop puppy laundering before more families are deceived.