Every year, thousands of dogs are shipped into California from other states.
California law requires that any dog being sold or transferred to a new owner in the state first be examined by a veterinarian who attests it is healthy enough to travel.
The Times requested those travel documents — called certificates of veterinary inspection — from all 50 states and analyzed records of more than 88,000 dogs approved to travel into California since 2018. Not every state provided records. Some of the travel documents included microchip numbers.
Many certificates were for puppies bound for brokers or resellers, some of whom do not disclose to consumers that their dogs were actually bred out of state. To see if your dog is listed in one of the records, search its microchip number using this tool.
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